What happens when success is your biggest problem? Bridging survival and scale

Haley McClain Hill was drowning in her own success. Orders for TORCH Warriorwear—bodysuits designed specifically for military women—consumed her apartment. "I wanted to travel to conferences and do pop-ups, but I couldn't because I was shipping everything out of my bedroom," recalls the U.S. Air Force veteran. "If I wasn't shipping, orders just sat there."

Nine years of wearing ill-fitting men's military uniforms had spurred her to solve a problem that resonated with thousands of servicewomen. Now her solution had outgrown her.

This is the moment every successful entrepreneur faces, when passion projects evolve into businesses that demand more than one person can give. The moves made at this inflection point can be the difference between scaling and sinking. For Haley and other founders like her, the right tools and capital removed friction at the exact point when momentum mattered the most. 

The American side hustle reality

Forget the pipe dream of the fully-funded startup launch. In the United States, 64% of businesses begin as something else entirely—a side hustle, a hobby, a problem that needs solving. 

"I turned my uniform into a bodysuit and put it on TikTok and was like ‘who else wants this?’” says Haley. “Turns out everybody wanted it. Then it became my business."

The data reveals a particularly American approach to entrepreneurship. While 67% of German businesses and 60% of Canadian businesses launch as full-time ventures, American entrepreneurs have to test, iterate, and grow organically. Only 27% of U.S. businesses started as full-time ventures from day one, according to Shopify's latest survey*.

Wilglory Tanjong's path to founding Anima Iris followed this pattern, though her side hustle began oceans away from her target market. The Princeton graduate left her $86,000 operations manager job, unfulfilled despite finally achieving the financial security she'd craved since childhood.Her "side project" was documenting young African entrepreneurs for her YouTube series.

"Anima Iris came to me, fashion found me," Wilglory said at the time. "When you are destined to do something, your purpose will find you."

While in Senegal, she found artisans creating handbags using techniques passed down through generations. What started as documentation became creation. By February 2020, she'd invested $5,000 of her savings to launch Anima Iris, a luxury handbag brand celebrating African craftsmanship.

The universal signals to scale

Across industries and backgrounds, entrepreneurs tend to recognize three consistent signals that it’s time to scale. A recent Shopify survey reveals that 39% of founders know it's time when they start setting goals and ambitions beyond their personal abilities. Nearly as many, 38%, point to consistently hitting revenue targets as their signal that growth isn't a fluke but a pattern demanding infrastructure. And finally, for another 38%, the trigger is more concrete: having enough sustainable cash flow to cover at least three months of payroll, the cushion that makes hiring feel like opportunity rather than risk.

For Haley, the physical constraints were undeniable. "We were selling out constantly, and I needed to put in bigger and bigger orders of inventory. I couldn’t just keep putting orders of 100 to 200 units. I needed thousands."

The challenge wasn't just inventory—it was everything. "I would go a week without being able to check customer support emails. When stuff starts to fall apart like that, you know something needs to change."

Wilglory faced similar scaling pressures as Anima Iris grew from her $5,000 investment to generating over $2.5 million in revenue within five years. Beyoncé’s endorsement of her brand in 2021 drove $23,000 in sales overnight,crystallizing the need for infrastructure beyond what one person could manage.

She realized a “bingo moment,” a gap in the market that could bring African culture into the global luxury narrative. 

But bingo moments require backing.

The right money at the right time

Here's where the dream typically stalls. Traditional financing often fails entrepreneurs at their most critical moment.

Despite millions in transactions flowing through their business account, a large U.S. bank flatly rejected Wilglory's credit application—a frustrating reality for many Black entrepreneurs. "Working with outdated financial institutions truly hinders the growth of small companies that are doing well but could be doing even better with that influx of cash."

Haley faced different but equally pressing financial needs after her business exploded following Shark Tank. "We 3x'ed overnight, and we were just selling out and taking pre-orders constantly. We're finally out of pre-orders, and it took us four years to get there."

Both founders turned to Shopify Capital, a financing model that aligned with entrepreneurial reality with repayments made as a percentage of sales rather than fixed monthly payments. 

"I saw that I could get up to $50,000. It was a no-brainer," Haley recalls. "And then you just pay it back with a portion of your sales. My business is growing, so those terms worked for me."

With her first round of Shopify Capital, Haley transformed her ordering capacity and began working with a third-party logistics partner: "About 50% went to immediate inventory. The rest went toward traveling to conferences and taking marketing opportunities." She could finally leave her apartment.

The flexibility also proved transformative for Wilglory as she scaled Anima Iris. She was able to get multiple loans up to $50,000. The repayment terms allowed her to focus on servicing her customers, providing a quality product, and growing her business instead of a monthly payment.

“Focusing on the things that really mattered allowed me to make those payments and that’s what true small business support looks like,” says Wilglory.

Everyday stories like this play out across industries and markets as founders discover Capital's alignment with growth realities. 

"Building a modern luxury brand means making bold decisions—often on tight timelines. What stood out with Shopify Capital was the speed and simplicity,"  says Cem Dogan, founder and CEO of sustainable fine jewelry brand Veynou.

"We could access the funds we needed, when we needed them, without the usual hurdles. That gave us the confidence to invest in product development and expand into new markets, knowing we had the financial support to match our ambitions."

The lessons learned from the leap

These founders emphasize that scaling isn't just about having enough money. It's about recognizing when not scaling becomes the bottleneck.

"There's no other option but to figure it out," Haley says. 

For merchants standing at their own scaling crossroads, both founders offer hard-won wisdom. Trust the signals your business sends you,whether it's unopened customer emails, missed opportunities, or the physical impossibility of doing it all.

More importantly, understand that the right financing doesn't add pressure, it removes it. Traditional loans create a monthly drumbeat of fixed payments that don't care if you had a slow month or if a shipment got delayed. But when repayment flows with your sales, you stop making decisions from a place of scarcity. You can make them from a place of abundance instead. 

Today, Haley runs TORCH from anywhere in the world, growing an ambassador community of more than 1,000 military women. She's currently in Hawaii, planning her next move to Italy for fashion school. Wilglory has built a global brand that graces the arms of Beyoncé while supporting artisan families in Senegal. Her handbags now sell in Saks Fifth Avenue, Nordstrom, and Bloomingdale's.

Both started with personal problems that demanded solving. Both recognized when their solutions had outgrown them. And both found that strategic financing—deployed at the right moment—transformed their side hustles into missions that created ripples far and wide.

*Survey conducted by The Harris Poll from June 5th to June 14th, 2025 on behalf of Shopify.