Jerry Greenfield
Co-founder, Ben & Jerry's. On 1 show, 2 appearances. The Shows tab opens the full record on each.
founderexecutiveauthorbenjerry.com ↗Wikipedia ↗
In 1978, Greenfield co-founded Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream with childhood friend Ben Cohen in Burlington, Vermont, pioneering values-led corporate social responsibility alongside distinctive chunk-filled flavours. After selling to Unilever in 2000, he remained an ambassador until resigning in September 2025 over disputes regarding restrictions on the brand's activism.
1shows
2appearances
24statements
11resolved
11supported
0contradicted
100%fully supported
12said about them ↓ Everything Jerry Greenfield said on any show that made the record, most notable first. Each card names its show and opens the statement there.
Pillsbury threatened independent distributors who carried Ben & Jerry's
“Pillsbury had bought Haagen-Dazs, so they owned them, and they went to independent ice cream distributors, who were distributing all sorts of different brands of ice creams, and you know, told them that if those distributors continued to deliver Ben & Jerry's,…”
Ben & Jerry's supported the anti-corporate Occupy Wall Street movement
“The company came out in support of Occupy Wall Street a few years ago, which, you know, is amazing because that was essentially an anti-corporate movement.”
Ben & Jerry's issued a formal statement supporting Black Lives Matter
“Within the last year, the company came out with a statement in support of Black Lives Matter.”
Greenfield: Ben & Jerry's publicly supported Occupy Wall Street
“The company came out in support of Occupy Wall Street a few years ago, which, you know, is amazing because that, that was essentially an anti-corporate movement.”
Founders altered early business projections when numbers showed failure
“When we first wrote out and figured out our projections for how much ice cream we would sell and how much it would cost, the projections told us that We weren't going to sell enough ice cream to stay in business. So we just changed the projections.”
Ice cream eaters prefer big chunks over evenly distributed pieces
“So I was arguing for having a larger number of smaller chunks that were well distributed throughout the ice cream. And, you know, Ben was saying, no, what people want, and this is what Ben wanted, of course, but what people want is a really big chunk, and they…”
Unilever's acquisition offer left the Ben & Jerry's board no alternative
“Well, it was a public company which meant that anybody could own shares, and Unilever ended up offering so much money that the board of the company couldn't find an alternative for the shareholders that they thought was acceptable.”
Founders declined seats on the post-acquisition social mission board
“There was going to continue to be an independent board in the new entity that oversaw the social mission, and I think Ben and I could have remained on that board, and we both chose not to.”
Jerry Greenfield: Startup business plan financial projections are completely made up
“And I think that's the way everybody does it. You just make it up. I mean, you have this idea that, that people come up with these projections and they're based on something and they're just made up.”
Greenfield: Ice cream eaters prefer occasional large chunks over evenly distributed small ones
“So I was arguing for having a larger number of smaller chunks that were well distributed throughout the ice cream, and you know, Ben was saying, No, what people want, and this is what Ben wanted, of course, but what people want is a really big chunk, and they …”
Pillsbury threatened to cut off distributors who carried Ben & Jerry's
“Well, Pillsbury had bought Haagen-Dazs, so they owned them, and they went to, Independent ice cream distributors who were distributing all sorts of different brands of ice creams, and, ah, you know, told them that if those distributors continued to deliver Ben…”
Unilever's buyout offer was so high the board had to accept it
“Well, it was a public company which meant that anybody could own shares, and Unilever ended up offering so much money that the board of the company couldn't find an alternative for the shareholders that that they thought was acceptable.”
Ben & Jerry's pivoted from bagels because equipment was unaffordable
“We thought about picking a food That was becoming popular in big cities, but had not yet been brought to a college town. And at that time, the foods we thought about were bagels and homemade ice cream. So we went to a used restaurant supply store to price out …”
Founders' initial goal was to make $20,000 a year each
“Our goal when we opened was to make 20,000 dollars a year apiece.”
