CVT Soft Serve Founder Joe Nicchi on Turning an Ice Cream Truck Into a National Brand and Why Luck Matters More Than Entrepreneurs Admit
…It was all from a chance meeting through a friend of a friend. My big soapbox belief is that you should celebrate your luck. I’m not embarrassed by it. I know so many founders who act tough, claiming they did everything themselves. I worked really hard, and we have a great product, but if people didn’t open doors for me, it wouldn’t matter. I don’t think people want to admit that. Last summer I spoke to a group of college interns at Live Nation — a lot of really smart Ivy League kids. I told them, “I know they aren’t telling you this in school, and I know you don’t want to hear this, but there is so much luck involved.” No one wants to believe it. When someone tells me a success story, I always ask, “Who helped you? How did you get to where you are? “ The conversation usually ends quickly; people don’t like to talk about it. I got crazy lucky, and I feel like I still get crazy lucky. We have a major distributor coming on board. The way we secured that was because one of the employees’ wives went to the grocery store, tried CVT, and went home to tell her husband, “Oh my god, you have to try this.” Then they called us and the rest is history. That’s crazy luck. Had she not gone to the grocery store, we wouldn’t have that opportunity. Yes, we have a great product, and we were in the store, but there are so many little things. You can’t see them in the moment, but sometimes when you look back, you realize that if that person hadn’t done that for you, you’d never be here. If people tell you they did everything on their own and built it from the ground up, I am sure they did work hard, but they also probably got a check from someone or had a door opened for them…
I had the pleasure of talking with Joe Nicchi. The classic Hollywood story usually involves waiting tables, hoping for a big break, and eventually moving on. Nicchi, who was born and raised in upstate New York, moved to Los Angeles at the age of eighteen to attend USC and pursue an acting career. He admits he was a “walking cliché” in those days. His big break arrived from an unexpected place: a vintage ice cream truck, a family recipe, and a deep frustration with the local dessert scene. Out in Southern California, he found mostly “frozen yogurt, green juice, and garbage,” and he deeply missed the classic soft serve of his East Coast childhood.
In 2014, Joe and his wife Tyler decided to solve that problem by launching CVT Soft Serve. The letters stand for Chocolate, Vanilla, Twist. He tracked down an old ice cream truck, and despite his father warning him that he would face endless “1961 truck problems,” Nicchi pushed forward. The reality of the mobile food business hit him fast. “During our opening weekend, my brakes failed, and we literally almost died,” he recalls. “I was driving down a hill, put my foot to the pedal, and it went to the floor.” He survived the terrifying ride. Despite a string of early mechanical failures and the steep learning curve of navigating the local food truck scene, CVT quickly gained a massive following.
It turns out that pouring premium soft serve is a powerful magnet for the entertainment industry. Nicchi met more writers, producers, and directors through the window of his truck than he ever did through his talent agent. One day, a private chef reached out to ask if he could get a commercial ice cream machine installed in a client’s house. Nicchi warned him that the distributor required storing forty gallons of product at a time. The chef casually mentioned they had a walk-in freezer. After looking up the delivery address, Nicchi realized the client was Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, who had recently purchased a 160-million-dollar estate. “My wife was asleep at the time,” Nicchi says. “We had twins, and she was barely getting any sleep… I woke her up from a dead sleep and said, ‘I think Jeff Bezos is putting our ice cream in his house.’”
That high-profile installation sparked a larger idea. Nicchi started wondering how to get soft serve to people who couldn’t afford expensive machines in their home kitchens. Customers were already buying ice cream from his truck, taking it home, and freezing it, though the creamy consistency was always lost in the process. The inspiration for a solution came directly from his own busy home. His wife had empty, unused breast milk pouches for their newborn twins. Nicchi started filling those plastic bags straight from his truck’s machine, freezing them, and handing them out to friends to test. It took two years of intense research to figure out how to maintain that creamy texture in a home freezer without relying on chemical additives. That wild experiment eventually evolved into a nationwide consumer product.
Taking a strange new idea to the mainstream is rarely simple. When pitching his soft-serve pouches to grocery buyers, he faced initial rejection. One buyer told him that consumers simply wouldn’t understand how to eat ice cream from a pouch. Nicchi took the setback in stride, operating under the belief that the word no often just means “not now.” A week later, he catered the Oscars for host Jimmy Kimmel. The industry buzz from that single event made the hesitant grocery buyer change their mind completely. A similar chance encounter led to a meeting with Live Nation, where a food and beverage executive realized the mess-free pouches instantly solved their chaotic concert dessert problem. Almost overnight, CVT became the official ice cream of venues across the country. Nicchi is refreshingly honest about how these breaks happen. “I know so many founders who act tough, claiming they did everything themselves,” he says. “I worked really hard, and we have a great product, but if people didn’t open doors for me, it wouldn’t matter… I got crazy lucky.”
