This essay is based on a transcribed conversation with Stu Macdonald, founder of the peanut butter brand ManiLife, who lives in Wilmslow, England. Macdonald, 32, quit his job as an accountant at PwC in 2016 to work full-time at ManiLife. Business Insider has confirmed his employment and departure from the company. The following text has been edited for length and clarity.
I always wanted to do something completely different in my life, but when I was studying economics and Spanish at university, certain professions like banking and accounting dominated the career fairs. I decided to take a job at PwC, one of the big four accounting firms, and do a three-year graduate program there.
I graduated in 2013 and was supposed to start the job in September 2014, but I pushed my start date back a year and moved to Argentina. I wanted to party hard and live a hedonistic lifestyle, stocking up on extreme fun so I could be a serious citizen for the next three years.
There I worked in peanut butter production. When it was time to return to my accounting job in September 2015, I gave up my peanut butter business and returned to the UK.
I didn’t necessarily want to be an accountant, but I thought the job would be a good business tool. I wanted to finish the program and start my own business, whether it was with peanut butter or something else.
While at PwC, I started working on my peanut butter business, ManiLife, on the side. After a year, I left PwC to focus full-time on my business.
Although having a steady job in accounting helped me for a while, I left the corporate world at the right time.
I had put my idea for a peanut butter brand on hold to work at PwC
The idea for ManiLife – my peanut butter company – came to me when I was living in Argentina. I saw an ad for a job in a social peanut butter company and applied.
We sold products in parks and visited soup kitchens to teach children and families how to improve their diets with peanut butter. I became more and more interested in peanut butter production and began developing recipes in a friend’s kitchen and selling jars to the local community.
Peanut butter was talked about differently than coffee or chocolate. There was no system to trace the product’s origins.
I made contact with a family in Córdoba, Argentina, from whom we still source our peanuts today. In 2015, I returned home from Argentina with the idea of creating ManiLife and making it the world’s first peanut butter brand focused on origin and traceability – knowing where the product comes from and the story behind it.
Back in the UK, my friends and I spent the whole summer making peanut butter before I started at PwC. It was pretty hellish, but formative.
Starting a peanut butter brand was exciting, and I wasn’t looking forward to starting at PwC after the summer.
I was not fascinated by the prestige of working at PwC
I worked in the audit department of PwC. I saw it as an opportunity to get to know clients who were running companies.
The company had a culture of personal communication, where staying late was a badge of honor. I found it quite odd that during the accounting “peak season” from January to April, some people stayed until 1 a.m.
I thought it was a waste of time. When I started working on my own business on the side, I couldn’t stay as long as others. I usually worked from 9 a.m. to 6 or 7 p.m. during peak season and from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. the rest of the time. My colleagues and superiors understood that I had a reason to leave and got lots of free samples.
The company invested heavily in social events and regularly hosted drinks for graduates.
I couldn’t identify with the lower level people who were so in awe of the partners. I’ve always felt comfortable talking to people at all levels of the hierarchy.
I was earning enough to support my lifestyle at PwC, but I was also living at home. I don’t know what it would be like if I had to pay rent.
I wasn’t really keen on the prestige surrounding PwC. Since I had decided to put my own company on hold, it didn’t feel that positive or like I had made the big break.
I reached a turning point at PwC and decided to quit to pursue entrepreneurship
When I started working full-time, I thought I had given up ManiLife forever. About three months into my job at PwC, I started getting calls from stores and clients I had previously sold to. A month later, I resumed production and spent my weekends bouncing around kitchens alongside my day job.
I always got my work done, but my business venture probably interfered with my ability to work as a PwC employee. I worked all day and stayed up late to get both done. Eventually, my work got to the point where I was secretly making ManiLife calls on the way to the bathroom and skipping lunch to get things done for the business.
After 11 months at PwC, I snapped and decided to pursue ManiLife full-time. I believed in the company’s potential. One of the triggers was an email from a buyer at Ocado, a British retailer, asking us to make him a proposal in the summer of 2016. We didn’t get a yes at the time, but it felt like a sign of possible success.
I was hesitant to quit, but felt I would regret it for the rest of my life. In November 2016, I quit the job.
Suddenly, I had eight more hours per day to dedicate to entrepreneurship. To grow the business, volunteers and friends helped me with tasting, selling, creating Instagram content, and building a relationship with a third-party logistics company for delivery.
In April 2017, I hired my first employee and raised the first capital. Since then, the company has generated millions in revenue.
ManiLife is now considered one of the top peanut butter brands in the UK. Our products are available in major supermarkets and sold in hundreds of independent stores. Several publications have rated us as the tastiest peanut butter in the country.
A permanent job helped me build my business
I think I left PwC at the right time. A lot of peanut butter brands have emerged in the last five or six years, and if I had waited longer, someone probably would have come out before us and done something similar.
Back then, having a salary was helpful. It meant I could save and it helped me get a loan for the business.
I’m glad I stayed at PwC until I was at the end of my rope. I feel like if you quit too early, you have less to fill your time with and that can lead to anxiety.
It makes sense to have a permanent job for as long as possible.
PwC declined to respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.
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