If You Invested $10,000 in These 6 Popular Side Hustle Apps 5 Years Ago, Here’s How Rich You’d Be
Written by
John Csiszar
Edited by
Zuri Anderson
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While the concept of the side hustle has been around for decades, finding a side hustle via an app is a much more recent technological development. Instead of having to call in favors, look desperately through newspaper ads or go door-to-door looking for some extra income, you can now get a side gig just by opening your smartphone.
What may be surprising to you, however, is that side hustle apps are not just for getting jobs. Some of the companies behind the most popular apps are actually publicly traded. This means that you can not only use them to get a job, you can also invest in them and share in their success.
Here’s what you could have made if you invested $10,000 in each of these five popular side hustle apps five years ago, or on their IPO date if they went public more recently.
Maplebear (CART)
- IPO date: Sept. 18, 2023
- IPO price: $30
- Closing price on Jan. 24, 2025: $45.99
- Return since date of investment: 53.3%
- How much $10,000 invested would be worth as of Jan. 24, 2025: $15,330
Maplebear is actually the formal name of the company doing business as Instacart. It’s the leading platform for online grocery delivery in North America.
If you’re looking to pick up a few extra bucks, you can sign on as a full-service shopper, picking out goods for a customer and then making the delivery yourself. As with most side gig apps, you get to choose where, when and how much you earn, according to the company itself.
Buying Instacart stock thus far would have been a great way to supplement your earnings from working there, as CART has posted a 50%-plus return in just 16 months.
Ibotta (IBTA)
- IPO date: Apr. 18, 2024
- IPO price: $88
- Closing price on Jan. 24, 2025: $74.63
- Return since date of investment: -15.2%
- How much $10,000 invested would be worth as of Jan. 24, 2025: $8,480
Working a side gig at Ibotta doesn’t require you to actually perform a service on behalf of someone else, as with Instacart. With Ibotta, you simply earn cash by shopping at select retailers and scanning your receipts into the app.
According to the company, all you have to do is download the app, choose a supported retailer, look for offers, shop, then redeem online or in-store offers to get your cash back. If you have a linked loyalty app, you may not even need to submit the receipt to get your cash back.
Thus far, using the Ibotta app has been more profitable than investing in the stock, as investors have lost money over the first 21 months or so.
Uber (UBER)
- Investment date: Jan. 24, 2020
- Investment date price: $36.80
- Closing price on Jan. 24, 2025: $68.56
- Return since date of investment: 86.3%
- How much $10,000 invested would be worth as of Jan. 24, 2025: $18,630
Uber is one of the few side hustle stocks that has actually been in existence for more than five years already.
As you likely already know, the rideshare company allows drivers to pick and choose when they want to offer their services to riders, almost like a personalized taxi service. But the app has expanded in recent years, and drivers can now also shop on the behalf of customers and/or make deliveries for them.
The stock has had more than its share of ups and downs, but it’s been on a fairly steady uptrend since the beginning of 2023.
Lyft (LYFT)
- Investment date: Jan. 24, 2020:
- Investment price: $48.43
- Closing price on Jan. 24, 2025: $13.80
- Return since date of investment: -71.5%
- How much $10,000 invested would be worth as of Jan. 24, 2025: $2,849
Lyft is the main competitor of Uber, as the two essentially run the same type of rideshare services. However, Lyft did beat Uber in terms of the race to get to market first, as Lyft went public roughly six weeks before Uber, on Mar. 29, 2019.
Unfortunately, in terms of stock market performance, Lyft couldn’t be any different from industry-leading Uber. Over the past five years, Lyft’s stock has lost nearly three-quarters of its shareholders’ money.
Fiverr (FVRR)
- Investment date: Jan. 24, 2020
- Investment price: $25.99
- Closing price on Jan. 24, 2025: $31.20
- Return since date of investment: 20%
- How much $10,000 invested would be worth as of Jan. 24, 2025: $12,000
Fiverr is an online marketplace, allowing you to advertise your services as a freelance professional in any number of industries. According to the company, voiceover artists, logo designers, writers and more can sell on Fiverr, creating listings for their services and accepting requests as they come in.
The company has been public for about 5.5 years, coming to market for $21 per share on Jun. 12, 2019. Over the last five years, the stock has earned investors a modest 20%. Important to note, however, is that the stock skyrocketed to over $300 per share in 2021 before falling back to Earth over the past four years, meaning lots of shareholders are likely underwater if they still own the stock.
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