Today, the brand sits in thousands of stores, including a recent nationwide launch with Sprouts, and Nicchi has a book coming out next year. Yet, the day-to-day reality of running an empire remains exhausting. As a father of four boys, he openly admits his work-life balance and self-care routines are virtually non-existent. “Any business owner will tell you that vacation doesn’t exist,” he explains. “Sure, you might be in a different place, but you are still dealing with fires every single day.” His ultimate goal is a quiet one, inspired by Bill Murray, a famous fan who once crashed a CVT ice cream social. Murray is well known for refusing to carry a cell phone, opting instead for a private 800 number and an answering machine. For a guy who spends his days navigating national distribution deals, wrangling vintage trucks, and raising four kids, that kind of total disconnection sounds like paradise. Until then, Nicchi is keeping his head down, ignoring the curated perfection of social media, and focusing entirely on the craft. “I am constantly learning,” he says, “and I have never once thought, ‘Oh, I’ve got this figured out.’”
Yitzi: Joe, it is a delight to meet you. Before we dive in and talk about your amazing work, our readers would love to learn about Joe Nicchi’s personal origin story. Can you share with us the story of your childhood, how you grew up, and the seeds and genesis for all the amazing work that has come since then?
Joe: Wow, that’s a loaded question. Sure. I was born and raised in upstate New York. You wouldn’t know the town, but the closest big city to the area is Saratoga, which is known for the racetrack.
When I turned 18, I moved as far away from there as possible to Los Angeles — about 3,000 miles away — to go to college. I went to USC. I met my wife in college, started a family, opened an ice cream truck, and somehow we now have a national ice cream brand. That’s a very short version of how I got to today.
Yitzi: I am sure you have some amazing stories from your career in building and creating this national ice cream brand. I know it is difficult to single them out, but can you share with our readers two stories that stand out in your mind from your career?
Joe: Two stories that stand out specifically. There are way too many to share. In fact, we actually have a book coming out next year about my whole trajectory into this crazy world.
To share some specific ones, I have catered for everyone you could imagine in the TV and film business. That was really exciting. I was a walking cliché pursuing the world of acting in Los Angeles, and then somehow I met more writers, producers, and directors through an ice cream truck than I ever would have met through my agent or my manager.
A huge moment for the business I can share with you is that after years of catering and meeting all these high-profile people, Jeff Bezos put one of our ice cream machines in his house. That was a huge moment for us because the guy could have anything he wants. Regardless of how you feel about him, he could choose to have Baskin Robbins in his house or Ben & Jerry’s; it doesn’t matter. He chose our mom-and-pop brand. That was the big moment for me of wondering if there’s a way to get soft serve ice cream to everyone who cannot afford a ridiculously expensive machine in their kitchen. That was the beginning of how CVT got started with pouches in the grocery store.
I’m as surprised as you are right now. Long story short, the trucks became really popular in LA. We started wholesaling the jugs that you would pour into soft serve machines to colleges and restaurants. People would reach out every now and then and ask, “Hey, can I get a machine in my house?” I thought it was kind of a joke.
However, there are a lot of people with money in LA, and I would tell them, “Look, our distributor has an eight or ten-case minimum, and there are four jugs in a case. Unless you have room for 40 gallons of ice cream, I can’t help you.”
Eventually, I got an email from a guy who said he was a chef and his client would like to have the ice cream in the house. I gave him the same spiel: “I appreciate it, but you have to have room for 40 gallons.” He replied, “No problem, we have a walk-in freezer.” I thought, “Who has a walk-in freezer in their house?” I asked for the delivery address, googled it, and freaked out. My wife was asleep at the time. We had twins, and she was barely getting any sleep because she was exhausted. I woke her up from a dead sleep and said, “I think Jeff Bezos is putting our ice cream in his house!”
When I got there, I met his chef and found out that they had been running samples from our trucks to the house. I never knew that because they were always sending people. That’s how he heard about it. I was flattered. I think about this a lot, not just with Jeff but with a lot of celebrities. When they go out to eat, they get the best table, have the best server, and the best food. They may not be Anthony Bourdain per se, but they definitely have a well-versed palate. They know what’s good and what’s not. The fact that they kept hiring us back made me realize we were onto something; people liked our stuff.
