Rob Hess has a dream, a dream that includes opening up a new ice cream store in downtown Ypsilanti. And he would like your help to make it happen.
The Ypsilanti resident has launched a
crowdfunding campaign to help him finance the opening of the first permanent home of
Go! Ice Cream. Today the fledgling business that makes craft ice cream is sold from the cooler of his tricycle and at the events he caters. Hess aspires to open an ice cream store at 10 N Washington, activating a vacant storefront and deserted alley in downtown Ypsilanti.
"I searched high and low for the right place," Hess says. He adds he spoke to local developer Stewart Beal and other local stakeholders to find the right spot. "I really want a space in downtown Ypsilanti. When you walk through downtown you can see a lot of vacant storefronts."
And that means opportunity for Hess. He has raised a little more than $6,000 of his $30,000 goal as of Tuesday afternoon. If Hess raises the money he plans to have the kitchen ready by early next year and the storefront open to the public by May.
Hess got started making ice cream as a hobby a few years ago. Check out a previous feature on Go! Ice Cream from Concentrate
here. The videographer at the University of Michigan quickly got sucked into the craft of making ice cream.
"I got interested in the chemistry behind it," Hess says. "You can do a lot of subtle things to tweak the texture and flavor."
Soon he had a freezer full of his homemade ice cream and no room for any of his vegetables. So he started giving it away to friends and family. They started offering to pay him for it and the entrepreneurial light went off over his head. He started working with Zingerman's, which agreed to pasteurize the ice cream for him, and he had a real business on his hands.
"Once I figured that out I thought, 'Let's see if people will respond to $9 a pint ice cream?'" Hess says.
They responded well. Hess, an avid bicyclists, bought a tricycle to sell
Go! Ice Cream's flavors across the city. He now sells ice cream to about 700 people per month and growing. He hopes to grow that number even faster when he has his own store where people can come to him.
Source: Rob Hess, owner of Go! Ice Cream
Writer: Jon Zemke
Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.
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