This story is part of CNBC Make It’s Six-Figure Side Hustle series, where people with lucrative side hustles break down the routines and habits they’ve used to make money on top of their full-time jobs. Got a story to tell? Let us know! Email us at AskMakeIt@cnbc.com.
When Tayo Lanlehin was planning her son’s first birthday party in April 2022, she bought yellow and blue signs, balloons and a cake with 3D planets. Every detail fit the “First Trip Around The Sun” theme, except the chairs.
She only found one rental seating option near her home in Oakland, California, she says: adult-sized white plastic chairs. She borrowed a picnic table with benches instead, and ruminated on the gap in the market for weeks. In May 2022, she sourced and spent roughly $2,000 on 48 kids’ chairs from a manufacturer overseas, and stored them in her basement, says Tayo.
Those chairs became Bay Area Kids Rentals, a side hustle that she runs with her husband Dolu Lanlehin. Now a full-fledged party rental business, the company has brought in over $295,000 in 2025 revenue as of Nov. 25, according to documents reviewed by CNBC Make It.
Bay Area Kids Rentals has been profitable since the beginning, but the couple doesn’t take an income from the side hustle, and is instead reinvesting those funds back into the business to expand its rental line, Dolu says. It now offers ball pits, mini bumper cars and multiple colors and styles of furniture.
Tayo and Dolu’s first party was for an event planner, who found the company on Instagram and requested pink chairs for a Barbie-themed party for her daughter in August 2022. She posted photos afterward on Instagram and the review led moms in Hillsborough, an affluent nearby town, to the business’s social media accounts, Tayo says.
Word-of-mouth “spread like fire,” and by October, Bay Area Kids Rentals was supplying decor for parties celebrating professional athletes’ and Silicon Valley executives’ children and grandchildren, she adds.
The rapid success of the side hustle was initially “a little jarring, because of the level of celebrity,” Tayo says. “My day job would end, then I’d go and work on parties for Silicon Valley CEOs’ children.”
The couple works a combined eight hours per week running Bay Area Kids Rentals. Tayo, a strategic partnership principal at health-care company Blue Shield of California, oversees the side hustle’s marketing and customer communication, and a portion of its work with manufacturers. Dolu — the head of product for Chegg Skills, part of education tech company Chegg — manages the company’s accounting and finances.
They outsource tasks like delivery, running painting and jewelry-making stations, and equipment maintenance to six contract employees, they say.
Here’s how Tayo and Dolu started their luxury party rental business, how they attracted high-profile clients and how their individual skillsets make them strong partners:
CNBC Make It: Do you think the success of your side hustle is replicable?
Dolu: 100%, but there would be some prerequisites. If someone is creative, detail-oriented and in a market somewhere in the world that supports this, I don’t see anything stopping them. But Tayo does a nice job of seeing around the corner a little bit, staying connected to market trends and seeing where there are gaps.
What kind of skillsets does someone need to run a luxury rental business?
Tayo: [My inspiration] comes from a place of empathy. I’m a parent, so I’m always thinking operationally about [their experience], the services we can provide, having a website that is easy to book from, what we can do differently and more seamlessly than other companies.
Bay Area Kids Rentals table and chairs at a Peppa Pig themed party
Courtesy of Bay Area Kids Rentals
Kids are so visual, too. I’m always thinking like, “Wouldn’t it make sense if a princess’s birthday had cute pink chairs and a cute pink bounce house?”
Dolu: Tayo is entrepreneurial, and I tend to be analytical because I come from consulting. I wanted to do market research, so we sent out a survey, just to get a signal. Other than a mortgage, kids are the biggest spending line item for parents. People are willing to be irritational for their kids and spend money they maybe don’t even have … because your kids tend to be the embodiment of your dreams, your visions that maybe you didn’t get when you were younger.
How did you attract ultra-wealthy, high-profile clients to Bay Area Kid Rentals?
Tayo: We’ve had to do some marketing [and search engine optimization], but we really haven’t been pressed because very early on starting this business, we hit our ideal client — with high net worth families and their event planners — like right away.
I followed [NBA player] Andrew Wiggins’ partner Mychal Johnson, and she had posted about one of her daughter’s parties on Instagram. I did research and noticed that her next daughter’s birthday was coming up in October [2022]. I direct messaged her with a link to our website saying, “We have luxury kid party rentals, and we would love to be a part of your kid’s birthday, if you’re doing a party.” She responded in 25 minutes and put us in touch with her event planner.
We did four events for their family until they moved to Miami [in 2024].
What makes ultra-wealthy clients different? What do they like about your services?
Tayo: Flexibility and having limited touch points are very important in the luxury space. We don’t send our rentals out for just four hours. We schedule our services around when the client wants to set up and tear down, when they want you to come and leave.
Bay Area Kids Rentals table and chairs at a Barbie themed party
Courtesy of Bay Area Kids Rentals
They’re not looking to go back and forth, either. A lot of our competitors will take deposits to make sure people don’t damage their rentals. I don’t do that — I just incorporate these costs into our pricing. That way, we don’t have to have another conversation to process the payments and the refund.
What’s it like running this business together, in addition to your full-time job?
Tayo: Running this business has given me some confidence that I’m building something of my own. I’m building something that could last and the potential of generational wealth.
It’s also just really nice to work with Dolu. This is like our third baby. Partnerships in business don’t really work out a lot of the times, and the fact that we’re married and raising kids on top of having a business, and we know how to resolve all kinds of issues, gives me the confidence that [our relationship] is going to be fine.
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