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Brick-and-Mortar Growth: Scaling a Niche Brand Strategically with Melissa Tavss · The Growth Class with Phil Masiello

• 0:18
  SPEAKER_01: Hey everybody and welcome back to the Growth Clast.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_01: I'm your host, Phil Mastiello, and today we're talking about a founder who didn't just inherit a family tradition, she completely reinvented it.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_01: Most entrepreneurs try to build something from scratch, but our guest today, Melissa Tavs, is look back at her family history of ice cream making that stretched all the way to the 1800s and decided to give it a modern high-proof twist.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_01: As the founder and CEO of Tipsy Scoop, she's turned a simple pushcart concept into a multimillion dollar barler empire with locations from New York City to the Bahamas.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_01: So we're going to dive into how she scaled that niche product into a national brand, the realities of franchising, a premium experience, and what it actually takes to maintain 200 years of quality while staying relevant in today's market.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_01: Melissa, welcome to the show.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_01: I'm happy to have you and I'm glad you took the time to come on.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, thank you for having me.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_00: Sorry we're not eating ice cream right now.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_01: So am I.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_01: I love ice cream.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_01: So t tell me your your history.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_01: I we you we read about it.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_01: We pulled up some some uh uh you know other bio info, but it seems like you have this really strong history to ice cream.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so ice cream making runs in my family from back in the 1800s.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_00: They brought over gelato from Italy to Scotland when that was a very novel concept.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so very deep roots in ice cream making, uh, decided to add a bit of a boozy twist.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I don't know if you've tried to make ice cream at home ever.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's not the easiest thing in the world, but um they've made it easier now with all the cool machines they have out, like these ninja creamies and all these things that kind of do the work for you.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_00: But um, about 15 years ago, when I was really experimenting with perfecting my homemade ice cream recipe, it wasn't so easy.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_00: We had the Cuisinart tabletop machine that has the freezing cylinder, and my ice cream was just coming out all icy on the sides.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_00: It was not that ice cream consistency that we know and love.
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_00: And with this deep history and family tradition in ice cream making, I thought, how am I getting this wrong?
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_00: I just can't keep the recipe, you know, coming out the way I want to.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_00: So I decided to add like a tablespoon of alcohol to soften my ice cream mix.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_00: Um, recipes call for that just to kind of achieve a softer consistency when it's coming out icy.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and I think the first flavor I experimented with was just a vanilla and adding a little bourbon to that, and really fell in love with this flavor that I came up with, which was the vanilla bean bourbon ice cream.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_00: Um, the alcohol came through just a little, and the consistency of the ice cream was softer and better, and more of that consistency of ice cream that we know and love.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_00: And then, unlike baking um with alcohol, like making a rum cake where the alcohol content burns off at the end, um, when I was making ice cream, I was turning the alcohol into the ice cream mix, so it actually held an alcohol content.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so that's how I really fell in love with the idea of boozy ice cream and kind of was able to expand on that family tradition of ice cream making.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's fantastic.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_01: I uh as I told you, I I actually tried it uh in one of your stores, and I did try the vanilla bourbon because I love vanilla.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_01: And I thought, you know, what the heck?
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_01: How bad could that be with with Burkine?
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_01: It was it was fantastic.
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_01: But you know, I early on in my business life, I was uh involved with a chain of um specialty food stores in DC and and then we bought Heyday Markets in Connecticut and we actually bought Balducci, but we made our own ice cream in the company, yeah.
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_01: And uh not with booze in it, but we so I do know a little bit about just enough to be dangerous about ice cream, but I love ice cream.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_01: I mean I could honestly eat ice cream every day.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_01: And but I would also weigh like six thousand pounds.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_01: So I can't I can't do it.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_01: I have to temper it.
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_01: But I I love it.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_01: So but how did you get the idea to really start um you know building stores and then were there regulatory issues that you came into contact with trying to do this?
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, if I um start another business in the future, it's gonna be non-alcoholic crackers, something very easy uh that doesn't need to be frozen, that doesn't have an alcohol content.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_00: I picked probably the hardest category.
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_00: So I was gonna say still developing.
