Nish Samantray
Co-Founder & CEO of Arrae // $100M+ Wellness Brand Popular at Target, Sprouts, & TikTok Shop
About
Nish co-founded Arrae in March 2020 with his wife Siff Haider, funding it with their $484K wedding savings out of a 400-square-foot Toronto apartment. They hit $1M in revenue in 8 months without spending a dollar on ads, then took the same brand to a nine-figure run rate in five years on the back of just 8 SKUs. Along the way, Arrae became the top-selling supplement brand on TikTok Shop (a single $1.5M month, with $1M of it in one week), launched nationwide in Target after earlier placements at Sprouts and GNC, and built a customer base that includes Hailey Bieber. Before Arrae, Nish ran product at Paytm (Head of Consumer Product, Canada and Principal PM, Ad Tech India), Freshii, and Scotiabank — which is where the operational discipline behind the brand actually comes from. How Nish can help: 1. Going from $1M to $100M without raising a Series A or losing margin 2. Picking the right channel mix — DTC, Amazon, TikTok Shop, retail — and saying no to the rest 3. Launching into mass retail (Target, Sprouts, GNC) and building velocity from day one 4. Running TikTok Shop as a real revenue channel, not a one-off viral bet 5. Operating as a founder couple — splitting roles, debating decisions, and not blowing up the company
Experience
Co-Founder & CEO at Arrae
Leading the strategic vision and scaling a wellness startup to a $100M+ trajectory.
Product Manager at Paytm
Drove product strategy and feature development for one of the world's largest mobile payment platforms.
Product Manager at Freshii
Optimized digital product offerings and user experience for a leading health-casual global restaurant chain.
Digital Product Manager at Scotiabank
Managed large-scale digital transformation initiatives and financial product features for millions of users.
Co-Founder at Tandem (Next 36)
Developed a real-time collaboration tool for developers as part of Canada’s leading startup accelerator.
Links from Nish
The Real Cost of Love, Business, and Building To $100M Together
In this compelling episode of Hot Smart Rich, host Maggie Sellers sits down with Siff Haider and Nish Samantray, the co-founders of the rapidly scaling wellness brand Arrae. This deep-dive conversation explores the sacrifices, strategic decisions, and unique partnership dynamics that fueled their journey from an initial $1 million valuation in 2020 to a $100 million enterprise by 2025.