Her $5K-a-Month Side Hustle Was Inspired By Family Tradition

Key Takeaways

- Laosrimongkol, a serial side hustler, found inspiration for her next business in her family’s factory.

- After a false start with flavors that played it safe, she leaned into her Thai heritage.

- Now, Bangkok Bites averages $5,000 a month and is on track for $100,000 revenue in 2026.

This Side Hustle Spotlight Q&A features Chanya (Bella) Laosrimongkol, 34, who splits her time between Bangkok, Phuket and New York City. Laosrimongkol officially launched her side hustle Bangkok Bites, a line of Thai-inspired plant-based protein snacks, in October 2025. Her business is bringing in about $5,000 a month and is on track to hit $100,000 in revenue this year. Responses have been edited for length and clarity.

Image Credit: Bangkok Bites. Chanya (Bella) Laosrimongkol.

From a career in corporate to a serial entrepreneur

What was your day job or primary occupation when you started your side hustle?

I actually started out as a corporate girl before moving fully into entrepreneurship. But even back then, I was always building something on the side.

Bangkok Bites is technically my seventh business, so side hustling has always been part of how I work and think. I’ve done everything from running a fish and chips shop, organizing parties, running a hostel, opening a café, to building a homestay platform.

Before starting this, I had just exited my previous company, a vacation rental platform I built and ran for five years. At the same time, I was still actively working in hospitality and real estate, running a holiday rental in Phuket. Initially, Bangkok Bites was a side hustle while I focused 80% of my time on real estate. My time is still divided between my established holiday rental business in Thailand and Bangkok Bites, but I see such incredible growth and potential in the snack business that I’m moving toward a 50/50 split of my time.

Because I have an experienced team managing the day-to-day operations of my rental business in Thailand, I am able to dedicate myself to the “hustle” of growing this brand in the U.S. market. It has transitioned from a side project into a core business that I am fully committed to scaling.

Starting a side hustle based on family roots

When did you start your side hustle, and where did you find the inspiration for it?

I started exploring the idea around late 2024, right after I exited my previous company. At that point, I knew I wanted to build something more tangible, something real, something long-term.

Then I went back home and spent time with my family. That’s when I realized something I had overlooked for years. We have a small plant-based food factory in Thailand that’s been running for over 30 years. They’ve been quietly producing amazing products. They had the research and development (R&D), the production and the expertise, but never really built a brand or went global.

Image Credit: Bangkok Bites

What triggered me was that they were thinking about shutting it down. That didn’t sit right with me. As the next generation, I felt like if not me, then who? I had the opposite skill set: international exposure, business experience, I speak the language, I understand the market. I realized that we already have everything; we just needed to connect it. So, I decided to take what they built and bring it to the U.S.

My family is vegan. I’m a snack person, and I love Thai flavors. That’s how Bangkok Bites came to life, an Asian-owned, woman-owned brand bringing Thai-inspired vegan jerky to a global audience.

We officially launched in October 2025 and recently introduced a new real-ingredients formula at Expo West in California in March 2026. Today, we focus on two flavors, Pad Thai and Thai BBQ, inspired by Thai street food, but made into a high-protein, healthy alternative meatless snack.

Keeping it simple and investing $20,000 to launch

What were some of the first steps you took to get your side hustle off the ground? How much money/investment did it take to launch?

I kept it simple. I didn’t wait until everything was perfect. I just started. I did my own research, worked closely with my family factory to develop products and built the first version of the brand myself.

I launched two product lines: plant-based chips and jerky. The flavors were very standard, generic options like barbecue, bacon and spicy for jerky, and cheese, barbecue, spicy and salted for chips. There was no story behind them. I realized that to truly succeed, I needed to find a hero product with a real identity. I discontinued the chips and the generic jerky line to focus entirely on what makes us unique. As a small brand, you can’t win by being generic: You win by being true to your story and being different.

That first version failed. But that failure gave me real data, real feedback, and I rebuilt everything from there. I started by investing around $20,000 for the first launch, knowing it probably wouldn’t work the first time.

I wanted to develop a prod