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_00: Um but you know, I really wasn't aware that I was starting a business when I started.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_00: I just kind of fell in love with this concept of boozy ice cream and became obsessed with perfecting my recipes.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_00: Um, from there, um, I was actually in the middle of a kind of career transition.
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_00: I had been working actually in wine and spirits, um, doing marketing and events for about seven years right out of college, um, and was a little burnt out from that, was kind of in this transition, like what do I want to do next?
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_00: So while I was in grad school at NYU, I kind of was starting to make these recipes.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and then I got a lot of interest from my previous liquor brand clients in having custom ice creams made for them for their upcoming events.
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_00: So from there, I bought an ice cream push cart and started to do catering and events, mostly for my old clients while I was still, you know, in grad school.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_00: So it really wasn't a full business at that point.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_00: It was a um side hustle before side hustles or a thing.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and it was a really great way to start with these catering and events because um I was able to rent kitchen space from a kitchen incubator um up in East Harlem.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_00: So I didn't have like upfront costs of, you know, rent and equipment um and all that.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_00: So it was really made to order.
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so really great way to like test the market and see if it was viable, whether I knew it was going to become a business or not.
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and that really picked up.
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_00: So it picked up so much that I was not even wanting to finish my graduate school program.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_00: I think the two-year program I finished in four and a half years because the business just really started developing beyond catering.
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I signed up with a company called Gold Belly, which was just starting at the time as well, um, and started doing e-commerce fulfillment um with our ice cream pints, then added in wholesale and started selling to specialty grocery stores around New York City.
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so I had a few different revenue streams going at that point.
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_00: Um, again, it was still kind of this side hustle because it wasn't a full commitment to, you know, spaces that I leased or owned or anything like that.
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_00: Everything was really made to order.
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but then in 2016, we had um insider food come in and produce a video of the behind the scenes making of the ice cream.
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_00: So they came in and we kind of dramatically poured alcohol into the top of the machine, which isn't exactly how we make the ice cream.
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_00: And these like beautiful ribbons of ice cream came out of the machine, and it was a perfect demonstration of what we were doing.
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_00: Um, that video went viral on Facebook at the time, so it got like 10 million views in two days, and we did not have a storefront.
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_00: So we just were in this kitchen incubator um that is under a bridge in East Harlem, very hard to find.
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_00: People were calling my cell phone, looking for the ice cream shop they saw online, somehow found us in this production facility as well, and just started buying pints from us.
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but found us there in hair nuts making ice cream.
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_00: So it was pretty crazy.
• 8:21
  SPEAKER_00: And that really didn't stop.
• 8:22
  SPEAKER_00: And honestly, it was just the response to that video and customer demand that kind of forced me into brick and mortar.
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_00: I think it was something I wouldn't have done ever if there wasn't that like demand for it and kind of test of the market for those, you know, three or four years I started and was just kind of developing the business slowly.
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_01: So are you selling into any retail stores or you just you do it yourself and then through your uh your franchise stores?
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_00: Aaron Powell Yeah, we have a small wholesale business.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_00: It's mostly um bars, restaurants, and concession.
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_00: Um not a whole lot or really any big box uh grocery retail.
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_00: It's just a developing category and it doesn't, you know, sell as well in like a Costco or a Walmart as it would if it was in an arena or stadium or something like that.
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_01: Do you need I I do does do you need to have like specific licensing to sell the product?
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_01: Like does a does it if a store wants to carry it, does the store have to have a liquor license?
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so that is a complicated question.
• 9:35
  SPEAKER_00: So um liquor-infused ice cream in New York, um, if it's under 5% or below, it's considered a non-beverage.
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_00: So you do not need any sort of liquor license to carry the product to sell it in any form.
• 9:49
  SPEAKER_00: You just have to card end consumers to ensure they're 21 or um over.
• 9:56
  SPEAKER_00: But state by state, that obviously varies.
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_00: Um, if you know anything about you know liquor licensing, state by state, it's it's a mess.
• 10:03
  SPEAKER_00: There's plenty of nuances.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_00: Um and so what we did is we got federal approval as a non-beverage by the Alcohol and Tobacco Borough or TTB.
