Ben Cohen
28 statements across 3 episodes · 3 bullish · 0 bearish · 4 people on the record · first statement Nov 20, 2017 by Jerry Greenfield · said 8 times in 5 episodes since 2017 · across every show →
On the record as a speaker too: Ben Cohen's record, appearances and statements → this page counts the times other people say the name.
Mentions by year
brought up most by Guy Raz (4), Chris Mann (4)
tap a year for its mentions
2026 1 mention in 1 episode
2022 4 mentions in 1 episode
2021 1 mention in 1 episode
2018 1 mention in 1 episode
2017 1 mention in 1 episode
Everything said about Ben Cohen, oldest first
Nov 20, 2017
Nov 20, 2017 positive
SBA mentor advised Ben & Jerry's to ask for a loan moratorium
“He was an old guy named Manny, and, ah, he said, well, just tell him you can't pay your loan right now, that you can pay it, you know, when the weather turns. You know, they'll, they'll, they'll like, just let you pay interest. And we went to the bank, and we …”
Nov 20, 2017
Nov 20, 2017 neutral
Nov 20, 2017
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…”
Nov 20, 2017 positive
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 …”
Nov 20, 2017
Nov 20, 2017
Nov 20, 2017
Nov 20, 2017
Mar 23, 2020
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…”
Mar 23, 2020 positive
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…”
Mar 23, 2020
Mar 23, 2020
Mar 23, 2020
Ben Cohen dropped out of multiple colleges and alternative programs
“And then I finally joined the University Without Walls, which was the most unstructured college program at the time. The idea was that the whole world was your campus, and you go out there and learn whatever you wanted to learn, and then you come back. To this…”
Mar 23, 2020
Mar 23, 2020
Mar 23, 2020 neutral
Mar 23, 2020
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 …”
Mar 23, 2020
Mar 23, 2020
Mar 23, 2020 neutral
Scoop shop portion control uniquely alienates customers at the counter
“In every business except for ice cream, the portions are controlled in the back. Out of sight of the customer. And when you're scooping ice cream, you're supposed to control the portion inside of the customer, and if the scoop is too big, you're supposed to ta…”
Mar 23, 2020 neutral
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.”
Mar 23, 2020 neutral
Mar 23, 2020
Mar 23, 2020 neutral
Mar 23, 2020 neutral
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…”
Nov 28, 2022
Venture funds linked to Ben & Jerry's founders invested $300,000 in Guayakí
“And it turned out when they sold to Unilever, they created two small venture fund, two, five million dollar funds, one run by Pierre Ferrari called hot fudge and one run by Chuck Lacey called Bardrock. And so they were both our first bigger investor, bigger me…”