How to Know When It’s Time to Sell Your Side Hustle?

I interviewed Gaston Levy to understand what it is like to build a side hustle, and why he decided it was about time to turn the page and sell it.

Table of Contents

Before building Unita with Joaquin Cahiza, Gaston Levy built WeRemoto, a job board for remote workers in Latin America. He ended up selling his side hustle after a year of growing a strong community by offering real value to a segmented audience.

I interviewed Gaston to understand what it is like to build a side project, and why he decided it was about time to turn the page and sell it

Let’s explore his journey!

How did you build WeRemoto?

The idea for WeRemoto came about because my girlfriend was looking for a design remote job and we found there weren’t many options for LATAM professionals. I saw an opportunity to create a job board that catered specifically to this market, and with the help of Sheet2Site, I was able to quickly put together a functioning job board using Google Sheets. This no code tool helped me to create a job board dedicating only one hour a day to the project as a side hustle that I sold one year later.

The site and community grew quickly because I was offering a free resource for people looking for a job. People started to recommend the site in podcasts, articles, and social media, and the #buildinpublic community helped to get interviews, companies with recurring jobs to post, and companies interested to become a sponsor.

Which were the KPIs that matter most for selling WeRemoto?

The KPIs that mattered the most for monetizing and selling were organic growth (+40k sessions) social media engagement (50k Instagram followers), and a high newsletter open rate (30%) with a significant number of monthly job applications.

These metrics were essential to validate the vision of bringing the best remote jobs to Latin American talent and became interesting for sponsors and companies willing to pay to highlight their job opportunities.

Join a NoCode community

Stay tuned to the latest trends and ask for feedback from nocode founders.

How did you decide on your pricing model for WeRemoto, and what factors did you consider when setting your prices?

I wanted to ensure that our prices were competitive while also providing value to our customers. So, I offered a free option for companies to test out WeRemoto by allowing them to post one job for free. This way, they could validate the platform and receive a good number of high-quality resumes. When companies expressed interest in posting more than one job, I allowed them to do so as I knew it would lead to more quality candidates and ultimately result in them paying for the service.

When it comes to the pricing of sponsorships, it was more of a subjective decision. I based it on my own operational costs and decided that I wanted to cover the cost of a newsletter for the entire month. I also analyzed the potential revenue from listing companies on the top resources page for remote work, which I knew would be valuable to our customers.

Overall, my pricing model for WeRemoto was based on a combination of research, experimentation, and providing value to our customers.

How did you decide on the best platforms and channels to use for building and growing a community around WeRemoto? What advice would you give to someone who is just starting to build their own community?

Well, when it came to deciding on the best platforms and channels to use for building and growing a community around WeRemoto, I thought about where our target audience, young professionals in fields like marketing, programming, sales, design, data entry, and virtual assistance were most likely to be spending their time. At the time, Instagram was a rising platform for digital nomads and content creators who showcased their work while traveling. So, it was essential to have a presence on Instagram to reach our target audience.

Another platform that was critical for us was LinkedIn, as it’s where people are more used to reading about job opportunities and applying for new positions. Although Instagram was the first platform we focused on, LinkedIn grew much faster in the last few months, and now we have more followers on LinkedIn than on Instagram.

We also made sure not to rely on just one platform and established our presence on Twitter to be present on all major social media platforms. Lastly, we built an email list and sent out a newsletter every week with our latest job opportunities. 

People appreciated receiving the newsletter with new job opportunities every week, which helped grow our community.

As for advice, my recommendation for someone starting to build their community is to research where their target audience is currently spending time and then find ways to add value to their conversations without asking for anything in return. 

Once you’ve established yourself as a valuable contributor, you can then introduce your solution and see if people are willing to pay for it. Also, it’s essential to diversify your presence and not depend on one platform only.

How did you decide to sell your side hustle?

Well, I wasn’t actually looking to sell WeRemoto. It was a side hustle that started to gain traction, and I knew it had potential because of the KPIs I mentioned earlier.

I had already validated the concept and built a strong community around it, so I felt like it was ready to take to the next level.

Around that time, I came across MicroAcquire, a platform that connects buyers and sellers of small businesses. I posted WeRemoto on there, and soon enough, I had a potential buyer who had family in Latin America and was genuinely interested in buying WeRemoto to improve the site and help people find remote jobs in the region.

After some negotiations, I decided to sell and became an advisor to keep helping WeRemoto while starting to build something more related to communities: Unita.

How did you decide to sell your side hustle?

Well, I wasn’t actually looking to sell WeRemoto. It was a side hustle that started to gain traction, and I knew it had potential because of the KPIs I mentioned earlier.

I had already validated the concept and built a strong community around it, so I felt like it was ready to take to the next level.

Around that time, I came across MicroAcquire, a platform that connects buyers and sellers of small businesses. I posted WeRemoto on there, and soon enough, I had a potential buyer who had family in Latin America and was genuinely interested in buying WeRemoto to improve the site and help people find remote jobs in the region.

After some negotiations, I decided to sell and became an advisor to keep helping WeRemoto while starting to build something more related to communities: Unita.

Picture of Sofia Terlesky

Sofia Terlesky

I'm an SEO content manager with over five years of experience planning and writing for blogs and social media, helping small and mid-size businesses grow organically. Now, I'm responsible for planning Unita's content calendar—ensuring we are offering valuable content for community builders and founders.
Build a community & grow your audience

Sign up and receive bi-monthly newsletters with:

‎️‍🔥 Top profiles of founders building in public

⚙️ Best tweets about community building

💬 Interviews with founders

🔗 Free resources to grow your audience

🔨 New and featured community tools on Product Hunt