Everyone loves ice cream and Katelyn Williams certainly had her share growing up. Her mother always had it in the house and would routinely send Katelyn to the grocery store to pick up a gallon of the family’s favorite. And Katelyn was always instructed to buy on sale. Katelyn’s craving continued even through college and ice cream was often a complete meal for her. It was a lifetime love affair. Katelyn realy just "fell" into being a food entrepreneur. Fresh out of college, she and her husband moved from Louisiana to Boston where Katelyn started making ice cream just for fun. She’d go around Cambridge and review the ice cream shops, started a blog and because she was so meticulous about the ingredients and taste of ice cream, her reputation as an expert started to flourish. At the same time, Katelyn became more conscious of her own health and began to research being gluten-free and dairy-free. Realizing how much milk went into her beloved ice cream, she took a big step back. Then on a visit home, she told the family she was making ice cream as her gift to everyone. Her youngest sister told it was a fabulous idea and to go ahead and do that for the rest of the family, but she unfortunately couldn’t partake. Katelyn simply could not have the entire family sit down to homemade ice cream and have her sister left out! So she found a recipe for nutmeg ice cream in Bon Appetite magazine and started turning on the hand crank machine. It was awful! But these are the impetus moments for entrepreneurs and Katelyn began assiduously researching the ingredients available for plant-based ice cream flavors. The experiments were continuous and the ice creams turned out better and better until people began to try them and ask for more. Yup, a business was born because and entrepreneur was giving people what they wanted after being the one to “crack the code”. Plus, as she began to shop the competition in the stores, she realized nobody could touch her product in the gluten- and dairy-free segments, so she knew she on to something business wise. After a few years in Boston, Katelyn closed the business and upon moving to Portland, Oregon, she jumped back in with her new company, Kate’s Ice Cream. Starting in a farmers’ market her reputation grew fast and she moved into Kate’s Kitchen to make larger batches to match burgeoning demand. Kate’s Ice Cream is made using organic coconut and cashew milk and is 100% plant-based and gluten-free. The company collaborates with local, woman, and minority owned businesses and uses fresh seasonal produce from local Pacific Northwest farms. Their ice creams are available at pop-ups around the area and in select grocers. They also will be moving into a brand new ice cream shop on Portland’s trendy Mississippi Avenue soon.

"Masoni and Marshall the meaningful Marketplace" with your hosts Sarah Masoni and Sarah Marshall

We record the "the Meaningful Marketplace" inside NedSpace in the Bigfoot Podcast Studio in beautiful downtown Portland.

Audio engineer, mixer and podcast editor is Allon Beausoleil

Show logo was designed by  Anton Kimball of Kimball Design

Website was designed by Cameron Grimes

Production assistant is Chelsea Lancaster

10% of gross revenue at Startup Radio Network goes to support women entrepreneurs in developing countries thru kiva.org/lender/markgrimes

#97 There's No Cream, but Who Cares? - Katelyn Williams, Kate's Ice Cream

Meaningful Marketplace Podcast