581 – Aunt Ethel's Pot Pies with Sasha Millstein
The How of Business - How to start, run, grow and exit a small business.
Henry Lopez, Levante Business Group
4.7 • 522 Ratings
🗓️ 15 September 2025
⏱️ 39 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Entrepreneur Sasha Millstein shares her journey launching Aunt Ethel's Pot Pies and scaling this frozen comfort food brand from idea to shelves.
Show Notes Page: https://www.thehowofbusiness.com/581-sasha-millstein-aunt-ethels-pot-pies/
Sasha Millstein, founder and CEO of Aunt Ethel's Pot Pies, joins Henry Lopez to share her inspiring entrepreneurial journey from concept to scaling a consumer packaged goods (CPG) business.
Launched in 2020 during the pandemic, Aunt Ethel's has sold over 75,000 units, secured placement in 100+ Wegmans stores, sold out on QVC in under six minutes, and earned features in The New York Times and How I Built This.
In this conversation, Sasha reveals the origin story of Aunt Ethel's, including her family's entrepreneurial influence, the pivotal pop-up that validated the concept, and her innovation of the first-ever two-part pot pie that solves soggy crusts and long cook times.
Sasha also discusses the challenges of packaging, co-packers, funding, navigating consultants, and ultimately landing major distribution.
"In the first three years, I think I cried every single day. But ultimately what keeps me focused is having that North star - you have to know why you started this company." – Sasha Millstein
Listeners will gain valuable insights into perseverance, the realities of the CPG space, fundraising challenges, and why doing your research and knowing your numbers is non-negotiable for entrepreneurs.
Sasha Millstein is the founder and CEO of Aunt Ethel's Pot Pies, a Brooklyn-based frozen food company reinventing comfort food with innovation and hustle. Since launching in 2020, Sasha has scaled the brand into national retail and online channels, earning acclaim for her patented two-part pot pie design.
This episode is hosted by Henry Lopez. The How of Business podcast focuses on helping you start, run, grow and exit your small business. The How of Business is a top-rated podcast for small business owners and entrepreneurs. Find the best podcast, small business coaching, resources and trusted service partners for small business owners and entrepreneurs at our website https://TheHowOfBusiness.com
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to the How of Business with your host, Henry Lopez, the podcast that helps you start, run, and grow your small business. And now here is your host. |
| 0:16.3 | Welcome to this episode of The How With Business. This is Henry Lopez. And my guest today is Sasha Milstein. Sasha, welcome to the show. |
| 0:24.1 | Thank you. Thank you so much for having me. Excited to be here. |
| 0:27.2 | Looking forward to this conversation is a perfect inspirational story and a lot of experiences that you have to share. |
| 0:32.7 | And we're going to talk to Sasha about her entrepreneurial journey briefly, but then how she launched and is scaling |
| 0:38.8 | her business right now, which is called Ant Ethel's Pop Pies. So we're going to explore all that. |
| 0:45.0 | I'll tell you a little bit more about Sasha in a moment. But just remember, you can find all of the |
| 0:48.6 | resources that we mentioned on this podcast, including the show notes page for this episode, |
| 0:53.0 | which will have special links. |
| 0:54.5 | And if you want to find out more about my one-on-one in group coaching programs, just visit |
| 0:58.7 | the howabusiness.com. |
| 1:00.3 | I also invite you to consider supporting and joining our community on Patreon and subscribe, |
| 1:05.5 | wherever you might be listening to this show so you don't miss any new episodes. |
| 1:09.3 | So let me tell you a little bit more about Sasha and we'll get |
| 1:11.4 | into the conversation. Sasha Milstein is the founder and CEO of Aunt Ethel's Pop Pies. And Ethel's Pop Pies is a |
| 1:18.1 | frozen food company that's reinventing comfort food with an innovation, with innovation rather, heart and |
| 1:25.6 | hustle. She launched this business in 2020 yes during the pandemic |
| 1:29.3 | and sasha has created the first and only two part pop pie to solve two of the biggest |
| 1:34.6 | complaints that people have traditionally about pop pies or at least the ones that we buy in a store |
| 1:38.6 | and bring home where you have a soggy crust and it takes a long time to cook it perfectly |
| 1:42.7 | because you've got two things there |
| 1:44.2 | that you're trying to heat up. So her patent pending design separates the buttery crust from the |
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