Hello everyone!
Wow!, I learned a lot from my appearance on ABC's TV show, Shark Tank. I believe nearly 5 million viewers(!) watched my episode on January 29, 2010, but don't quote me on the numbers.
Talking with the sharks was enlightening, but I learned the most from talking to the hundreds of great people who called me after they watched the show. The response over the past month and a half has been incredible and the lessons learned have really helped me to alter the direction of my business to better serve potential customers.
Here's what I am going to do to steer the business in a better direction:
The single most important lesson I learned is that most people who want to start an ice cream vending business want to name their business themselves. In other words, they don't want to be, “the Captain Ice Cream of their town” like I anticipated. They want to be, “Dave's Ice Cream” or whatever. This simple fact changes my business model completely. Therefore, Captain Ice Cream will not become a franchise and Captain Ice Cream will not manufacture Captain Ice Cream-branded popsicles (soon, I will update this entire site/blog to reflect these changes).
Talking about freeing me up to do what I do best – that is, build vehicles. I'm going to simply build “blank” white ice cream mopeds for customers now. Therefore, there will be no franchise fees and no additional costs for the Captain Ice Cream branding. Customers will be able to name and letter their ice cream mopeds in whatever manner they wish. Captain Ice Cream (actually, my company, Modular Vehicles, Inc.) will manufacture ice cream mopeds. Period.
I been building fast cars for nearly thirty years and have been a car and truck magazine technical editor and photographer for over 23-years. I moved to Los Angeles in 1989 to begin my career as a car magazine editor and have been writing for mags since. The following pics are just two of the many cars I built over the past few years.
Captain Ice Cream's 1963 Chevrolet Biscayne (283 cu. in., Muncie M21 close-ratio 4-speed, 4.56 positraction).
Captain Ice Cream's 1967 Camaro RS (327 cu. in., Muncie M22 "Rock Crusher" 4-speed, 4.88 posi. 12-bolt).
To summarize: Captain Ice Cream is building brand-new ice cream mopeds and plans to have new bikes in stock for delivery by June 2010. All specs are the same as listed elsewhere on this site, except they will be painted white. The new retail cost of an ice cream moped will be $6995.00 Wow! That is nearly 1/2 the cost of the Captain Ice Cream franchise version!
Another benefit of having been on Shark Tank is that I now have an investor ready to fund the buildup of 100 ice cream mopeds at a time, if necessary. I am taking orders now. First come, first served. 50% deposit required with the balance due before shipping (F.O.B. Los Angeles). Call: (626) 716-7780 (hours of operation: Tues. – Fri., 9:00 A.M. – 5:00 P.M. P.S.T.)
Oh, and by the way, I will be the only Captain Ice Cream, for now. I can dig that.
