CEO and Co-Founder of Dream Pops, David Greenfeld started out in high school as a young entrepreneur. Similar to many entrepreneurs, his first company failed: a one-for-one model sunglass company. In college, he was a hiphop rapper, and performed in front of his entire university. This gave him the creative process that gave him the background to do album artwork, marketing, branding, and all of the performance elements After music didn’t work out, he went to the Haas business school at Berkeley to become an investment banker.

However, his life changed when he was traveling in Columbia. During his trip, he saw all of these popsicle shops, with booming customer bases. In his mind, popsicles are a tired and oversaturated market. Yet, in Columbia they were very successful. His entrepreneurial brain started spinning, and he found some ideas on how to implement fresh juices, natural ingredients, and intriguing designs into ice cream and pursued his vision relentlessly. 

After he found some food blogs that showcased top chefs, he found David Marx, who was a pioneer in shaping ice cream and reached out a few times. Okay, more like dozens of times, before David finally picked up the phone and responded to his emails. He met him in Berlin, and they had a wonderful meeting. David Marx, and David Greenfeld were amazed that not only did they share the same name, they also both had a dream of opening an ice cream company in California.  Amazed at their synergy, they build out the business strategy. 

They launched a well-received product launch based on David’s work as a rapper and launching shows. He decided that he wanted to release it to the world and see what happened. Working as a popsicle salesman meant pushing around an ice cream cart, that made him feel insecure around his former colleagues, but was essential to the growth of the business. He had to learn how to tell people that he was building a company, it wasn’t glamorous, but it would work.

After partnering with major companies such as Google and Bumble, the haters were silenced, and David’s dream came to fruition. He has dealt with the stresses of entrepreneurship, and shares about his insecurities, and his relentless pursuit of success. This episode will inspire you to go after what you want, and to not take no for an answer. 

Some Questions Kaivan Asks In this Episode

• How did you get started in entrepreneurship?
• What inspired you to start DreamPops?
• Why were you so persistent, and how can others model that?
• How did you plan the product launch?
• What was your business plan?
• How did you come up with such a great name?
• What was it like getting the product off the ground?
• How has the business impacted your relationships?
• How to deal with your dark thoughts on a daily basis?

In This Episode You Will Learn:

• How being a college rapper led Brenden to follow his other dreams.
• How to push aside your ego, and chase after what you want.
• How to go for what you want, and more importantly, knowing how to ask for it.
• Being humble even though you aren’t where you want to be.
• How to deal with pushback from friends and family members.
• Why David works with a life coach.
• Learn about how David is changing the ice cream industry.

Bio:

David Greenfeld started as an entrepreneur in his teenage years.  However, it wasn’t until he pursued his dream as a hip-hop musician that he took an interest in the financial world, and decided to become an investment banker. After years of unfulfillment, he decided to pursue one of his favorite pastimes: eating ice cream and making it healthier for ice cream lovers everywhere.

Dream Pops has received a lot of attention and is currently growing. They’ve partnered with companies such as Bumble and Google. Additionally, they’ve been able to master their 3-D printing to design confectionary frozen treats that take on the image of logos such as Beats by Dre, Patreon, and Buzzfeed.