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_00: So similar to a kombucha or a vanilla extract that contains alcohol but can't be mistaken for alcohol, we got these non-beverage TTB approvals.
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_00: It having federal approval is one thing.
• 10:28
  SPEAKER_00: Obviously, a state has to say they want to follow federal approval or they don't.
• 10:33
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so long story short, it varies a lot state by state, which is kind of why in our franchising opportunity we've laid out certain states while where we not only have distribution, um, but where you won't kind of run into those hurdles of like, what is this considered?
• 10:51
  SPEAKER_00: Is this an alcohol?
• 10:53
  SPEAKER_00: Is this a food?
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so had to do some extensive research there too.
• 10:59
  SPEAKER_01: Is it is that a pain in the neck?
• 11:01
  SPEAKER_01: I would imagine that's a pain in the neck.
• 11:03
  SPEAKER_00: It is definitely a pain in the neck.
• 11:04
  SPEAKER_00: I am like weirdly into it at this point.
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and you know, it's interesting because kind of similar to like cannabis and all of these um, you know, shops that you have springing up around the country, like these laws are going to change and they just change slowly and over time.
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_00: So it's interesting to just like watch them and kind of see these states where it was like, oh, you can never do this, and then all of a sudden you can.
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_00: Um so it's just kind of, you know, a matter of time.
• 11:36
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, we uh we s we sold um we sold beer and wine in in the specialty food stores except in one county in the state of Maryland.
• 11:49
  SPEAKER_01: We were mostly in DC.
• 11:51
  SPEAKER_01: And it was it was okay to sell beer and wine in DC in the stores.
• 11:56
  SPEAKER_01: And then when we moved into the counties around DC, what is Virginia is different because Virginia you you have to buy through the state.
• 12:06
  SPEAKER_00: ABC, yeah.
• 12:08
  SPEAKER_01: And then in the state of and then in Maryland, it's different in every county.
• 12:13
  SPEAKER_01: And as we moved north, there was one county where if you had a beer and wine license, you also sold liquor.
• 12:21
  SPEAKER_01: And so it came with everything.
• 12:23
  SPEAKER_01: It you couldn't just get a beer and wine license, you got everything, which was fine, except that on Sundays you could only sell beer for takeout.
• 12:33
  SPEAKER_01: You couldn't sell wine and liquor.
• 12:36
  SPEAKER_01: So we used to have to take the store and close off sections of the store on Sundays.
• 12:42
  SPEAKER_01: It was it was the most bizarre thing in the world.
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_01: But that that was we're talking about, you know, quite a long time ago.
• 12:48
  SPEAKER_01: And and I can remember then all of us, all the retailers were lobbying to get the the laws changed.
• 12:54
  SPEAKER_01: And I think recently I saw because I'm not in that business anymore, but recently I saw that they were there there is a bill that if it gets passed will ease up all of that in the state of Maryland and unify it.
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that I mean, the everything is I I think they really relaxed um with the like cocktails to go kind of stuff um during COVID.
• 13:18
  SPEAKER_00: But there's so many like particulars of all these laws.
• 13:23
  SPEAKER_00: It's kind of crazy.
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_00: I don't even know who can keep up with them, especially just state by state, county by county.
• 13:29
  SPEAKER_00: It's nuts.
• 13:31
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 13:31
  SPEAKER_01: No, you have to have a specialty attorney to do it.
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_01: Who knows, you know, who knows the laws.
• 13:36
  SPEAKER_01: So I I I I do feel uh for you.
• 13:39
  SPEAKER_01: How how um how many franchises do you have?
• 13:42
  SPEAKER_01: And how many store uh how many owned stores do you have and how many franchises?
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_00: So we have um three company-owned stores, and then we have um this will be our eighth franchise to open in Baltimore this weekend coming up.
• 13:56
  SPEAKER_00: So excited about that one.
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_00: Um and then we have a handful of franchises who have signed agreements, who um are still looking for space and things like that.
• 14:05
  SPEAKER_00: So um really our idea with the franchise model is to use that to continue to be a first mover in this alcohol-infused ice cream category and really um be able to get up and running in all these metropolitan markets where um we think they could use a boozy ice cream shop.
