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#18: Growing a $160,000 Side Hustle in 1 Year and Diversifying Your Side Income with Matt Feldman of Case Escape

About the Episode:

In this episode, we’re talking to Matt Feldman, the owner of Case Escape.

Matt’s company manufactures a phone case printer that can print custom cases in a matter of just a few minutes.

Matt and I co-founded Case Escape as a side hustle right after graduating from college. We worked on it together for a couple of years before I jumped into the world of startups, and Matt’s been able to grow the business significantly over the past few years.

In Today’s Episode, We Talk About:

[03:58] As always, we start off by finding out what book Matt is reading at the moment.
[05:23] How we made our very first sale at Case Escape.
[06:33] How Matt and I spent thousands of dollars in the dumbest way.
[07:26] Matt gives us an overview of what Case Escape looks like today.
[08:47] What Startup Kits are.
[11:33] How easy it is to build a phone case brand in today’s world.
[12:45] He talks about us how creatives and artists can start a phone case business without investing in a Startup Kits.
[13:50] He talks about how difficult it can be balancing a full-time job and a side hustle.
[15:12] Matt talks about why he feels more productive working at night.
[16:50] How much we earned when Case Escape was our side hustle.
[17:47] Why Matt quit his full-time job.
[20:20] How our decision to move back home helped save our business.
[22:07] The exact strategy he used to grow his Etsy store.
[23:20] How much annual income you can expect from selling phone cases on Etsy.
[25:17] His best piece of advice on how to start a phone case business.
[26:05] He passionately talks about his music career.
[27:12] His best piece of advice on how to validate your side project idea.
[28:05] Matt talks about sacrifices he’s had to make in order to create enough time and effort for his business.
[29:23] His biggest piece of advice on how to hit your first “big win”
[30:16] The best investment he’s made in his business.
[31:13] His fair share of failures on validation tests with Case Escape.
[32:13] And finally, Matt talks about what should be your next step when validating your idea fails.

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Resources Mentioned:

The War of Art by Steven Pressfield

Amazon

BigCommerce

Connect with My Guest:

Matt on LinkedIn and Twitter

Case Escape

Case Escape on Etsy

 

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If you enjoyed this episode of The Side Hustle Project, I would love your support. Head over to the show on iTunes or in the Apple podcast app and give us a rating please! And as always you can catch every episode on the Apple podcast app, Stitcher or wherever you get your podcasts. Thanks for tuning in.

In this episode, my former business partner Matt Feldman and I talk about what it was like starting a company together as a side project right out of college. We cover the origin of Case Escape, how we grew the business to over $160,000 in revenue in less than a year, and the ways Matt's been able to continue growing the company significantly over the years.

Hi I'm Ryan Robinson

Blogger, podcaster and recovering side project addict. Head of Content at Close. Join me here, on ryrob.com to learn how to start a blog, make money blogging and grow a profitable side business. Be sure to try my popular free keyword research tool & AI article writer tool, as well. Somehow, I also find time to write for publications like Fast Company, Forbes, Entrepreneur, The Next Web, Business Insider, and more. Let’s chat on Twitter and YouTube about our feelings (and blogging, of course).

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2 replies to “#18: Growing a $160,000 Side Hustle in 1 Year and Diversifying Your Side Income with Matt Feldman of Case Escape”

  1. Hey Ryan,

    I stopped this, because the audio was quite annoying. Volume levels were fine, as they can always be turned down, but all the boomy echoing (and different from both sides) is both distracting and disorienting.

    You could use some help there, which I know I could provide.

    Reply