Founders copied a pizzeria business plan to secure bank financing
“Ben and I pretty much copied that business plan, except every place where it said slice of pizza, we crossed it out and we wrote an ice cream cone.”
Free Cone Day was created because founders expected business to fail
“It was actually during that first winter when Ben and I came up with the idea of Free Cone Day, that if we were still in business after a year, we would celebrate and treat all our customers by giving out free ice cream, because we thought it was so unlikely t…”
Ben & Jerry's was featured in a 1981 Time magazine cover story
“Well, but not only that, so it was the cover story of Time Magazine.”
Ben & Jerry's packaged pints to solve scoop shop portion control
“One of the reasons we started packaging our ice cream was because we weren't so good at running a shop, and one of the things we thought about was, well, maybe we can't control how much ice cream we're putting on a cone, but you certainly can control how much …”
Cohen and Greenfield initially planned to become cross-country truck drivers
“Let's do something for a couple of years, and then... After we do that, let's do something else. We talked about becoming cross-country truck drivers after we did this ice cream shop.”
Ben & Jerry's created Free Cone Day because they expected to fail
“First winter when Ben and I came up with the idea of free cone day, that if we were still in business after a year, we would celebrate and treat all our customers by giving out free ice cream because we thought it was so unlikely that we would still be in busi…”
Ben & Jerry's pivoted to pints to solve scoop shop portion control
“One of the reasons we started packaging our ice cream was because we weren't so good at running a shop, and one of the things we thought about was, well, maybe we can't control how much ice cream we're putting on a cone, but you certainly can control how much …”
Cohen and Greenfield refused to serve on Unilever's social mission board
“There was going to continue to be an independent board in the new entity that oversaw the social mission, and I think Ben and I could have Remained on that board, and we both chose not to.”
Ben & Jerry's initial financial goal was earning $20,000 each per year
“Our goal when we opened was to make 20,000 dollars a year a piece.”
The other half of the tape: Jerry Greenfield's own voice is left out of every number here. Other people bring the name up 4 times in 4 episodes across the shows. 8 statements on the record name them. every mention, with the transcript →
Who brings them up most Guy Raz 4
Statements about Jerry Greenfield, by other people (8)
Founders invented chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream
“But it wasn't always a classic flavor, because in fact, it was invented by Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield in that tiny little shop in Burlington in the 19 eighties.”
Founders split a single $5 ice cream-making correspondence course
“Five dollars. We split one between the two of us.”
Founders put Ben & Jerry's up for sale in the 1980s
“Our reaction to that was to sell the business, and we actually put it up for sale. This was early on. This was in the eighties.”
Cohen and Greenfield split a $5 Penn State ice cream correspondence course
“Five dollars. We split one between the two of us.”
Ben & Jerry's founders put the company up for sale in 1980s
“Our reaction to that was to sell the business, and we actually put it up for sale. This was early on. This was in the eighties.”
Founders avoided warm college towns due to existing ice cream competition
“We figured we had a better chance of success if we opened up in a place where there wasn't much competition. And originally we were looking for warm, rural college towns, and all the warm ones already had ice cream. So, you know, as we went further and further…”
Founders researched starting Ben & Jerry's using 30 SBA pamphlets
“We sent away for 30 SBA pamphlets that cost between 15 cents a And three dollars per on all the different aspects of running a business.”
Every mention by year
tap a year for its mentions
How I Built This 4
2026 1 mention in 1 episode
2021 1 mention in 1 episode
2018 1 mention in 1 episode
2017 1 mention in 1 episode
One line per show, most statements first. The link opens Jerry's full record on that show: the calibration, argument clarity, speaking style and every statement made there.
| Show | Role there | Eps | Statements | Record | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| HOW I BUILT THISLEDGER | Co-founder, Ben & Jerry's | 2 | 24 | 100% 11/11 | full record on How I Built This → |