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It's one more bump in a very rocky road for Jackie Cuscuna and Brian Smith, who say they've been let go from Ample Hills, the ice cream company they co-founded and were forced to sell. It's been less than six months since they lined up investors to buy it back.
In 2011, married couple Cuscuna and Smith started the company with one ice cream shop in Brooklyn's Prospect Heights neighborhood. They eventually grew to 17 locations, picking up an endorsement from Oprah and collaboration with Disney along the way.
But by 2020, the company was overextended and filed for bankruptcy. In March of that year, the couple sold Ample Hills for $1 million to Oregon-based Schmitt Industries. Schmitt ran the business for about two years before shuttering the 12 remaining locations at the end of 2022 and entering receivership amid reports of unpaid rent. In the meantime, Cuscuna and Smith found new investors and opened a new Brooklyn-based dessert shop called The Social.
Then in June of this year, in what at first appeared to be a sweet twist, news circulated that the investors behind The Social had put up the funds to buy back Ample Hills for a reported $150,000, and begun working with Cuscuna and Smith to rebuild the company. "We know not everyone gets a second chance after making some big mistakes," the couple wrote on Instagram at the time. "We are humbled and honored to come back, and we will work with love and passion to make it right this time around."
Fast Company reported at the time that an entity registered as Do-Nut Hills acquired the Ample Hills intellectual property and the leases to three shops in New York City. New York-based entrepreneur and investor Norm Brodsky later told The New York Times he'd invested "nearly seven figures" in the company.
The investors had largely been silent partners in The Social, but the partnership soured once they reclaimed the Ample Hills brand, according to Cuscuna and Smith. The couple agreed with the recommendation of their two investors that they bring in an outside CEO, Lisa Teach, who would also be an investor in the company.
"The idea of having somebody that had financial experience that we hadn't had in the past was something that we originally were excited by," says Smith. But the couple says they regularly clashed with Teach over issues such as branding and culture. "I think, at the end of the day, the investors just got tired of us fighting with their CEO, and they made the decision to ultimately side with their CEO instead of the founders."
Teach did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Reached by phone, Brodsky confirmed that the couple did not get along with the CEO, but said that was not the reason they were terminated.
Looking back, the couple realizes they agreed to unfavorable terms. Their contract did not include an equity stake in the relaunched Ample Hills, Smith says. "We did a little too much trusting and not enough verifying," he says, and the terms of the agreement meant the board could vote to fire them.
Cuscuna describes a feeling of "whiplash." On Friday, the day they found out they were being fired, she was twice approached by strangers who expressed how happy they were that she and Smith had relaunched the business. "People were so genuinely excited" about their successful reopening, she says.
"We're just kind of devastated about the whole experience," she says. "It wasn't just a job for us. The communities that we created through the shops, the brands, the ice cream, the creativity--it was our life's work."
A refreshed look at leadership from the desk of CEO and chief content officer Stephanie Mehta
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Exclusive: The Ample Hills Co-Founders Have Been Let Go--Less Than 6 Months After They Returned to the Company
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22.11.2023
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Yes, You Absolutely Should Sign Up for the New IRS Business Tax Account
It's one more bump in a very rocky road for Jackie Cuscuna and Brian Smith, who say they've been let go from Ample Hills, the ice cream company they co-founded and were forced to sell. It's been less than six months since they lined up investors to buy it back.
In 2011, married couple Cuscuna and Smith started the company with one ice cream shop in Brooklyn's Prospect Heights neighborhood. They eventually grew to 17 locations, picking up an endorsement from Oprah and........
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