By: Christy Felix, Founder and CEO of UHustle
Hair was always important in my household. It was important to have your hair well done and neat so that people would know that you came from a loving home. The importance of hair was how we represented ourselves in public. Not only was I black and woman but I was also low-income, so people automatically associated my hair to my situation back home. Thus, my mom made sure that I left the house with my hair neat and done. When I was in the 7th and 8th grade, my mom didn’t have time to do my hair anymore and she ran of styles that was age appropriate, so she started paying someone every 4-6 weeks to braid my hair. Hair braiding takes up to 8 hours at a time so the cost per appointment went up to $150. I saw how much it pained my mother to give that up month after month especially since we were already struggling so much financially.
At the age of 13, I began teaching myself how to braid by watching YouTube videos and practicing on myself. By the age of 15, I had gotten so good that I began doing it for other people. I used my greatest pain point as an opportunity.
Freshman year of college, it got a bit difficult to find clients because I didn’t know how to market my side-hustle and didn’t know what channels to use. That is how I thought of the idea to create a platform for college students with side-hustles on college campuses. UHustle is the only platform where college students can gain more exposure for side-hustles. On my platform, student hustlers can conduct transactions while also gaining more exposure in their communities.
On September 21, 2019, we hosted the Hustle Fair, which was a physical marketplace for students with side-hustles. The event had over 150 people in attendance while 10 hustlers rotated tables to promote their skills and talents. Some of the hustlers we had were:
Art By Samah – A self-taught artist and freshman who sells and commissions her art.
Nat Museum – A self-taught artist and sophomore who does both art and photography.
DJ Havok – A senior who DJs parties in the DMV area
DJ Jah – A senior and one of the few female DJs in the DMV who also offers her services in New York City
Fortune Five Co – An apparel company owned and operated by two brothers, one of which is a freshman.
Undiagnosed Tees – An apparel company that spreads mental health awareness. It is owned and operated by three sisters, one of which is a sophomore at Georgetown.
Bull Dog Rentals – A mattress rental company that expands a dorm Twin XL size mattress to a full size.
Sleep Surf – An air mattress rental company founded at Georgetown University that rents air mattresses to students by the day.
Trap Customs – A company founded and operated by a sophomore at Bowie State University that details and fixes cars.
Conch District – A senior at Georgetown who cooks and serves Caribbean conch (shell meat) in many different forms.
Our hustlers at the Hustle Fair made new clients, orders, and some serious cash at the Hustle Fair and UHustle plans to hold the event again next year. UHustle’s website, theuhustle.com, has also launched and is now making transactions. Starting from one college student who hustles, UHustle is making hustling for other college students easier.
