Summary
Overview
In this Advice Line episode, Guy Raz is joined by Jenny Britton, founder of Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams, to help three food entrepreneurs tackle challenges in scaling their businesses. The callers include Jesse Koenig from frozen french fry brand Jesse and Ben's, Casey White from pierogi company Jaju Pierogi, and Callie Saher from purple sweet potato dog treat brand Ube.co. Jenny shares insights from building a national ice cream brand from Columbus, Ohio, and launching her new fiber company Flora, while addressing questions about marketing strategies, fundraising, and sustainable growth in the competitive CPG industry.
Jenny Britton's Journey and Building Outside Major Markets
Jenny Britton reflects on her path from dropping out of Ohio State University's art program in 1996 to build what would become Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams. She emphasizes how Columbus, Ohio proved to be the perfect launching ground for a national brand, offering lower startup costs, supportive community, and proximity to dairy farms. Jenny also introduces her new venture, Flora, a fiber company that upcycles produce trimmings into nutritious bars, demonstrating her continued innovation in the food space.
- Jenny walked out of art class in 1996 to pursue ice cream making, driven by pure passion without questioning the decision
- Columbus provided key advantages: proximity to dairy farms, lower costs than coastal cities, and a supportive community willing to stick with you through failures
- Jeni's is now sold in about 80 scoop shops and 12,000 retail locations across the country
- Flora is Jenny's new fiber company that extracts fiber from produce trimmings like apple cores and watermelon rinds, addressing the fact that 95% of Americans are deficient in fiber
" I didn't question it. It wasn't something that I sat and thought, is this really right? Is it not right? I just knew that I couldn't do art anymore. And I just wanted to be making ice cream. And I wanted to be serving ice cream. And I wanted to light people up in that way. "
" When you're in a smaller, small to mid-sized city, the city gets behind it in a different way. You can really try things and also fail a lot, and people still stick with you. "
Jesse and Ben's: Marketing Better-for-You French Fries
Jesse Koenig discusses his frozen french fry brand made with grass-fed beef tallow or avocado oil instead of seed oils. Starting from a restaurant background during COVID, Jesse and his partner Ben pivoted to creating frozen fries that matched their hand-cut quality. Now in 400 stores and launching nationally with Sprouts, Jesse seeks advice on whether to target health-conscious consumers already avoiding seed oils or educate mainstream fry buyers about ingredient quality.
- Jesse and Ben started with food trucks selling gourmet hot dogs in 2014, with hand-cut fries as a core menu item
- Opening their first restaurant in March 2020 led them to create frozen fries to solve operational challenges
- Jesse and Ben's launched in retail in June 2024 and reached 400 stores by early 2025, achieving seven figures in first-year sales
- The brand manufactures all fries in-house at a 6,000 square foot facility in Rockville, Maryland, maintaining control over their unique process
" We walked the grocery store aisles and we just saw that sea of sameness we learned about from being long-time listeners of how I built this and realized there was a huge opportunity to just do something better. "
" Your customer when you're in grocery is not their customer. It's the buyer. And what the buyer wants to see is, yeah, sure, you can split some votes. That's okay. Are you bringing new people to the category? "
📚 4 more sections below
Sign up to unlock the complete summary with all insights, key points, and quotes
Get this summary + all future How I Built This with Guy Raz episodes in your inbox
100% Free • Unsubscribe Anytime
Sign up now and we'll send you the complete summary of this episode, plus get notified when new How I Built This with Guy Raz episodes are released—delivered straight to your inbox within minutes.