We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Alec Jaffe. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Alec below.

Alec, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We’d love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the backstory.

I’ve always loved ice cream — very much so that I taught myself how to make ice cream for a project in elementary school and brought it in to share with the class. I also grew up around family members who had significant involvement in the agroecology and sustainable agriculture movement. Both of these personal and family interests came to be life-defining and as I grew up, I realized there wasn’t an ice cream on the market that tasted good, was good or you, and was good for the environment, so in 2020 I decided to launch Alec’s Ice Cream to combine my life-long sweet tooth with my passion for sustainability. Alec’s Ice Cream is the first and only premium, regenerative-verified & USDA organic certified ice cream utilizing 100% A2 dairy — the original milk protein that has been known to lead to easier digestion, unlike A1 dairy, which accounts for the majority of dairy on the market.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

Prior to founding Alec’s Ice Cream, I graduated from the University of Southern California with a degree in business administration where I also was a running back on the football team. After college, I was an Account Executive at Anschutz Entertainment Group, managing the day-to-day relationship of corporate sponsors for the Los Angeles Kings, STAPLES Center, LA Live, and the LA Galaxy and after that led the marketing team at Memeni, a digital platform that helped organizations create and mobilize online communities.

As mentioned above, I launched Alec’s Ice Cream online in 2020, combining my love for ice cream and sustainability, on a mission to help restore the planet and reverse climate change, one scoop at a time. We are the first and only regenerative-verified & USDA organic certified ice cream utilizing A2 milk, which has helped many with sensitivities enjoy dairy again, and is sweetened with carbon neutral, regenerative organic cane sugar. Alec’s best-in-class ingredients come together to create an ideal texture, creaminess, and flavor for the ultimate indulgent experience. Currently, we offer seven flavors – Tahitian Vanilla Bean, Chocolate Chocolate Chip, Salted Caramel Latte, Honey Blueberry Lavender, Mint Chocolate Chip, Matcha Chocolate Chip, and their newest, award-winning flavor Peanut Butter Fudge Honeycomb – and we put an emphasis on quality ice cream that your body and the environment will thank you for. We’ve recently expanded nationwide at notable retailers such as Whole Foods Market, Sprouts Farmers Market, Natural Grocers, and The Fresh Market as well as specialty markets like Erewhon in Los Angeles.

I’m most proud of what goes into our product. We’re the first certified regenerative organic ice cream company in the world. Regenerative agriculture is a way of farming that actively repairs our earth and we’re the only ice cream company doing this. Candidly, it takes a lot of work to create direct relationships with farmers and not take the easy way to source ingredients. We also manufacture all of our products ourselves in our own facility, which has its own set of challenges (especially as a startup with no former manufacturing experience!). But we worked through the challenges and figured out how to get our Sonoma County ice cream factory up and running. Our team touches every pint you see out in stores, which brings me and our team a lot of pride.

Have you ever had to pivot?

About a year after we started our business, our local dairy supplier was no longer able to supply us dairy. This led to a difficult search to find a supplier who could provide organic dairy for us. It sounds simple but organic cream is very hard to find because it’s in such high demand. This search led us to finding our current supplier, Alexandre Family Farm, which started our transition to regenerative agriculture and also enabled us to use gut-friendly A2/A2 milk.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

As a former college athlete, you become used to being able to work through any challenge. In sports, typically the way to do that is to work harder and faster and force your way through. In business, however, sometimes you just need to be patient and allow things to develop. I remember being so antsy as we first got started. Of course, you need drive and determination to build a startup and that requires moving fast. But sometimes it can be really helpful to take a beat, fully evaluate your plan, and allow things to play out in the time and space needed.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.alecsicecream.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/alecsicecream/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/alec-s-ice-cream
• Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@alecsicecream