How a summer job grew into an ice cream empire, with CEO Ben Van Leeuwen

Masters of Scale

WaitWhat

Entrepreneurship, Business, Management, Reid Hoffman, Mindset, Diversity & Inclusion, Jeff Berman, Bob Safian, Startups

4.6 • 4.4K Ratings

🗓️ 10 July 2025

⏱️ 37 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Van Leeuwen Ice Cream is one of the fastest growing dessert brands in the country. It’s known for its seriously delicious classic flavors and its wacky collaborations. (Kraft Mac and Cheese ice cream, anyone?) Co-founder and CEO Ben Van Leeuwen talks with Jeff Berman to reveal how it grew from his love of simple ingredients and driving an ice cream truck as a teenager into a rapidly scaling company with about 2,000 employees.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey folks, Jeff Berman here. We are gathering the leaders who are building what's next at the
0:06.5	Masters of Scale Summit. You'll see visionaries like Waymo's to Kedra Mawakana, Chabani's Hamdi Ulukaya,
0:13.7	Restaurant Tour David Chang, Patagonia's Ryan Gallert, promises Fadra Ellis Lampkins,
0:19.1	the National Women's Soccer League's Jessica Berman. The list goes on and on.
0:23.7	Please join us October 7 to 9th in San Francisco. The room is filling up fast, so apply now at
0:29.9	masters ofscale.com slash apply 25. That's masters of scale.com slash apply 25.
0:39.4	JustWorks is the human resources platform that knows your employees are more than just employees.
0:46.1	They're your people.
0:47.5	People like the show producer on the East Coast who's constantly juggling schedules,
0:51.9	studio bookings, and last minuteminute edits before an episode drops,
0:55.2	and sometimes has a question about payroll that they need an answer to right away.
1:00.9	Luckily, they can reach out to JustWorks for 24-7 human support and not have to wait for their
1:05.4	boss on the West Coast to wake up. JustWorks does human resources right so you can do right by your most precious asset,
1:13.4	your people. To learn more, go to justworks.com. JustWorks for your people.
1:23.8	I didn't really think it through because I didn't have great grades.
1:28.2	I'd done no internships.
1:29.8	I really looked up to my sister.
1:32.9	After college, she worked at Goldman Sachs.
1:35.4	So I said, Jenny, can you help me get a job like one of the ones you had?
1:38.8	And she's like, no.
1:40.1	I can try, but it doesn't work that way.
1:43.3	Ben Van Wynne left that meeting with his sister feeling discouraged.
	...

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