Young Entrepreneur: “When You Are Led By Values, It Doesn’t Cost Your Business, It Helps Your Business.” - Jerry Greenfield Of Ben And Jerry’s.

By Adam Toren

Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield have ice cream in their veins. These two unlikely entrepreneurial heroes rose to pop culture status by following different paths. Jerry is more of the joker, always ready with a quick quip, who landed his first job in the industry as an ice cream scooper in college. He tried moving through medical school without any success and reverted to work as a lab technician, whilst Ben drove an ice cream truck in his senior school year, but also dropped out of college.

The pair first met each other when they shared a Manhattan apartment following graduation, but they did not explore their entrepreneurial possibilities until they became reunited in upstate New York and decided to go into the food business.

Ben and Jerry’s could just as easily have been a bagel bakery, but they deemed that option too expensive and decided to make ice cream instead. In the equally-as-funky Burlington, VT., they opened their first scoop shop and started churning out their off-the-wall ice cream creations. (more)