Heroes in Business - Curt Jones founder of Dippin Dots is interviewed by David Cogan of Eliances Heroes

Episode Date: September 13, 2024

Curt Jones founder of Dippin Dots is interviewed by David Cogan of Eliances Heroes radio show amfm iHeart Podcastone. They discuss how a project in the lab while teaching an unexpected group of students and Jones' love of ice cream lead to the invention of Dippin Dots. Coffee now received the same treatment and is just as delicious in 40 Below Joe. "All entrepreneurs, when small, do what needs to be done"

Welcome back to Alliances Heroes, where heroes in business align. To be part of our super community and find out more about Alliances, visit www.alliances.com. Now, back to our super host, David Kogan, founder of Alliances. Thank you again, and don't forget to listen in next week when we have the President of the United Nations. We just had the CEO and President of Big Lots. That's BigLots.com, only a $5 billion company. And next, oh my, absolutely incredible.

When you can actually invent something that brings joy to so many people and a brand that is recognized at most theme parks really makes you a strong builder, which is our next hero, the inventor of Dippin' Dots, Kurt Jones. story. I'm going to ask you the million dollar question. How did you come up with such a cool and yummy idea and invention? Well, David, first of all, thanks for having me on. It goes back to growing up on a farm. I used to make homemade ice cream, love ice cream of all kinds. I became a microbiologist along the way, went to Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, Illinois. I went to work for a biotech company and we were basically putting yogurt bacteria back into animal feeds. And I was in charge of growing these bacteria, freezing them, freeze drying them, turning them into powders. And anyway, along the way, I started playing with liquid nitrogen because it's 320 below zero. And how

old are you at this age playing around with liquid nitrogen? At this age, I was about 25, 26 years old. Okay. And, um, but the reason I did that is because we were growing really, really fast. We were selling this product all over the world and I by doing it with liquid nitrogen, you could freeze it faster, but it gave you a very small ice crystal formation, which more of the cells would survive. So a few Sundays later, after developing this process, I was making homemade ice cream with my neighbor. And I said, you know, I love homemade ice cream.

I love the way it tastes, but it's always icy taste. I wish we could freeze it faster. And that's when the proverbial light bulb went off in my head. So I started playing with liquid nitrogen and ice cream at that point. But what's incredible too, though, is you've created over 200 jobs at Dippin' Dots, given people the ability to be able to work. There is no better feeling in the world. What do you think you learned though most from the time when you first hired your first employee to when you got in the hundreds? Well, I think the, you go back to the early employees, we were all basically entrepreneurs. You know, nobody had job titles.

There were, there were no departments set up or anything like that. You just did what had to be done. And sometimes this meant making ice cream all day and then driving two hours to the theme park to deliver the ice cream and then work in the theme park all day the next day so um you know just had this great group of people uh we started growing really really fast after about the third or fourth year took a little while for this to take off you know everybody knows what Dippin Dots are now but you go back to the first time and you couldn't hardly give it away because people would be like uh well what is that that's not ice cream uh is it cold you know so you get all these questions and you had to have employees that were patient enough to answer these questions and and uh so right you I mean you invented a whole nother thing who would have thought I mean

everybody thinks okay you know what? There's enough ice cream. How's anybody going to be able to create anything new within ice cream industry? I mean, you changed and you were able to create something that had already been around, but, but you, you did it so, so incredibly. And you've been inducted into the lifetime member into the entrepreneur of the year society, but it doesn't stop because you're now working on more projects using the same technology as you did within Dippin' Dots. Please share with us, though, the icicle of what it is.

Well, I think the product that I'm working on right now and I'm putting most of my energy into is basically a frozen coffee. And usually when you say things like a frozen this or a frozen that, people think, oh, well, it can't be very good because it's frozen. That's not true because we process the coffee. We use pure Arabica beans from different sources, different countries. But we make the best tasting espresso shot that you can make. The only difference is instead of drinking it right then or making a cappuccino or a latte, we run it through liquid nitrogen at 320 below zero and it locks in that

flavor and freshness. I actually have made some coffee as long as seven or eight years ago that I could give to you today and you couldn't tell it any different from the day it was made. It's really amazing. Now the coldness I think helps. You know, you get the small ice crystals, it kind of locks in a lot of these flavor molecules. But I think the other thing is the fact that we freeze it in nitrogen because nitrogen displaces oxygen. And oxygen is what spoils a lot of things. It actually oxidizes, you know, flavor compounds. So we're still doing a lot of research on that to find out why it tastes so good. But the good news is it tastes good.

