New analysis of 173,979 company registrations in 2025 from 1st Formations has revealed a clear pattern in founder behaviour. According to registration timestamps, 31.6% of all new businesses in 2025 were incorporated outside traditional working hours between 5pm and 9am.
This pattern of ‘after-hours entrepreneurship’ reflects how more people are strategically using side hustles to strengthen financial security. Many are working evenings and nights, building independent ventures around their day jobs.
Recent research from Scottish Widows and Monzo reinforces this pattern, showing that nearly one in five UK adults now run side hustles, rising to one in four among Gen Z. Of these, 39% do so to earn extra income and improve their financial situation, with the average side hustle generating £470 per month.
Graeme Donnelly, founder and CEO at 1st Formations, said: “We’re seeing a generation of founders who aren’t taking a reckless leap into the unknown; they’re building a business while the rest of the world sleeps.
“AI is letting founders launch faster and more cheaply, without leaving their day jobs or committing to expensive office space, and from wherever and whenever suits them. It has completely transformed the barrier to entry. Coding, copy, admin – it handles more than ever before. You can be a CEO by sunrise.”
The breakdown below shows the volume of registrations by day and time window, highlighting where founder activity clusters across the week.
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Day of the week
9am-5pm (Work hours)
5pm – 9am (After hours)
Mon
21,278
9,182
Tue
21,964
9,599
Wed
21,585
9,407
Thu
21,390
8,969
Fri
18,973
7,113
Sat
7,115
4,981
Sun
6,589
5,834
Total
118,894
55,085
The figures reveal a midweek peak in registrations both during and after working hours, with Tuesday and Wednesday emerging as the most popular days of the week.
Weekend registrations were lower overall, though Sunday’s after-hours figure nearly matched its working-hours total – suggesting that for some founders, the weekend boundary between ‘work’ and ‘side hustle’ barely exists.’
This may reflect founders using their evenings to act on an idea they’ve been sitting on – turning the decision to leave employment into a concrete first step.
There is also a consistent daily peak between 12pm and 2pm, confirming that the ‘lunch break founder’ is a distinct and measurable demographic. Many are using their 30 to 60-minute midday break from their primary employment to incorporate their own business, taking advantage of short windows of opportunity to make tangible progress.