• 14:25
  SPEAKER_01: So Yeah, that's fantastic.
• 14:27
  SPEAKER_01: I'll have to go to the one in Baltimore.
• 14:29
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, yeah.
• 14:31
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 14:31
  SPEAKER_01: And um and all your company-owned stores are in New York?
• 14:35
  SPEAKER_00: Uh yes, they're all in the New York City area.
• 14:38
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so you know, another reason kind of why we decided to franchise was um really to be able to lean on our franchisees as like experts in their area.
• 14:49
  SPEAKER_00: Um you know, having done like pop-ups and licensing deals in different markets, we were always like so shocked by like different flavor preferences, even if you go like an hour away.
• 15:01
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so it's really been a beneficial way for us to grow just because we can be like, what do people like here?
• 15:08
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and you know, really kind of have a nice local team that's able to represent the brand for us.
• 15:16
  SPEAKER_01: Where are the uh where are the eight franchise stores?
• 15:19
  SPEAKER_01: One's in DC.
• 15:21
  SPEAKER_00: So we have uh DC, we have um Baltimore coming up, we have Phoenix, Arizona, um, Portland, Oregon.
• 15:30
  SPEAKER_00: We have one in the Bahamas that also um is in Miami as well.
• 15:36
  SPEAKER_00: Um and then we have who am I missing?
• 15:40
  SPEAKER_00: Nashville.
• 15:41
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and then another franchise in Astoria, Queens.
• 15:45
  SPEAKER_00: So that is one of the franchises that's closest to us.
• 15:48
  SPEAKER_01: That's great.
• 15:49
  SPEAKER_01: That's a good spread.
• 15:51
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's fantastic.
• 15:52
  SPEAKER_01: Um so what is what does the process look like for getting more franchise franchisees?
• 15:59
  SPEAKER_01: Are they coming to you or are you doing outreach to people?
• 16:02
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, um, we have been lucky we had um, you know, everybody kind of says the reason they decided to franchise was because they had all these franchise inquiries.
• 16:14
  SPEAKER_00: And I think one of the first thing, you know, franchise consultants and experts in the field say to you is like that doesn't really matter.
• 16:21
  SPEAKER_00: You know, file those emails.
• 16:23
  SPEAKER_00: But the second you go live and are official with your actual franchise opportunity, like probably none of those leads are gonna work out, um, which they were definitely right about.
• 16:33
  SPEAKER_00: But we did have a lot of franchise leads.
• 16:35
  SPEAKER_00: So once we opened the first brick and mortar, people were like, is this a franchise?
• 16:39
  SPEAKER_00: Is this a franchise?
• 16:41
  SPEAKER_00: Um, thank God it wasn't at that point because I we had no idea what we were doing.
• 16:45
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 16:46
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but now that we know and like really, you know, it is an easy operation and really, really conducive to franchising, um, we were able to get it up and running.
• 16:57
  SPEAKER_00: So um most of or all of our franchise leads have been um organic.
• 17:02
  SPEAKER_00: We have a really strong social following.
• 17:05
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so a lot of them, I believe, came from like LinkedIn or TikTok or Instagram.
• 17:12
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and some came from uh, you know, relationships we already had.
• 17:18
  SPEAKER_00: So some of our franchisees um were uh had wholesale accounts with us.
• 17:23
  SPEAKER_00: So like one of our franchisees had a liquor store in Portland, Oregon, and she was selling our pints.
• 17:29
  SPEAKER_00: And once the franchise opportunity came up, she was like, I definitely want to do more with Tipsy Scoop.
• 17:34
  SPEAKER_00: You know, the pints are selling well.
• 17:36
  SPEAKER_00: I want to have more of a full storefront.
• 17:38
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so we've been lucky in that way.
• 17:41
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but I think, you know, really my goal in starting with franchising um was to get to a place where I had like 10 franchises up and running, and then really say, okay, you know, do we want to invest in um marketing and trade shows um to get more franchise leads and kind of go from there?
• 18:03
  SPEAKER_00: But the the 10 was all we could handle in the beginning.
• 18:07
  SPEAKER_00: Um and it really, really is um a lot of work.
