As a student, Shirvani emigrated to the US when the revolution started in Iran in 1979. His first job was as a chef in one of the first Iranian restaurants in LA, which is no longer around. He soon realized that he wanted to focus his life on ice cream instead because of its magical ability to make you instantly feel good upon eating it. "I wanted to be in the happy business," Shirvani says. He then decided to risk it all and buy an existing ice cream shop by the name of Mugsy Malone, of which he adjusted the "Mugsy" part to say "Mashti," since he was dirt-broke at the time and couldn't afford a new sign.