I didn’t think anything of it and just posted about it because I was so excited: “You guys are not going to believe who just put a machine in their house.” Within 10 minutes, Vice magazine called me, and it went internationally viral. I quickly realized I had just opened up a can of worms. That’s the Bezos story.
Yitzi: That is a great story, and you are a great storyteller, Joe. There is a saying that sometimes our mistakes can be our greatest teachers. Do you have a story about a funny mistake that you made when you were first starting your business and the lesson that you took away from it?
Joe: Oh my god. Everything that I did was a mistake. I wanted to open an ice cream truck business in Los Angeles because there was no good soft serve, which blew my mind because in upstate New York it was everywhere. Out in LA, it was all frozen yogurt, green juice, and garbage. I felt like I had to do this. LA is a very image-conscious town, so I decided to get a cool-looking truck. I found a 1961 truck, and my dad, who knows a lot about old cars, told me, “You’re out of your mind. You’re going to have 1961 truck problems. Get a modern truck.” I insisted it would be fine.
During our opening weekend, my brakes failed, and I almost died. I was driving down a hill, put my foot to the pedal, and it went to the floor. Thank God no one was in front of me because CVT would’ve never taken off, and I probably would’ve gone through the windshield. It was terrible.
Did I learn anything from that? No. I’m trying to think of learning from my mistakes, but there were issues every step of the way. I was trying to find a dairy that would make our recipe, and they had a crazy minimum on ice cream. I had to buy 800 gallons of this ice cream when I had never served a single cone before. I sweat just thinking about these stories.
There have been so many issues along the way with old trucks and navigating the food truck scene in Los Angeles. There were constant mistakes. I know it sounds cliché, but I feel like you don’t learn anything from when you win; you learn a lot from when you fail. I feel like I’m learning every day. I’ve survived all of my bad days. I know that’s a famous quote, but it is true. I’m constantly learning, and I’ve never once thought, “Oh, I’ve got this figured out.”
Even to this day, we have a lot of good momentum and great things going for us, but every day I feel like we’re failing, and I am just trying to make it work. My advice to any of your readers would be that if you’re not failing, then maybe you’re not trying hard enough. If it’s coming easy, that doesn’t really make sense. I’ve had easy days, but there’s a lot of gray in my beard, so I’ve efinitely had a lot of hard days.
Yitzi: There is a related idea that ‘no’ is not a rejection but a redirection. Do you have a story where you got a ‘no’ to an opportunity, but that led to an even better opportunity or unexpected success?
Joe: I’ve learned in sales that ‘’No’ means ‘not now’, especially in CPG and the grocery world. The buyers were new to this concept. No one had really eaten ice cream out of a pouch before. They would ask, “What is it? I don’t get it. It doesn’t make any sense.”
I utilized that Hollywood buzz. I won’t name the retailer, but we were getting a lot of yeses from people. We had an incredible launch in LA; it was like nothing else. The president of Gelson’s said he had never seen anything like it. People were buying it by the case. Then we got our first ‘no’ about seven or eight months in from a decent-sized retailer. They said, “I just don’t get it. People aren’t going to purchase it because they don’t understand how to eat it. What does CVT mean?” It stands for Chocolate Vanilla Twist, by the way.
I accepted it, but then I had a hard problem to solve. I wondered how I could fix it. I realized I probably couldn’t; some people just aren’t going to like it. I’ll be a name-dropper here for a second: a week after he said no, Jimmy Kimmel was hosting the Oscars and asked if I would cater the show with pouches. I agreed. We catered the show, and both Jimmy and I posted about it. A week later, my sales guy called me and said, “Hey, that market that said no, they changed their mind.” I was shocked. He explained that they didn’t want to miss out on something that was about to blow up.
I tried to learn from that moment that ‘no’ means ‘not now’ . It’s just knowing that we have a great product and needing more patience. I have thick skin from before ice cream. I pursued TV and film for a long time, so rejection is normal. I know there are gatekeepers, and I am used to it by now. When people say no, I just say, “Okay, you don’t get it. On to the next.”
Yitzi: Do you have any exciting initiatives you’re working on now? Exciting developments, new stores?
Joe: We just launched with our first national grocery retailer two months ago, Sprouts. We’re in all of their stores nationwide and launched two exclusive flavors with them, strawberry and coffee, which has been going really well.
