Arsh Toor

0:00The immigrant household that set her North Star

ChristianneArsh Toor, welcome. Thank you so much for being here.

ArshThanks for having me. This is awesome.

ChristianneI want to set the stage for people. What was it like growing up? I know your dad had been an engineer in India, then moved over and had to take on odd jobs.

ArshThat shaped my childhood. I was born into an immigrant family, first generation in Canada, and I watched my dad hustle to run a single-income household. I have an older brother. So I always knew: work hard, get good grades, get a steady job. That was my North Star.

1:01Leaving the safe path, and ruffling feathers at home

ArshAnd it was great. I had a clear path I wanted to follow, and I wanted to make my parents proud. So when I decided to switch to entrepreneurship, it definitely ruffled some feathers at home. My dad would have killed for a steady, well-paying corporate job. Investment banking is a tough career with long hours, but as a 22-year-old earning six figures, you're financially secure, and that security mattered.

ChristianneWhat did they say?

ArshThey were like, are you sure? Like any parent, they had worries. It was a hard sell. I had to get them comfortable with the risk. I'm young, this is the time I can do it. When they came over, they were young too, 25 or 30, but they were raising kids. I'm not, and I have the flexibility to support myself. If not now, then when? I want to live my life with no regrets and take the leap. If you don't go for something, you'll never know.

2:28If not now, then when: the fear of regret

ChristianneDid a fear of regret help kickstart this journey?

ArshIt was, if not now, then when? Am I just going to be stuck in the rat race? I wanted more out of my career, and I didn't even think that was entrepreneurship. Growing up, I never wanted to start my own thing. I just wanted financial security. But once I had that, in a job like investment banking, I realized it was more important to enjoy my day-to-day and challenge myself. Now one day I'm doing ops, the next it's finance, tracking our inventory, running our Instagram reels. Every day is different, and it pushes your boundaries.

You wear so many hats you wouldn't in other careers. In entrepreneurship, your back is against the wall. You have to go for it. Some days are really tough, but the good days are worth it. If you have a good mission and vision, you take it step by step and try to make your product better every day.

4:10From Ivey Business School to banking, and what was missing

ChristianneYou went from undergrad right into banking, at two different shops. How many years in total?

ArshClose to five. I never thought I'd be in banking for five years. Time flies.

ChristianneDid you experience burnout?

ArshA hundred percent. At my most recent bank, where I was almost four years, I had a pretty positive experience. Great mentors, great colleagues, really cool deals in the power space and in tech, media and telecom. But being available at all hours and working long hours catches up to you, and sometimes you're just a cog in the wheel. You might want to do more, or bring your own thoughts and stray from the norm. You can't in investment banking. You put your head down. In my later years, it was less about banking and more that I wanted more. I wanted to be more creative than the models and PowerPoints I was making. That friction told me I needed to change things up.

ChristianneTake us to a moment when you looked in the mirror and thought, this isn't what I'll be doing for the next five years.

ArshI'd look at the seniors on my team and their lives, and I didn't want that. I didn't want to be 30 or 40 and logging back on at 9 p.m. I want to spend time with my kids. I want flexibility. If you can't see yourself where the person five or ten years ahead of you is right now, that's a real testament. You might convince yourself it'll be different for you, but chances are it won't. You can set boundaries and try your best, but things are going to blow up. That's the job. So I knew I didn't want to be doing it in five or ten years. I want to enjoy not just my day-to-day, but my hour by hour, not sit and wait for comments. I didn't know entrepreneurship would be that path until I went into it. It has its own challenges, but it's given me that flexibility.

ChristianneYou're constantly in a dance, waiting for the person above you to review your work, or the person below you to hand you something. There's so much waiting time that eats your day, and you can't unplug.

ArshThat's what drains you. You have to be available, but you're not working. Then an email comes in at 10 p.m. and you're working for a couple of hours. Now I work longer hours, but they're more productive. If I'm working nine to nine, I'm on the whole time, thinking about the business from every angle. No waiting. If I take a break, I go to the gym or for a walk. I'm not half on, half off.