And so we're going to kind of go with it. You're listening to Alliances Heroes with David Kogan. And I'm speaking here with Kurt Jones, the inventor of Dippin' Dots. He's a hero. Are you a hero? Go to where entrepreneurs align. Be part of the community. Alliances.com.

That's E-L-I-A-N-C-E-S.com. Kurt, you've been to Alliances. You presented. You're part of the community. Alliances.com. That's E-L-I-A-N-C-E-S.com. Kurt, you've been to Alliances. You presented. You're part of the community. You've been to the grand table where entrepreneurs line. Hundreds and hundreds came. Share with us, though, what it's meant for you to be part of the experience. Well, it's been an amazing experience. And I didn't know really what to expect when I came in. And all of a sudden, there's this room full of just excited people, and they're the kind of people I like to be around. I've never turned down a speaking engagement or a chance to talk to high school kids or college kids or even grade school kids, you know,

to go in and tell them about Dippin' Dots and how to always keep their mind open, you know, to learn from things. And they may think of things that they can turn into a business someday. But when I walked into your room there, it was just an amazing group of people. I've got to know them a little better over the last couple of days. I've made some wonderful connections here and looking forward to being a part of that in the future as long as I'm welcome. And now you know that occasionally we'll give people's

nicknames and stuff like glue, our producer that we're fortunate enough to have that's producing our radio show and that, but I got a nickname for you and then you're going to have to explain why it is and you haven't heard it before and stuff, but I'm going to call you 40. Why would I call you 40? Well, probably because everything I'm working on from now until eternity will be things that are frozen at 40 below zero. And 40 below zero is an interesting temperature because it's right where centigrade and Fahrenheit kind of cross over. So, you know, whether you say minus 40 F or C, it's the same thing. And I'm assuming that's why you're giving me that nickname. And I like it.

That's right. That's right. And you've just been on such an incredible journey. You're a family man. You have a daughter. What would you say, though, is the most critical lesson you could teach her about business, being an entrepreneur, and leaving her mark in the community like you've been doing? Well, actually, she's going to be a part of this next company at an ownership level. And I think my daughter is, you you know she's been through the whole ride

with Dippin' Dots and she's learned a lot and she's one of the sweetest people you'll ever meet but I think if I ever want to pass anything on to her it's always you know treat people the way you want to be treated and I think that goes in your personal life and especially in business and sometimes you get taken advantage of but you can't go away from that principle. You just want to treat people right. And most of the time it comes back in good ways. And when it doesn't, you just got to kind of, you know, dust yourself off and go on.

And just because you have a great idea or invention like you did with Dippin' Dots, you got to get exposure. How do you get exposure? How did you get it with Dippin' Dots? And quickly, too, is how do others that have an idea and they've got the product, how do you get people to know about it? Well, it's interesting. Sometimes people will say, oh, it's great. What a great idea to go to theme parks with your product. Well, honestly, the reason that we went to Ferris Festival's theme parks

is because we had to buy an expensive piece of equipment every time we put Dippin' Dots someplace. We had to have a 40 below zero freezer to hold it. And we found out, well, where do most people go? Well, they go to Ferris Festival's theme parks. And so we kind of found our way there. But it ended up being a great way to promote our brand because, you know, you've got people coming by your booth and they're in a good mood because they're out with their families so it just became a perfect place for us to go with that excellent excellent and you also though have other ideas that you're working on you're an engine for ideas in fact tell

me about one other product that you've been working on too because you've got so many well again i think that freezing things at 40 below zero have a lot of advantages even in food products but right now i think the next product after coffee will be everything you need to make a margarita or a daiquiri you just add your liquid and that liquid can be sprite or water it doesn't have to be an alcohol necessarily but it's just a way to to take fresh fruit and you don't have to add ice into a blender because it's got its own ice and it's a very smooth tasting product. Kurt, it is incredible to have you here in our studio in beautiful Scottsdale, Arizona and spending time with you.

We're honored to have you. You're amazing. You're an inventor. You took the risks. You've employed so many people and given them the opportunity to have jobs. You mentor amazing. You're an inventor. You took the risks. You've employed so many people and given them the opportunity to have jobs. You mentor high school, college students, and entrepreneurship. You continue to innovate with the technology you created, and that's a hero. And I want to be the first. When this coffee comes out, I want to be the first to try it in the retail. I want to be your first paying customer for that absolutely amazing and we'll have contact information for Kurt Jones the inventor of Dippin Dots at alliances.com and when we return we're gonna have the president of communication concepts and later on Angie from Angie's list calm

David Kogan with alliances and's. And thank you, loopydocs.com.