from Hacker News

The rapid rise and meteoric fall of Doc Burnstein's Ice Cream Lab

by zetazzed on 7/3/23, 12:48 PM with 14 comments

• by jcalx on 7/3/23, 2:16 PM

  "We want Doc Burnstein’s to be No. 1 in the hearts and minds of America" there are many, many beloved regional ice cream stores — Salt & Straw, Molly Moons, Van Leeuwen for a few — all of which have no shortage of unique flavors and community goodwill. It seems far harder to scale that competitively to anything close to the national level. Even the few success stories (Ben & Jerry's, Halo Top, etc.) still exist in a crowded and saturated market space with so many alternative options.

  Also see https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2000/05/12/strategy-letter-i-... — from 2000 but still relevant here.

• by tptacek on 7/3/23, 2:50 PM

  This article kind of gives short shrift to Chuck Burns, who started this ice cream shop in 1976(!) and grew it into an anchor business in Arroyo Grande. It makes a protagonist out of Greg Steinberg, but in 2019, when the decision was made to scale the business up, Burns was like 89 years old.

• by asdfasgasdgasdg on 7/3/23, 2:37 PM

  Article says that the former CEO was sidelined by new ownership and claims that investors were misled. But it doesn't actually say what happened. If the existing shops were making money, why would they have been closed? The actions ascribed to the investment firm do not make any rational sense.

  I understand the journalist tried to get comment from them and it's not their fault they couldn't, but ultimately the story is unsatisfying because the picture is so incomplete.

• by robsh on 7/3/23, 1:52 PM

  I guess the remaining balance on my gift card is now $0.