Finally, A Ben & Jerry’s For Millennials
As a graduate student studying architecture, Natasha Case once got the type of feedback from a professor that would prompt most students to pull their hair out.
“He told me my model looked like a layer cake,” said Case with a laugh. “It was a criticism of my model, but I then went back and made the next iteration out of cake. I thought, 'People are going to remember a model that is made of cake.'”
Case has always seen things differently than those around her. Her education may be in architecture and design, but her heart has always been obsessed with food. While the two topics may be worlds apart for most, Case craved the ability to combine the two into a career.
“I spent a year abroad in Italy where I got to know great eating and gelato,” she recounts. “There is a philosophy there of food as a lifestyle and making things really well. I started to experiment with using food as a medium to talk about architecture. It was something that I thought I could never get tired of to use as a material.”
Case’s passion for ice cream and design got her experimenting starting in 2008 not only with crafting gourmet flavors, but interesting packaging and designs as well. Not everyone could see Case’s vision with the same clarity. She says her parents had a “professional intervention of sorts” when they thought their daughter with a masters in education may be spending too much time making ice cream.
“I remember telling them that we were going to laugh about this conversation in two years,” she said.
Seven years later, Case is the successful co-founder of Coolhaus, an architecturally inspired gourmet ice cream line based in Culver City, Calif. Her products are sold in 4,000 locations that wouldn’t normally have a lot in common, including retailers like Urban Outfitters, grocery stores like Whole Foods and even movie theaters. With flavors like “Gin & Tonic,” “Fried Chicken & Waffles,” and “Netflix Ice Cream,” the brand doesn’t take itself too seriously. Yet the funny flavors don’t take away from the serious business that Case is building: This year she is projecting $8 million in sales and the profitable company has doubled in revenue every year since it was founded in 2009.
In an interview with LinkedIn, Case talked about taking Coolhaus from a weird idea in her hand to a national brand she hopes will soon churn out $100 million a year.
Edited excerpts:
Caroline Fairchild: What was the original inspiration for the company?
Natasha Case: In graduate school, I started to experiment with using food as a medium to talk about architecture. I noticed right away that it resonated with people. I was interested in how the two worlds could relate and there was so much uncharted territory outside of my little academic bubble.
CF: How did you get it off the ground?
NC: When I got out of graduate school, I was making these ice creams and cookie sandwiches, but it really wasn’t a full business yet. A key moment for CoolHaus is when I met Freya Estrelle, the other founder. I came to things from the sales and marketing end and she had business operations experience. She thought it was hilarious what I was doing and thought it could be a working business. We were looking at how we could get it into the marketplace. We were 25 with no money to our name and we didn’t know much about the distribution model either, but there were a couple of food trucks that were just getting started. We saw the early following they were getting, plus the early days of social media were a great way to reach a free audience.We saw the parting of the clouds and this cultural moment [and thought] let's just put it out there. We bought a truck with $2,500 and we used that to do our first event in Coachella.
CF: How did your friends and family react to the idea?
NC: I had gone off the set course, so my parents, who were trying to be parents, expressed some concerns. I had a masters in architecture and now I was going to drive an ice cream truck… We really used our friends to learn the good and the bad about the taste and the idea. Some of them fought the idea more than others, but I am really glad that we used our social life to get the idea out there.
CF: What about the product and brand do you think found such a big audience?
NC: In the premium category, ice cream can be very serious. We are serious about what we do and what we make, which translates to a product that is made well. But, I feel like we are the coolest premium brands of ice cream and we are having the most fun. That is a big value for me that will always be a part of business no matter what we are doing.
CF: When you were studying architecture, did you still feel like an entrepreneur?
NC: If I go back to how this concept felt in school, I knew I had a mini following. It was a thing that people were curious about. I wanted to lead this movement. I saw leadership instincts and this desire to build something from the beginning. But coming out of design school, being an entrepreneur wasn’t really an option that was presented. I don’t think I really saw my passion as a business concept from the beginning. Now that I look back, I see it, but back then I didn’t have the contextual framing to know that’s where I wanted to go.
CF: What’s your take on the startup environment right now for female founders?
NC: As I go on with my business, I feel like I have more awareness of the problem. There is definitely a lot of problems with notions of female leadership and behavior in the workplace. However, there is more and more research showing that diverse teams and teams led by women perform better. It’s just a matter of changing perception. What’s good is that it is starting to happen. We need to speak to the fact that it works great to have female founders and female leaders and the perception will change with that. We need to show other women that this is a great thing that is happening.
CF: How has your role changed as the company has grown?
NC: The beginning was day to day survival. We wouldn’t have done it if we didn’t see the writing on the wall that it could be huge. Then we put some systems in place for reporting and hiring and operations. Now I feel like I spend my day working on the business, not in the business. I had to start doing things like laying out what our goals are with the product both numbers wise and visually. Then, when you are accountable to something on the page, it is such a big step to getting it done and having people take you seriously. We want to be the Ben and Jerry’s of the millennial generation and do it better. I am not afraid to make that huge statement because we are thinking huge. That has changed a lot and I think as women we need to [think big] more often.
Read the stories of more top professionals 35 and under:
Can This Founder Get The World Comfortable With Nuclear Energy?
The Surprising Way One Of The Most Popular Silicon Valley Founders Built His Network
Tinder’s Co-Founder Is Reinventing The Dating Scene. This Time, Women Go First.
‘I Am Not A Purple Alien. I Am A Young Female That Has Automotive Engineering Experience.’
This Etsy Exec Says We Need To Change Our Definition Of A ‘Smart Woman’
For more posts from LinkedIn's New Economy Editor Caroline Fairchild, click the follow button at the top of this post and follow her on Twitter here.