The big initiative we are working on right now is talking with a number of major movie theater chains and other food service groups..They love that it’s no mess and there’s no machine that can break. You aren’t getting messy ice cream all over the ground everywhere. There’s a lot of opportunity in food service. We currently sell them individually, and the average person is buying three or four at a time, so we’re now talking with places like Costco and Sam’s Club to do a box of them. Maybe new flavors down the road, too.
What gets me so excited is that it’s not just a grocery product. A lot of people in CPG focus solely on hitting numbers in grocery. For us, that’s just one of our verticals. We can go to airlines, hotels, theme parks, colleges — you name it. There’s a lot of opportunity that we haven’t even tapped into yet.
Yitzi: That is awesome. I don’t think I have ever seen an ice cream pouch before. I have seen it with yogurt and applesauce, so it is very unique. Where did that inspiration come from?
Joe: The inspiration comes from more ridiculous stories. I have four boys. The younger ones of the group are identical twins. They were very little when we were working on this idea.
People would buy soft serve from the truck in a cup with a dome lid on top and take it home. I would ask them how it tastes, and they would say, “We take it out of the freezer, and if you take a spoonful, it tastes like a pint. But if you let it melt, it starts to taste like your ice cream again.” I wondered how I could sell a melting product.
I tried to take advantage of my resources. My wife had empty, unused breast milk pouches at our house for the twins. I started taking those breast milk pouches and filling them on the ice cream machine off my truck, just to try it. I would freeze them and give them to my friends. They asked what it was, and I told them to just try it. They loved it and I knew we were onto something here.”
The real trick was trying to figure out how to make it taste creamy, exactly like it came out of the machine, without using chemicals. That took about two years of work. When I finally figured it out, I got two patent attorneys involved because I knew we definitely had something. It took a lot of time and money, but it was absolutely worth it. I even put on the back of the packaging that I am sure there will be copycats down the road, but I wanted to put my stake in the ground as the original for soft serve ice cream in a pouch.
Yitzi: Amazing. So you have a significant moat.
Joe: Yes. Absolutely. I will tell you another crazy thing that happened early on with this product. I went to a local friend in LA who is a restaurateur and asked, “Hey, would you consider selling this at one of your pizza places?” He replied, “Joe, you are not thinking big enough.” I asked him what he meant — Dodger Stadium or concerts? He said, “Concerts. I know a guy at Live Nation; you should talk to him.”
I thought it was a blow-off meeting. I went to Live Nation’s Beverly Hills offices and I hadn’t even made the product yet. All I had was a prototype that a Hollywood prop master had made for me and the breast milk pouches. I told them, “This is what it is going to look like, and this is what it tastes like.”
The head of food and beverage at Live Nation stopped the meeting about 10 minutes in and said, “You just solved my dessert problem. I can’t sell ice cream at concerts; it’s too messy.” We tested at 10 venues and then later became the official ice cream of Live Nation amphitheaters across the country.
It was all from a chance meeting through a friend of a friend. My big soapbox belief is that you should celebrate your luck. I’m not embarrassed by it. I know so many founders who act tough, claiming they did everything themselves. I worked really hard, and we have a great product, but if people didn’t open doors for me, it wouldn’t matter. I don’t think people want to admit that.
Last summer I spoke to a group of college interns at Live Nation — a lot of really smart Ivy League kids. I told them, “I know they aren’t telling you this in school, and I know you don’t want to hear this, but there is so much luck involved.” No one wants to believe it. When someone tells me a success story, I always ask, “Who helped you? How did you get to where you are? “ The conversation usually ends quickly; people don’t like to talk about it.
I got crazy lucky, and I feel like I still get crazy lucky. We have a major distributor coming on board. The way we secured that was because one of the employees’ wives went to the grocery store, tried CVT, and went home to tell her husband, “Oh my god, you have to try this.” Then they called us and the rest is history. That’s crazy luck. Had she not gone to the grocery store, we wouldn’t have that opportunity. Yes, we have a great product, and we were in the store, but there are so many little things. You can’t see them in the moment, but sometimes when you look back, you realize that if that person hadn’t done that for you, you’d never be here. If people tell you they did everything on their own and built it from the ground up, I am sure they did work hard, but they also probably got a check from someone or had a door opened for them.
Yitzi: This is our signature question. Joe, you have been blessed with a lot of success now, and you must have learned a lot from your experiences. Looking back all the way to the beginning when you first started your ice cream business, can you share five things that you’ve learned over the years that would have been nice to know in the beginning?
