After we'd exhausted all efforts to raise money, we filed for bankruptcy. We filed on  March 15th,  the day before New York City went into lockdown due to COVID-19.  It was a very dark and scary time on so many levels and yet we had high hopes for the value and sale of the company we created from scratch.

It was summer of 2019 when we learned we had a cash flow problem and wouldn't make it through the winter. We spent the next 9 months trying to raise money to raise the company.

We opened our Factory in Brooklyn in July of 2018 but didn't start making ice cream until September. And there was a big learning curve...\

** Sonic Note ** Near the end of the episode the white noise that you hear is the sound of rain on the log cabin we recorded this episode at, in the Adirondacks.

We opened our Disney shop in May of 2016 at Disney's Boardwalk in Orlando.  This precipitated the need to open a much larger production facility as we'd reached capacity at our Gowanus location.  The search to build a factory where we had 100% control over our ice cream making and our baking had begun. But our vision was always about being playful, educating folks on how ice cream is made and telling stories...

Once we started shipping ice cream we were able to attract some famous fans such as Bob Iger,  Steven Spielberg, Oprah and JJ Abrams to name but a few...

We started with a single pushcart in Prospect Park in the summer of 2010 and opened our first scoop shop in May of 2011.  We were novice entrepreneurs and new parents in search of a neighborhood ice cream shop filled with nostalgia and whimsy and over the top, playful ice cream flavors. We are proud to have founded Ample Hills Creamery; named after a Walt Whitman poem about the connections between people across time and space. 

What is it then between us? 

What is the count of the scores or hundreds of years between us?

 Whatever it is, it avails not--Distance avails not, and place avails not, 

I too lived, Brooklyn of ample hills was mine.

--Walt Whitman, Crossing Brooklyn Ferry 1856

We’re Brian and Jackie, the founders behind Ample Hills — a couple who lost everything and are now writing the next chapter.