In this episode of The Growth Class, host Phil Masiello interviews Anish Patel, Founder and President of Ashtel Studios.

Anish shares how he built a consumer products business from a dorm-room web design venture into a multi-category manufacturer serving major retailers across the United States. He explains how product innovation, persistence, and a problem-solving mindset helped him overcome repeated retail rejections, launch the successful Brush Buddies brand, and secure major retail partnerships. Anish also discusses the challenges of scaling physical products, including inventory risk, cash flow management, supply chain efficiency, and the financial consequences of unpredictable celebrity partnerships. He reveals how diversifying through branded products, private-label manufacturing, and licensed partnerships helped reshape Ashtel Studios’ business model and create more sustainable growth.

The conversation also explores how TikTok is helping smaller consumer brands compete with established CPG companies by driving traffic to retail stores, increasing product sales, and creating opportunities for expanded shelf space.

For entrepreneurs looking to build consumer brands, break into retail distribution, and scale a product-based business, Anish offers valuable lessons on resilience, strategic diversification, and turning product innovation into long-term growth.

Ashtel Studios website: https://www.ashtelstudios.com

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There are a lot of "experts" out there giving advice who’ve never built a thing. They’ve never stayed up all night sweating a product launch. Never had to scale a team. Never had to meet payroll.

They’re just regurgitating what they read in someone else’s book.

That’s not me.
I’ve built brands. I’ve scaled them. I’ve exited them. I’ve failed, won, and fought through it all.

And now, my team and I help brands do it every single day — across eCommerce, retail, and digital.
We don’t just advise — we execute.
We write the playbook.

So if you’re done with fluff, fake gurus, and marketers who’ve never sold anything outside of a slide deck — you’re in the right place.

This show is real strategies, real tactics, and real talk.

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