Origin

Part 1

When people ask about when the idea of ice cream came, I tend to say around 7 years ago because I went to ice cream school around that time. However, when I look through my old files and see the earliest time stamps of saved images, analysis and ideation slides go back to early 2013, 10 years ago. 10 years seems to have flown by even though I know it has been a long journey.

Part 2

One of the earliest memories of the formation of the ice cream business was in the basement of my old home late one evening. It was after my newborn son had just gone to sleep and I finally had time to do my studies. I should have been studying for my Hebrew course at the time but all that repeatedly kept coming to mind was the idea of an  ice cream business. Maybe my subconscious procrastinating self was diverting me from my studies but I ended up hashing out an early outline of a pitch deck encapsulating what an ice cream business could be. What was the competitive landscape? What was the market demand? How would I differentiate my product? What would scaling look like? What impact would I make?

Part 3

During the years of the ideation of the ice cream business, I reached out to my childhood friend, Ron. I met Ron back in high school and we initially became friends through a number of shared mutual friends. When reflecting back, I distinctly remember forming a strong bond with him when he happened to spend a week serving together as rising seniors at a MDA summer camp for children with muscular dystrophy. We served in helping to set up for events and create a festive atmosphere for the campers. He was also my cabin bunkmate throughout the week and so we got to learn more about each other. The early roots of our friendship were grounded in hospitality and service and we would discover over the years that we both shared a deep appreciation for food; Ron even went on to become a professional chef working for some of the celebrity chefs. When I threw the idea of ice cream out to Ron, he brought up the thought of attending ice cream school to learn all about it. At that point, I never knew such a thing existed but the two of us ended up attending the famous Penn State Ice Cream Short Course. It is a program that Ben and Jerry’s participated in early in their start and has been around since 1892. “Believed to be the oldest continuing education course in the United States, the Ice Cream Short Course traces its roots to 1892, when the then-School of Agriculture at the Pennsylvania State College began to offer a class in dairy manufacturing during the winter, when farmers had less field work and could be spared away from their farms.” (Citation)