• 18:11
  SPEAKER_01: So yeah, I would imagine.
• 18:13
  SPEAKER_01: And and so now you're you're you've got franchisees, but you're providing the ice cream to them.
• 18:20
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so um that's kind of one of the things I think is the nicest thing about our franchise model is really just like the ease of the operations.
• 18:29
  SPEAKER_00: Um, none of the ice cream is made by the franchisees.
• 18:33
  SPEAKER_00: So it's all distributed in three-gallon tubs from our co-packer um that's up in uh Red Hook, New York.
• 18:40
  SPEAKER_00: So they have a dairy farm up there.
• 18:42
  SPEAKER_00: Like all the ice cream is actually very high quality and made right there.
• 18:47
  SPEAKER_00: Um so we're able to keep close tabs on that, which is really nice too.
• 18:51
  SPEAKER_00: And then for the franchisee, like, you know, they're learning and being trained in how to use um certain freezers and how to scoop certain sundays and cocktails.
• 19:03
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but really they can focus on the customer experience because they don't have to deal with the production of the ice cream.
• 19:09
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and unlike having a cafe or bakery or restaurant where they have all this inventory that, you know, is gonna go bad if they don't sell it one day, the ice cream has a shelf life of 15 months.
• 19:22
  SPEAKER_00: So um it really is like a nice operation for somebody who's also kind of like a fan of food and hospitality, but not necessarily like wanting their own restaurant too.
• 19:35
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's that's cool.
• 19:36
  SPEAKER_01: So is the the manufacturers making the ice cream and putting the alcohol into the ice cream in a central place and then everybody's buying it from you?
• 19:46
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 19:47
  SPEAKER_00: So um one thing I kind of learned early on too was as much as making new flavors is very fun for me, um, making ice cream in large batches was something I never wanted to do again at to, you know, do it for a while.
• 20:05
  SPEAKER_00: So once we signed on with a Copacker, um, we were pretty excited to kind of like offload that.
• 20:13
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so you know, they have crazy big machines where they can control um, you know, every aspect of ice cream making, including something called overrun, which has to do with the amount of air added to ice cream.
• 20:27
  SPEAKER_00: So one of the things, even with a larger batch freezer, um, that kind of more mom and pop shops might run into is like their ice cream is made in small batches, so it's not the same every time because the amount of air that they add to it is just a little different, you know, every time.
• 20:45
  SPEAKER_00: Whereas this co-packer has a little machine, they type in the amount of air they want added and it kind of runs the same every time.
• 20:53
  SPEAKER_00: So um that's been really nice for that consistency and kind of to be able to focus more on the brand and the sales and the marketing.
• 21:02
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 21:03
  SPEAKER_01: It's ice cream making is really, really uh it was it's really interesting to me when and I said early on we had our own small manufacturing place, but you know, for for the stores that we had, which were uh we had 12 stores in the DC marketplace, specialty food stores, and it was really high quality ice cream.
• 21:26
  SPEAKER_01: But we actually and we were roasting our own coffee also, and this was before it became popular.
• 21:33
  SPEAKER_01: And we actually got trained in how to do it by the guys up at Green Mountain Coffee in Vermont, who also took us to the Ben and Jerry's plant when Ben and Jerry were just they they were already in business for a long time, but it wasn't as big as it is now.
• 21:49
  SPEAKER_01: It was still the plant in I forget the town.
• 21:52
  SPEAKER_01: But you know, it was sophisticated, but it was it was really, really interesting uh, you know, how they were doing.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_01: Because you know, all those dairy trucks come every day.
• 22:05
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, I forget the number of trucks that are coming every day, something like 200 or 300 trucks a day full of, you know, dairy items that because they're still manufacturing for shipment all over the world.
• 22:17
  SPEAKER_01: I think they have one plant outside the the United States, but they're shipping all over the world from that one plant in Vermont.
• 22:24
  SPEAKER_01: And it's really interesting because, you know, like I said, I l I love it.
• 22:27
  SPEAKER_01: I used to um I used to do triathlons, and my big thing was after the triathlon, I would go to the store and I would buy two pints of Ben and Jerry's and I would eat them both because I figured I just burned off all those calories.