ChristianneIs there anything banking trained you to do that's now a liability?

ArshThe details. I have an eye for when a font is off, or the sizing, or the colors don't match. That was great in banking. It saved a lot of time reviewing my own work and my analysts'. But building a company, you can't get lost in the details. It's better to be 80% of the way on the bigger picture than to get lost in details and only get the 20%. Even editing a reel, I get stuck on little things, and it can be endless. It doesn't have to be perfect.

ChristianneThere's a quote I like: it just needs to be. I think it's from the musical Company.

ArshI love that. Not even 80%. It just needs to be.

5:58Why pistachio butter, and why it didn't exist yet

ArshWhen my partner and I were coming up with options for after banking, this was one of the ideas, and we both love to eat, so that checked a box. We had conviction in it, and it didn't really exist. There's peanut butter and almond butter, but there isn't really pistachio butter. There are pistachio creams, but they're dairy and high in sugar, so you can't eat them every day. Or there's pistachios and salt, which doesn't taste very good. So there was a real gap and a real problem to solve. We didn't know anything about running a company, but we had the basics from investment banking.

ChristianneWhat was the first signal it was working?

ArshStrangers eating it. Friends loved it, but maybe they were being nice. A stranger with no connection to us is the real test. As soon as someone tries it, they're mind blown. Nobody has tasted anything like it. Then we tell them it has six grams of protein, and they say, wait, what? This tastes like dessert, and it's actually good for me? That reaction is irreplaceable, and it's what keeps us going.

12:46Her parents' reaction: surprise, then pride

ChristianneA loaded question. Who did you disappoint the most when you picked this path?

ArshI don't know if it was disappointment, but probably surprise. I don't think my parents ever thought I'd do this. I was always the quiet one in the house: the youngest of two, and the daughter. More reserved. In school, I'd never be the first to raise my hand. Maybe at Ivey I started to, because participation was part of it, and that's when I got more confident in my skills. Before that, I was quiet, just following my path.

As an entrepreneur, you have to be okay being uncomfortable and putting yourself out there. When we go door to door to retailers, it's 50-50. You pitch, and maybe you get in, maybe you get rejected. Ten-year-old me would have said, oh hell no, I'm staying in my bedroom. My parents always knew I was the quiet, shy one. If they could see how I am now, I think they'd say, wow, we're so proud of you.

ChristianneHas there been a time you thought, maybe we should give this up?

ArshAlmost every day, at some point. A retailer says the product isn't selling fast enough, and we think, this is it, we have to shut down, no one's buying it. Then the same day we check Amazon and we're selling lots of units. It balances out.

And sometimes I think about our old lives. Not the banking, the fun stuff. Going on vacation for two weeks, shutting my laptop. Now we always have to be available.

ChristianneYou are the business.

ArshWe are the business. You take that for granted at the time. But I still wouldn't change my lifestyle. I can work any hours, go to the gym whenever I need to, visit my parents, go to a beach. Maybe I'm not staying at a five-star resort. Not yet. But I can enjoy my day-to-day.

18:49Handling doubt and negative feedback

ChristianneHow do you handle a moment of negative feedback?

ArshOften, if you just talk to the other side, things can be fixed. In the moment you think it's such a big deal. We were about to go into a store, and a manager confused us with another company that had some bad press, a spelling mix-up with a company in the Middle East, and sent a big email saying they couldn't carry our product because they only do US products. We stayed calm and got on the phone with them. Hey, we saw your email, we just wanted to clear the air, there's been some confusion.

That's where having a partner is the biggest help. On your own, you might spiral or act out of spite. Whatever, I don't need this retailer, they don't want me, I don't want them. If you act on instinct, it's sometimes the wrong move. It's like getting a message from a friend that pisses you off. If you reply right away, you might say something you regret. If you wait a little, you understand what they mean, and you find a solution.