Joe:
First, everything takes a lot longer than you think. 100%.
Second, this is going to sound pessimistic, but believe nothing of what you hear and only half of what you see. With social media, everything in this world is curated now. I don’t believe any of it. People ask what I mean by half of what you see, and I tell them it’s fake; it’s AI. I want to see it for myself, and even then, I still don’t know if I believe it. That is probably not a very forward-thinking, optimistic way to be in the world, but it’s true.
Focus on the product 100%. Focus on your craft and worry about the accolades later. Social media ruins that; people think it’s an overnight success. You have to have the goods, and then people will find you. That’s hard to hear because you see so much on the internet and wonder why someone else got an opportunity while you didn’t. Comparison is death.
I would definitely say to go all in on what you are good at and focus on that. Don’t worry about the external factors, like how you are going to raise the money or get into a specific store. If it’s good, people will find you. It sounds cheesy when they say, “If you build it, they will come,” but it’s been the truth for our business.
Yitzi: Can you share some of the self-care routines that you do to help your body, mind, and heart to thrive?
Joe: I have two ice cream trucks and four children. My self-care is terrible, and I don’t know what work-life balance is. When I say that, I sound like a horrible dad, but my real job is taking care of my family. I probably should be getting up at four o’clock in the morning to go running, but I’m too exhausted from work. For self-care, try to take breaks. It’s easier said than done. Try to have moments and realize that you can put an email off until tomorrow. Definitely try to find some space to take time away. Any business owner will tell you that vacation doesn’t exist. Sure, you might be in a different place, but you’re still dealing with fires every single day. You have to be prepared for that if you’re going to get into any entrepreneurial business. The real self-care would be just to step away from it and turn your phone off, but I don’t know how to do that.
If I am ever fortunate enough to sell this company, my phone is truly going in the garbage. I’m a huge fan of Bill Murray; I grew up watching all of his movies. I threw a Bill Murray ice cream social, and he showed up to the truck. It was a crazy viral story. If you Google “Bill Murray ice cream,” you will see CVT. There’s been a lore about him having an 800 number, and it is true.You have to figure out how to get the 800 number, and he has an answering machine. Bill is truly in the moment, and when he wants to check and see if people are trying to reach him, he’ll just go to his answering machine.
That’s the dream for me at some point. One day, I would love to just be completely disconnected. Growing up, cell phones weren’t a thing. I can’t imagine leaving the house without my phone now. What if I get a flat tire? What if my wife needs something? Through the Live Nation partnership, we went on a crazy tour. I took my kids to 33 concerts in three months. We went around the country upgrading people to the front row and buying them ice cream. It was really fun. I told my kids that when I was younger, if you ever got lost at a concert with your friends, you were just lost. There was no texting. You would designate a meetup spot like, “Hey, if anyone gets lost, we are going to meet by that bathroom over there.” Trying to step away from technology is great, and I am looking forward to doing that one day.
Yitzi: Joe, how can our readers continue to follow your work? How could they purchase your ice cream, and how can they support your work in any possible way?
Joe: Our website is CVTSoftServe.com, and all of our socials are @cvtsoftserve. On our website, we also have a locator where people can find us. Finally, a question I was able to easily answer!
Yitzi: Do I need to order it and get it shipped to Baltimore?
Joe: Yes, you can get it shipped to Baltimore, but you don’t even have to. We are in Harris Teeter, Giant, Wegmans,and Sprouts. You can also find it on DoorDash.
Here is a store locator and an online ordering site.
Store Locator: https://cvtsoftserve.com/locator/
Online Ordering: https://www.healthygoodness.com/collections/cvt-soft-serve
I joked with my wife — I said, “I feel like I have no authority in this household and I’m about to do an interview with Authority Magazine.” My kids laughed about that because they all love to make fun of me. I don’t crack the whip at home, and they run all over me. I’m too much of a softie.
Yitzi: You are the official soft ice cream authority.
Joe: Exactly!
Yitzi: Amazing. Well, Joe, it has been a delight to meet you, honestly. It has been really wonderful, and I wish you continued success and good health. I hope we can touch base again next year.
Joe: I am going to tell my kids that I am in charge and have authority. This interview is the proof.
Yitzi: Exactly. Amazing. Well, Joe, thank you so much. It was nice meeting you.
Joe: Likewise. Have a great day.
CVT Soft Serve Founder Joe Nicchi on Turning an Ice Cream Truck Into a National Brand and Why Luck… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.