WILLY WANKA AND THE ICE CREAM FACTORY.
Dream a little dream. A dream that started for Mercenary in 2018 when we met David Greenfeld and he shared his first iteration of the DREAM POP with us. “Why should ice cream pops be shaped so boring?”, David asked us as we were handed a plant-based ice cream pop in a unique geometric shape. The taste was exceptional, the ingredient list was novel and clean, and the shape was unforgettable. We were hooked. The texture was velvety and unlike any ice cream we had ever experienced. As it turns out, that texture is created by a unique liquid nitrogen freezing process that instantly “icecreamisizes” (yeah, we made that word up) the pop. The coolest part? They could make these pops in branded shapes on demand right in front of you. Part of their awareness strategy was to do exactly that – make branded versions of the products at collaboration events with Beats by Dre, Starbucks, Smashbox, Bumble, Urban Outfitters, and more.
MERCENARY FUNDING FORCE™ – DIRECT INVESTMENT, PITCH STRATEGY, AND FINANCIAL MODELING
In the startup game, you can’t buy a Golden Ticket, you have to earn it. We put our money where our mouth is and invested in the Dream in late 2019. We also rolled up our sleeves and helped David Cohen and David Greenfeld craft their pitch story and materials for their first fundraise outside friends & family. Their goal was to disrupt more than just ice cream, novelties, and confectionary products – they wanted to disrupt Big Dairy. We love lofty goals. In the wake of the Dean Foods bankruptcy, the Dairy industry was reeling, and what started as a downturn in the Milk segment started to spill over into the frozen aisle – Dream Pops was leading the charge. The time was right, the product was awesome, and the company was squarely positioned at the intersection of the Plant-Based Food movement and the Dairy Decline with a digital-first brand.
MERCENARY FOLLOWING FORCE™ – FOUNDER 911™, HIRING STRATEGY, TALENT EVALUATION, AND TEAM RETENTION & DEVELOPMENT
Building the Dream Team is always complicated for a startup. We immediately began working with Dream Pops’ internal operations team as well as some augmented 3rd party supply-chain consultants in 2019. The first thing we realized was that both founders’ time was being taxed heavily, with demands on it for fundraising, manufacturing, marketing, sales, sourcing, and a hundred other things. We needed to help give them their time back, so we jumped in as extra bodies on the operations side, and we helped to evaluate, negotiate, and onboard some critical team members. There were a lot of cooks in the kitchen, but it was a pivotal time for the brand, and each person was needed to help the company shift out of its commissary kitchen into its new Conventional Manufacturer. Did we also mention that there was also a new innovation that needed to be launched at the same time?
MERCENARY FRICTION FORCE™ – STRATEGIC PRODUCT-MARKET FIT, FOOD SCIENCE+, AND MASTER FORMULATION
“The snozzberries taste like snozzberries.” Or, better said, the plant-based ice cream tastes like “real” ice cream. That was our mandate. We grew up pro-dairy ice cream people. A pint of Ben & Jerry’s didn’t last long enough in our houses to make it to the freezer. So, when we were tasked to formulate the Dream Bite, we knew that the benchmark wasn’t to make a better-tasting plant-based ice cream, it was to make the BEST ICE CREAM EVER MADE. The novel “bite” format got consumers interested in trying the product, but the taste had to make them come back for more. Since launch, velocities have been through the roof, and new retail authorizations keep mounting from Whole Foods to Six Flags. We win. Good day, Sir.
MERCENARY FULFILLMENT FORCE™ – MANUFACTURING & PROCUREMENT, QUALITY & COMPLIANCY, AND CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT
“We are the music makers, and we are the dreamers of the dreams.” Many of our partner brands come to us with operational questions first, and Dream Pops was no exception. They were working out of an 800-square-foot commissary kitchen and trying to take over the ice cream industry. Their Dream was to move from their batch production setup to a flow and then eventually to an outsourced manufacturer. We took the challenge. We had to make sure that their production could keep up with their rapid demand but not overproduce and get stuck with any unsellable products. This delicate balance is our music, and we continue to dream big for this brand.