19:18I reject the idea of failure

ChristianneWhen you're thinking you have to give this up, what fuels you to say, one more day?

ArshI reject the idea of failure. I reject that this is the end of the story. You have to tell yourself it's worth it. We have a good product, all the signs are there, customers love it, and we get great feedback. The external feeds the internal. That positivity keeps you going.

And you have to be passionate. That's number one. If you don't believe in your own product, you won't do well. There are external forces that give you affirmation, and just as many that give you doubt and negative feedback again and again. If you don't believe in it, you'll feed into that. If you have conviction, data points and proof points, you keep pushing through. Maybe you tweak your strategy. That's execution. Doing isn't the hard part. Believing is. Banking or any corporate job gives you skills to execute a vision, but skills won't get you what you need. It has to have some heart. You believe in it, and then you use your skills to propel yourself.

21:29The taste that takes her back to "let's quit our jobs"

ArshEvery time I eat the product, I'm transported back to when we were making it in the blender, and the first thought of, let's quit our jobs and do this. It brings me back to that happy moment of leaving investment banking and being so excited for what was next. So if it gives anyone else even a second of joy in their day, my job is done. Everyone could use a little joy.

I truly believe food is the way to someone's heart. We eat three meals a day. Being mindful and enjoying what you put in your body, sharing meals with friends, your partner, your family, those are precious moments. If we get to be part of that, that's all I could ask for.

ChristianneIt's so intimate. You could have toast and coffee or a steak dinner. It's what you make of the meal and who you have it with.

23:38Trusting your gut vs. banking's instruction manual

ChristianneIn banking, and a lot of corporate jobs, your sense of what's right and what's next comes from people above you. When did you shift to trusting your gut and making decisions on your own, or with your partner?

ArshIn my later years in banking, I'd have the right answer more often. My VP would turn me down, and then I'd find out the MD had the same idea. After a few of those, I started pushing back a little. That's when I thought, okay, I can start trusting my gut. My ideas were being corroborated by people even more senior. Now that's all it is. It's trial and error. Sometimes we make a bad call, and you deal with it and move on. Nine times out of ten, you just think it's a bad call, and you can fix it. There are very few things in business you can't fix.

That's what our minds aren't comfortable with. You feel you have to get it perfect the first time, and I think for women even more. In banking, perfectionism is drilled into your head, so you doubt yourself and go with whatever someone else says. Now I trust my gut, and once you get a good outcome from it, that propels you to do it more. If you never trust your gut, you become complacent.

ChristianneI found that too. Outsourcing intuition. It takes betting on yourself, finding what works and what doesn't, succeeding, failing, and then you build a roadmap in your head. Clarity comes with action.

ChristianneWhat's a hard truth about entrepreneurship that people get wrong or avoid?

ArshIt seems fun to have no boss. Isn't that the dream? But you have to hold yourself accountable. If you're not doing the work, it's not getting done, and all that vision-boarding about where you'll be in a year won't happen. If you lack discipline and need structure, entrepreneurship is going to be really hard. In a corporate job you're given the instruction manual. Now I decide when to wake up, when to schedule calls, what gets done today. Some days I get overwhelmed and don't get through my list.

What's helped is picking three things I want to get done each day. If I get those three done, it's a good day. If I want a workout, I schedule it, get those things done first, then take a couple of hours to myself. Every day I have to actively make my schedule, and that planning takes time too.

ChristianneYou're the MD, the director, the VP.

ArshAnd the intern. All of the above.

ChristianneIt's like a treadmill versus running outside. On a treadmill, the floor moves for you. Outside, if you want to move forward, you have to take the step.

29:10What banking actually taught her

ChristianneBanking is a hard thing to do right out of school, and it can teach you a lot about grit and resilience. There's a quote from Andrew Huberman I like: the reason to deliberately do hard things is so that when non-self-selected challenges arrive, and they will, you can tell yourself, I don't know how this is going to turn out, but I am certain I can do hard things. How does that land with you?

