Ritesh Verma earns almost $15,000 a month from his side hustle alongside his job at Capital One. Verma’s side hustles include AI agents, YouTube, mentorship, and software services. He uses automation to work on multiple projects at the same time and earn more money.
This essay is based on a conversation with Ritesh Verma, 23, a software engineer from Jersey City. Edited for length and clarity.
After graduating college in 2023, I was hired as a software engineer at Capital One for a base salary of $136,000, but that’s not my biggest source of income.
I’ve been doing side hustles for years and now make close to $15,000 a month.
When I was hired by Capital One, I was worried that my full-time job would affect my side hustle, but I built a system to manage it. Here’s how I stay on track and why I haven’t started my side hustle full-time just yet.
AI agent is my main side job
At the end of 2019, a friend of mine asked me to code a buying bot to help buy and resell sneakers. I had no idea what a bot, or AI agent, was, but I agreed and spent over six months teaching myself how to write software programs to perform tasks.
In 2022, I decided to post a YouTube tutorial on how to create a simple bot and it got 200,000 views. A man who saw my video asked me to act as a purchasing agent for high-end golf clubs. I accepted the offer and made $600 every time I gave him a golf club. All of a sudden, I was making $1,800 a month.
Word spread and we started getting more clients in the golf club collection space and other niche communities. We’ve built buying bots for everything from hats to wine bottles to baby clothes.
I didn’t want to be known as just a bot guy, so I started building services and tools as well. I built a scheduling bot to help shift-based workers, such as servers in the Nevada area, get competitive shifts.
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I started using Reddit to find customers.
Early last year, I saw a YouTube video where a creator explained how he used Reddit to grow his startup. I decided to give it a try.
I posted on Reddit, “I’m having trouble making shifts and need help. Does anyone relate?” I then sent a DM to about 20 commenters who agreed with me and pitched the tool. I got 8 clients from Reddit and now make about $9,000 a month from it.
I also trained an AI assistant to post on Reddit on my behalf, promote my services, and send my phone number to potential customers.
Reddit deletes my posts for promotional purposes, but a few people usually join my DMs within 30 minutes of them being posted. I got banned from Reddit and had to create multiple accounts, but it’s all part of the process and I think it’s worth it.
There are some side jobs that don’t make much money.
YouTube: I use my YouTube channel to gain clients and use it as a side hustle. I earn ad revenue from my videos and made $1,400 from 3 sponsors in one month. Mentorship Program: We also launched a 6-week mentorship program to teach others how to code bots. Typically, for $3,000 a month, two to three students receive biweekly meetings to discuss assigned projects and learn concepts. SaaS Products: In 2024, I launched two SaaS products. These are basically just traditional software engineering services. One is an Instagram outreach software that makes me $900 a month. My other SaaS product allows people to put Instagram Reels on their website, but it’s not making a profit yet.
How do you manage your side hustle and your 9-to-5 job?
The secret to my success is working on multiple projects at the same time. It’s highly automated, so you can stay on top of more information.
You might spend 20 hours building a new AI agent or project, but then you might only have two hours a week. It may take a few more hours of client acquisition and troubleshooting, but the hard work is done.
My job at Capital One is a hybrid 9-5, with me in the office two days a week. After work, I eat and focus on my side hustle for four hours of intense work. I work several hours every day, even on weekends.
It’s a lot of work, but I think it’s fun. I also make sure to set aside time for myself. I travel every three months with a few friends. In 2024, I spent a total of one month overseas, including Brazil, Japan, and Italy, without working. These trips are a good health check and give you something to look forward to.
I won’t quit my full-time job until I meet certain metrics
My mentee asked me why I didn’t quit my full-time job, and I said I didn’t think the job would take up space.
I’ve tried probably 15 projects recently and most have failed. I work seriously on every project for a month or two before deciding if it’s worth continuing with. Sometimes a project is so difficult that it becomes a pain to grow.
You may also lose the spark of ideas. In those cases, I either put it off or ask the mentee if they want to take responsibility for the product’s equity.
Additionally, I follow a rule of not quitting my full-time job until I earn three times my base salary at Capital One on the side. Once you achieve that, drop it. That’s the goal.
If you made six numbers on the side and want to share your story, email Manseen Logan at mlogan@businessinsider.com.
