We were lucky to catch up with Steven White recently and have shared our conversation below.

Steven, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Almost every entrepreneur we know has considered donating a portion of their sales to an organization or cause – how did you make the decision of whether to donate? We’d love to hear the backstory if you’re open to sharing the details.

Every season we donate a percent of sales to various charitable causes. This has always been a mission of the company since day one. J-POPS was founded as a charity after the 2011 earthquake and tsunami in Japan.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

My name is Steven White and I’m the owner/founder of J-POPS. We are Columbus’ Original Habdcrafted Ice Pops. J-POPS started as a charity after the 2011 earthquake and tsunami in Japan. It eventually grew into a business in 2013. What sets us apart from others is our pops are all vegan and contain no artificial colors and preservatives. The average pop has only four ingredients. What I’m most proud of is being able to grow a business from scratch and still maintain it after ten years. Plus being able to give back to the community whenever possible .

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

That’s an easy one. Starting the business was a huge challenge. Not having any real sources there were so many obstacles . I felt like I would take one step forward then two steps back. There were times I wanted to quit and just give up but I knew I had to carry on. But finally all the pieces came together. I had a dream and wasn’t going to stop until it all came to life.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

Covid was a major time of pivoting for the business. It was a struggle to find places to sell since nothing was happening and all events were cancelled. We starting doing neighborhood pop ups and deliveries. This got us thru the pandemic.

Contact Info:

• Website: myjpops.com
• Instagram: @myjpops
• Facebook: Myjpops
• Twitter: @myjpops