“You’re the average of the five people you spend the most time with.”
– Jim Rohn
Hey! My name is Amir and I’m one of the Habit Nest co-founders.
Here’s My Story:
I was born in Los Angeles, CA on August 15, 1991. I’m an Iranian-American who was raised by two incredible parents, Hossein and Fariba Atighehchi. I’m a blessed middle child who with the two best sisters in the world, Tannaz and Negin. Like most middle-eastern families, my sisters and I were raised on the principle that “family is everything” and that we must always be united.
I attended a tiny private school called Mirman School all the way till 7th grade and decided to skip 8th and jump into High School — Beverly Hills High School (BHHS).
This is where I met Ariel Banayan, my co-founder and my brother. We both loved basketball and played for the High School freshman team! Going from a school in which there were 300 people in the entire school K-8 (Mirman) to a 2000-person public High School (BHHS) was a big change.
Ariel and I formed a very strong bond, before he left to Israel.
College, Nutlock, DRNK/QWENCH, and Habit Nest
Mikey’s mom and my mom were best friends since we were kids. However, our friendship really started after high school. We took some classes at Santa Monica College together, and ended up becoming roommates at USC together!
After High School we formed an inseparable bond and we realized through living together how much we had in common. Other than laughing our asses off every night we both had this strong ambitious fire to build something special.
Our first taste of entrepreneurship together was a bike lock company we started called Nutlock, which are custom made anti-theft fasteners for bicycle wheels. We won a couple competitions and even launched a Kickstarter raising a total of $125,000 all equity-free.
After college, I ventured into the food and beverage industry with my uncle, starting two different concepts - DRNK coffee + tea and QWENCH juice bar. We decided to grow the brand using the franchise model in 2016.
Health and fitness has always been a big part of my life. During my senior year of College, I found out I had very rare blood disorder called Osteochondritis Dissecans which basically means there’s a lack of blood flow, usually in the joint areas. I basically had to wait for a cadaver so I can get a partial knee and cartilage replacement. This changed my life a lot because I was extremely active and really really loved playing basketball.
After the surgery, I started looking after my diet more seriously, and turned to lifting weights more frequently. However, the idea of changing my daily habits really formed when Ariel, Mikey, and I started hanging out together more often.
I HATED reading. I never understood how someone could enjoy that versus watching a movie or video content. It wasn’t until we started researching the habits of the world’s most successful people that I decided it was something I needed to change in my life.
Mikey approached us with a concept for an application to help people change their habits with content and tracking. Knowing what we all brought the table with our passions and skillsets we decided to create Habit Nest.
It’s been an incredible ride and we have a vision for company that can change the world.
