Ritesh Verma, a software engineer from Jersey City, works 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Capital One. He also has his own projects that make him more money than his job: AI agents, his own YouTube channel, sponsorships, SaaS products, and a mentoring program. But he's in no hurry to leave the company until he's achieved a certain goal.
Ritesh Verma, a software engineer from Jersey City, works 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Capital One. He also has his own projects that make him more money than his job: AI agents, his own YouTube channel, sponsorships, SaaS products, and a mentoring program. But he's in no hurry to leave the company until he's achieved a certain goal.
After graduating from college in 2023, Ritesh was hired as a software engineer at Capital One with a salary of $136,000, but that's not his biggest source of income. He'll earn $15,000 a month from projects he works on outside of his job, which requires him to be in the office two days a week.
"When I got the job at Capital One, I was worried that working full-time would interfere with my part-time jobs, but I created a system that makes it manageable," the programmer told Business Insider.
AI agents are his main side hustle. It all started in 2019, when a friend asked him to write a bot to sell sneakers. “I had no idea what bots or AI agents were, but I agreed and spent over half a year learning how to write programs that would do the job,” says Ritesh.
During this time, the IT guy created bots for everything from hats to wine bottles and children's clothing. He also started creating services and tools.
Other projects are less profitable, including:
“My secret to success is working on multiple projects at once. I manage to do it because everything is very automated,” explains Ritesh.
After work, a programmer usually works for 4 hours on his projects. Also a few hours on the weekends.
“It’s a lot of work, but I find it interesting. I also try to have time for myself. A few friends and I travel every three months. In 2024, I spent a total of a month abroad in places like Brazil, Japan, and Italy without working. These trips are a good test of sanity,” the programmer added.
Ritesh has tried probably 15 projects recently, and most of them have failed. He gives each project a month or two of serious work before deciding whether to continue. Sometimes a project turns out to be too complex and very difficult to develop.
Sometimes Ritesh loses interest in a project. In such cases, he puts it aside for eternity or passes it on to his students if they are interested.
“Also, I have a rule that I won’t leave my main job until I earn three times more on my projects than my base salary at Capital One. Once I achieve that, I will quit my job. That’s my goal,” Ritesh said.
