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Toi Staff
Jeffrey Bernstein Ph.d
Tarik Cyril Amar
Gideon Levy
Belen Fernandez
Penny S. Tee
Muhannad Ayyash
John Nosta
Andrew Silow-Carroll
Sharona Margolin Halickman
Moussa Ibrahim
These College Friends Started a Side Hustle Out of 'Sheer Frustration.' It Did $1 Million in the First 9 Months and $20 Million in Year 4.
This Side Hustle Spotlight Q&A features 29-year-olds Courtney Toll and Annabel Love, the co-founders of Nori. They launched Nori Press, a compact steam iron, in 2021 and did $1 million in revenue in the first nine months. They've doubled revenue every year since 2022, ending 2024 with $20.8 million in revenue. Responses have been edited for length and clarity.
What was your day job or primary occupation(s) when you started your side hustle?
Toll: When Annabel and I came up with the idea for Nori in college, we both chose to pursue full-time jobs after graduation before diving into the business. I joined an expert-network firm called AlphaSights, where I connected clients with subject-matter experts to support due diligence for acquisitions or strategic initiatives. Annabel started her career at an interior design firm, where she gained hands-on experience in sourcing and supply chain management. The skills we developed in those roles across research, operations and project management proved incredibly valuable when we eventually transitioned to working on Nori full-time.
When did you start your side hustle, and what inspired it?
Love: The inspiration for Nori was born out of sheer frustration in our tiny New York City apartments. As we prepared for our first professional internships, we wanted to look polished and professional, but we didn't have the space for an ironing board, the patience for leaky steamers or the budget for frequent dry cleaning. We resorted to every DIY wrinkle-removal hack imaginable, even using hair straighteners as makeshift irons.
That daily struggle opened our eyes to how outdated and overlooked the ironing and steaming category had become. We saw a real opportunity to modernize the space with a smarter, more convenient solution. Our idea for a next-generation steam iron became our side hustle as soon as we started our full-time jobs. To de-risk the venture and maintain financial stability, we committed to working our 9-6 jobs while building Nori on nights and weekends for as long as we could juggle both.
What were some of the first steps you took........© Entrepreneur
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