• 22:41
  SPEAKER_01: I don't care.
• 22:42
  SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna eat.
• 22:44
  SPEAKER_01: It's better for me than than a sandwich.
• 22:46
  SPEAKER_00: So it's interesting.
• 22:50
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, I've seen some ice cream makers kind of go the route of like one large production plant, everything's made there and everything's shipped out, which obviously, you know, freezer vans and trucks are expensive, but you do get to control the consistency in that way.
• 23:08
  SPEAKER_00: And then others kind of set it up, you know.
• 23:11
  SPEAKER_00: I know Coldstone had a model at one point where the ice cream was actually made at each individual franchise.
• 23:18
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm sure there's, you know, pros and cons to both, but um, it's definitely not the easiest product to get around for sure.
• 23:27
  SPEAKER_01: Oh no, it's not.
• 23:28
  SPEAKER_01: It's not.
• 23:29
  SPEAKER_01: It's a challenge.
• 23:30
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I didn't like um there was another one early on um called Maggie Moose.
• 23:35
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, yeah.
• 23:37
  SPEAKER_01: Do you remember them?
• 23:38
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, they're they um I I have spoken to the founder and he sold to another company, but I think he's in uh St.
• 23:46
  SPEAKER_00: Louis or something like that, I want to say.
• 23:48
  SPEAKER_00: But um, but yeah, very similar concept to Coldstone.
• 23:52
  SPEAKER_00: And it's funny because one of our franchises is in Phoenix, which I guess Coldstone is an Arizona brand and everybody loves it.
• 23:59
  SPEAKER_01: I'm like not so much on the East Coast, but no, there's a few, but I I didn't it didn't um it didn't appeal as much, you know, taking the you know, adding the additives and doing the whole thing it didn't appeal as much as uh you know, people want to come in and they want to get their you know their ice cream.
• 24:20
  SPEAKER_01: Like you could put a Ben and Jerry store in next to a callstone and Ben and Jerry's gonna outperform them you know traumatically.
• 24:26
  SPEAKER_00: So Yeah, for sure.
• 24:28
  SPEAKER_00: And frozen desserts like go through these crazy trends all the time.
• 24:34
  SPEAKER_00: Um and you know, I think like with the liquid nitrogen stuff and kind of the performance aspect of Coldstone.
• 24:43
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, people get a little sick of that stuff at some point.
• 24:47
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 24:49
  SPEAKER_01: No, but I'm uh I am uh I'm a dessert person.
• 24:53
  SPEAKER_01: It's more important, it's more important to me than the uh than the entree.
• 24:57
  SPEAKER_01: When I go out to eat, I'm always thinking about the dessert before the entree.
• 25:01
  SPEAKER_01: To me, it's like I'll get the smallest entree because I gotta get the biggest dessert.
• 25:04
  SPEAKER_01: But you know, what are you gonna do?
• 25:06
  SPEAKER_01: So uh what are your top priorities for the company over the next say six to twelve months?
• 25:13
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, um definitely continuing growth um on the actual brick and mortar um storefronts um and kind of focusing on that over wholesale and even online.
• 25:27
  SPEAKER_00: Um it's just a great way for us to continue to grow and be able to have control over the entire brand experience.
• 25:39
  SPEAKER_00: Um and we're a very niche specialty product.
• 25:43
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, uh I'm never gonna have, you know, a hundred stores in, you know, five states.
• 25:51
  SPEAKER_00: Like it, it's not a sandwich shop or a coffee shop.
• 25:54
  SPEAKER_00: Like we're very aware that, you know, there's certain markets where we could have maybe three or four stores, but not really more than that.
• 26:02
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so you know, really just continuing to build out um through the franchise opportunity in these major metropolitan markets where, you know, we already have catering clients and have done events and uh have relationships with the stadiums.
• 26:19
  SPEAKER_00: Um so really focusing on growing through brick and mortar.
• 26:23
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 26:24
  SPEAKER_01: That's great.
• 26:24
  SPEAKER_01: That's uh that's pretty smart.
