Jon Thornton teamed up with someone he hardly knew during the summer after undergrad to work on a parking-based business idea together. The idea was to work on the business idea till the end of summer and see what happens. Seven years later, after several twists and turns, Jon and his partner Aashish Dalal are still in business together. They recently raised their first round of venture capital and are ready to take on the world.

Here’s what you’ll learn in this case study:

How Jon found freelance work while working on his side hustle, and what he did to keep the freelancing pipeline full

Why your first idea almost always won’t work, and how to keep experimenting and iterating to find one that does

A smart way to find a co-founder, especially a technical one

How to get LOTS of publicity from mainstream media without really sweating it

Why having lots of competition is NOT a bad thing

3 Actions you can take to start and build a side business of your own, no matter what your background is.