127: Halo Top Creamery: How 2 Ex-Lawyers Built a Global Ice Cream Brand (via Doug Bouton)

Background on Doug Bouton of Halo Top:

Douglas Bouton is the President and COO at Halo Top Creamery. The ice cream brand was founded in 2011 by former attorney Justin Woolverton of Latham & Watkins LLP. Woolverton, who had hypoglycemic diet restrictions, began making ice cream in his own kitchen. Woolverton met Bouton, another former attorney, in a Los Angeles lawyers’ basketball league. This small business has currently grown to over 50 employees.

In the early stages of Halo Top, Justin Woolverton continuously experimented tweaking and improving the ingredients for over a year. In order to create a long-lasting formula that could sustain shipment through the supply chain, Woolverton went to Cal Poly San Luis Obispo'sDairy Innovation Institute, where he was able to refine and polish the formula with a contract manufacture.

Halo Top launched in Los Angeles on June 15, 2012, and is currently sold throughout the United States, Australia, New Zealand, Mexico, Canada, Ireland, Germany, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom. At a retail price of $5 per pint, Halo Top's annual sales in 2016 exponentially grew up to 2,500% and have continuously increased. In July 2017, Halo Top became the best-selling ice cream pint at grocery stores in the United States, surpassing in popularity the Ben & Jerry's and Haagen-Dazs brands, which previously held that distinction for years. The company describes its product as the first ever “lifestyle” ice cream that can be eaten daily without overwhelming a typical caloric intake diet, but nutritionists have expressed that “‘just because it’s a slightly better choice does not mean that it is a good choice.'” Halo Top now offers several vegan/dairy-free flavors and has opened three physical locations, which serve scoop-based ice cream and soft serve.

Time-Stamped Show Notes:

[0:52] Doug Bouton is the President and CEO of Halo Top, a low calorie ice cream that tastes great.
[2:29] Halo Top is a remote-based company. They never had an office and they use co-working spaces to meet once a week.
[4:57] Doug explains in detail what makes their ice cream different.
[7:22] Doug was a lawyer working in a law firm and decided to join his friend to create the Halo Top company.
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[14:36] From 2013 to 2015, Dough describes these early years of the company as tough and stressful.
[18:51] In the early years, they had a problem of retaining customers and they needed to reformulate their product to improve customer experience.
[23:07] The Company started with only Doug, Justin, and Doug’s little brother Ryan. Doug describes the early years as lonely and rough.
[27:47] Doug made some smart decisions when it comes to spending money. He also emphasizes on the importance of hard work.
[32:09] The big break for Halo Top came in 2016 in the form of GQ and Buzzfeed articles that talk about their ice cream. This was a good PR for Halo Top, which gave the company the boost they needed.
[35:34] After their product took off, they were almost in a state of disbelief.
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[39:11] Doug talks about how they were able to make deals with their third-party manufacturers in order to produce their Halo Top ice cream.
[42:48] Doug gave some tips regarding hiring the right people for the company.
[46:33] When it comes to remote-based companies, setting expectations with the employees is very important.
[47:56] Doug enumerates some of the most important tools they use in terms of communication and project management.
[48:58] He also talks about Boomerang, which is an add on in gmail that is very helpful for follow-ups.
[51:18] For the future of Halo Top, the focus is more on where they can continue to innovate their product.

Fabulous 4 Questions:

📖 📚 Favorite Book(s)? Hillbilly Elegy by J. D. Vance
🙌😎 Favorite Amazon.com purchase? Ice cream maker of course
🌱💸 Favorite Tool that's GROWN your Business? Cision database
💭💡 BIGGEST Challenge keeping your Business from GROWING? Hiring the right people quickly enough

Key Point from the Interview:

“If you can get a hire from a trusted referral, then that’s the best.”

Resources Mentioned:

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