ArshFrom a young age, when I put my mind to something, I'd get it done. At five, if I wanted a toy, I'd talk about it nonstop, chew my dad's ear off, and stand in that aisle every time we went to the store until I got it. I was very persistent, and that carried into picking my school and my career. I had my head set on investment banking before I even knew what it was.

ChristianneWhat did you know about it?

ArshThat it was a finance job, and I wanted to do it in New York. Part of the appeal was New York, from all the movies growing up.

ChristianneWhat did New York mean to you?

ArshFreedom. Walking out the door and doing whatever I want: grabbing a coffee, meeting a friend, going shopping, without taking the car or answering to anyone. A city of possibilities. I've grown so much in the five years I've been here. I've gotten so much more comfortable in my own skin. I don't think I could have taken this entrepreneurship leap in any other city. The energy makes you strive for more. It takes a lot to be here. It's expensive. You have to want to be here. Every day I come out of the subway into a wind tunnel and think, I'm here, I'm going to make the most of it.

I knew I wanted banking and New York, and I did whatever it took. I was in the library reading the Wall Street Prep guides and practicing for interviews. That's how I spent some Friday nights. But if I hadn't, I wouldn't have done investment banking, wouldn't have been in New York, and wouldn't be an entrepreneur.

33:11The vision for Stesh

ArshSo now my head is set on this journey: making pistachio butter the best nut butter, making sure everyone's addicted to it, and since it's good for you, it's a good addiction to have. And making this a really successful business. Peanut butter has been around way too long. It's time for a change. Nutella is all sugar. It's time for a revamp, and pistachios are hot right now. Everything pistachio. So this is the time, and I'm confident, given my persistence.

ChristianneWho's more persistent, your mom or your dad?

ArshBoth, honestly. But out of my whole family, I'm the most persistent. When I was little it was nagging. Please can I get this toy, please, please, please. Now that nagging child has turned into someone who, if I want something, is confident I'll find a way to get it.

35:03A message to her parents

ChristianneIf your parents were listening to this, what would you want them to know?

ArshDon't worry, everything will work out. It'll be a long journey, but it'll be worth it.

ChristianneAre there mentors you still keep around?

ArshI had some really great mentors in banking. One MD in particular I still keep in touch with, and he's part of the reason I even lasted five years. It's so key to have a great boss, a normal person you can actually talk to. In banking, that's very rare. Watching how he worked, and how he treated seniors and juniors, is something I want to emulate when we grow and hire people. Right now it's just the two of us and I can be involved in everything, but there will be a point when that's not possible.

ChristianneDid you learn what kind of boss you don't want to be?

ArshEveryone's seen the screaming MD on the floor, or the one who always finds fault. The good ones give positive affirmation and say thank you. Shocking, I know. I had an MD who would stay on Zoom with us at 1 a.m. while we tried to figure out what was wrong with a model. Whenever I tell that story, people don't believe me. I don't know if I'd want to be up at 1 a.m., but it shows you're committed, and it goes a long way. I still remember it. If I'm the boss someday, I want my team to feel, she really cares about us, and she's willing to get her hands dirty in the trenches.

ChristianneAnything you want to say before we wrap up? Advice, warnings?

ArshJust go for it. If there's something you want to do, there's no better time than now. You'll always have excuses, and you'll get in your own head: maybe it's not a good idea, maybe there's no need for it. Get out of your head. Talk to people, test the idea, do a proof of concept. It doesn't have to be thousands of dollars on a prototype. Do a bare-bones version at home. Start somewhere and you'll iterate. And now you can use ChatGPT or Gemini as a sounding board. It can tell you right away whether the idea exists and what you're up against. We use it all the time when we're thinking about a new market, a new distribution channel, or new products. It's a great first sense check.

ChristianneArsh Toor, thank you so much for coming on and sharing your journey, from Ivey to banking to entrepreneurship. You stepped off the cliff into the void, and you're flying. I'm rooting for you and Stesh.

ArshThank you so much. Thanks for having me.