• 26:27
  SPEAKER_01: You think you'll go into uh uh the supermarket side or the Costco side at any point?
• 26:34
  SPEAKER_00: Well, you know, I think that it is far away because I think that the category just is so new still.
• 26:44
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, when I started 12 years ago, there was no category.
• 26:49
  SPEAKER_00: So it was even worse because you had just a liquor-infused food that nobody knew what to do with, and now, you know, there's actually laws about it, which is crazy and definitely more helpful than having nothing at all.
• 27:05
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but I think still by the time, you know, you go into like big box grocery retail, like it you really need everybody to understand that boozy ice cream is a thing and for it to almost have its own section, you know, in the ice cream aisle, um, for it to be successful um for that opportunity.
• 27:30
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 27:30
  SPEAKER_01: That's great.
• 27:32
  SPEAKER_01: That's a good strategy.
• 27:33
  SPEAKER_01: I'm surprised that Costco, though, hasn't come crawling because uh they usually they usually try and uh bring in, you know, things that nobody else has before anybody else has them.
• 27:44
  SPEAKER_01: So uh but you know and they would probably only bring in one skew or two skews anyway.
• 27:51
  SPEAKER_01: But uh the hard part there would be you'd have to you'd have to be out there sampling, you know.
• 27:57
  SPEAKER_00: So no, I mean I think that, you know, we really started really small and were able to grow um kind of quickly based on starting so small, um, because we didn't need a whole lot of capital to get that first 300 square foot store up and running.
• 28:19
  SPEAKER_00: Um and another thing, we were able to really use social media from the beginning to um really like test menu items, you know, whether we were gonna open a store or not.
• 28:33
  SPEAKER_00: So um I think you know, social media really continues to be a powerful marketing tool for us to continue to grow.
• 28:42
  SPEAKER_01: So yeah, I would agree with you there.
• 28:44
  SPEAKER_01: I think that um especially when you have something that's so different, like you said, the category didn't exist when you started, and that's the best way to do it as long as there's a market for it and as long as people love it.
• 28:55
  SPEAKER_01: And what I like about your story is that you know it it just sort of proves that growth isn't just about the newest tech or the loudest marketing.
• 29:04
  SPEAKER_01: It's about finding sort of that unique why and having the discipline to scale it right.
• 29:10
  SPEAKER_01: Uh not necessarily, I think, you know, there's so many entrepreneurs that I know that would have been pounding the streets going, I want as many franchises as possible in the next two years, and to be able to take a methodical approach and say, you know, we're gonna do it this way and we're gonna go into these markets, and this is how we're gonna do it, I think is very, very smart.
• 29:30
  SPEAKER_01: Uh and um but yeah, I think that starting from the pushcart and testing and and understanding the market before you started rolling, I think is another smart, uh, smart move.
• 29:42
  SPEAKER_01: So uh you know everybody you can you say you can buy the product from uh uh uh from Goldbelly?
• 29:51
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I think the promo code on Goldbelly is stay tipsy for your first order.
• 29:58
  SPEAKER_00: Um so I g I think it gives you like$20 off.
• 30:00
  SPEAKER_00: But yeah, Goldbelly's great, great gifting opportunity, whether it's tipsy scoop or you know, you can get tuna shipped from Hawaii.
• 30:09
  SPEAKER_00: It's wild.
• 30:10
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
• 30:11
  SPEAKER_01: No, we use uh we're we're quite familiar.
• 30:14
  SPEAKER_01: But yeah, you can so you can find the product on Goldbelly.
• 30:17
  SPEAKER_01: You can uh find it in any place where they have stores Miami, Washington, D.C., Portland, uh soon to be Baltimore, uh, Arizona.
• 30:26
  SPEAKER_01: So if you got a store, go check it out.
• 30:28
  SPEAKER_01: And uh you can uh look for the barlers, barlors, barlers, uh, wherever they are.
• 30:36
  SPEAKER_01: And uh as always, thanks for joining.
• 30:38
  SPEAKER_01: And remember, stop chasing the top line.
• 30:40
  SPEAKER_01: If it's costing you your soul, focus on the unit economics, stay authentic, keep building, and we'll see you next time.