Former Marine's $20 Side Hustle Led to a $3M-a-Month Business

Hannah Pollack started with a simple $20 investment and a single ice cream sandwich recipe. Today, that operation has grown into Nightingale Ice Cream Sandwiches, a national brand generating $3 million in monthly revenue. The company began in 2016 while Pollack and her husband, Xavier Meers, were working as professional chefs. They began by making small batches before their shifts, refining the product based on customer feedback and reinvesting every dollar back into the business.

Building a company of this scale required mastering logistics, manufacturing, and national distribution. Pollack points to a specific incident early in the company's expansion where a labeling error on a bulk Walmart shipment nearly derailed their progress. Instead of stopping, the founders spent an entire night manually processing the order to meet the deadline. This insistence on persistence remains a core part of their daily work.

Pollack notes that her background as a Marine Corps veteran provided a foundation for the intensity required to launch a consumer goods brand. She credits much of the company's success to hiring experts in areas where she lacked experience and learning to filter advice from mentors through the lens of her specific product goals. Her transition from a solo chef to a leader of a manufacturing business highlights the shift required when scaling a retail product.

Growth for the company occurred in steady stages. After reaching $50,000 in sales during the first year, the business scaled to $1 million months in 2024 and $2 million months in 2025. Today, the team prioritizes building a consistent product that keeps consumers returning, while managing the complexities of a national supply chain. Pollack emphasizes that while the scale has changed, the focus remains on the quality of the product they first introduced years ago.