W hen assessing your monthly expenses, it’s not auspicious if one of the big line items is your ice-cream budget. For Diana Hardeman, though, a persistent pint habit pointed toward opportunity.
A 2009 grad of NYU’s Stern School of Business, Hardeman was living in Alphabet City and contemplating her next move when the idea of selling ice cream struck.
“A lot of my peers came out [of school] with jobs, and I didn’t know exactly what it was I wanted,” says the 27-year-old. “And then I bought an ice-cream maker.”
With no culinary training or food-business experience, her qualifications didn’t extend far beyond a love for the end product. But she bought a $50 Cuisinart and began experimenting with her roommate and a friend. The first batch was Hardeman’s favorite, peanut butter. The results?
“Not great,” she says.
But undaunted, she and her partners chose a name — MilkMade — and hammered out a business model: For $50, members get a three-month subscription. Each month, via an online form, members choose from two flavors and specify a delivery time. Then Hardeman personally delivers a pint to their door.
That last aspect is MilkMade’s hook, in a city with a number of ice-cream makers.
“I love Van Leeuwen, Blue Marble, Sundaes and Cones,” she says. “But no one does this hand-deliver model.”
Initially, their aims were modest; Hardeman dished out scoops to friends and brought pints to parties. But a mention in New York magazine led to a flux of interest, which was all she needed to put her side project front and center.
Improving her product and going from two-quart home batches to a $5,000 commercial machine was a learn-as-you-go proposition. So was recipe development. Typically, “the first iterations aren’t good,” says Hardeman. A buttermilk-based ice cream yielded a grainy texture, and caramel apple fell flat when the fruit turned icy.
In addition to using locally sourced ingredients, Hardeman supports fellow entrepreneurs with ice-cream mash-ups: a shot of local distiller Tuthilltown’s bourbon found its way into June’s Southern Sweet Tea flavor, and Greyston Bakery brownies were swirled into May’s Mint Chocolate Brownie.
Those doing the math will note that $50 for three pints is not exactly cheap. But Hardeman, who sank $10,000 of her savings into the business, is unapologetic, saying the bulk of the cash isn’t going into her pockets, but into the product.
And the price tag doesn’t seem to have scared off clients. MilkMade started in December with 50 members in the East Village, whom Hardeman serviced with a bike and an insulated backpack. In January she accommodated demand by expanding to the West Village. And now she rents a Zipcar to bring pints to 150 members spanning from TriBeCa to Morningside Heights, a task that takes two or three nights.
“The logistics and actually going out [to deliver] is super annoying, and I’m not afraid to say that,” says Hardeman, who hopes to buy a van soon and hire some help. “But it’s so cool when I meet members and they’re excited and they send me a text afterwards. It’s really gratifying to get feedback from someone I’ve met.”