Keeping Your Cool In Business: Natasha Case, Coolhaus

<p>If your memories of ice cream are mostly from childhood, Natasha Case would like a word. Her company, <a href="https://cool.haus/" target="_blank">Coolhaus</a>, is bringing sweet icy desserts into the millennial mindset: she launched at Coachella back in 2009, and Coolhaus’s 2021 lineup includes mouth-watering flavours like cereal milk, cannoli, and churros, all delivered in cute illustrated packaging. </p><p><br /> </p><p>Before she even got started, Natasha wanted to “change the game” when it came to ice cream and who it was for. Freya, Natasha’s wife and co-founder, is a woman of colour, and they were both tapping their identities as queer women and millennials.  “We saw this opportunity to be pioneering,” she says. Without much food experience—Natasha was fired from her one and only catering gig—they launched into the ice cream business headfirst, convinced that if they didn’t shoot their shot, someone else would. “The recession had just hit, it was just way too risky.” Their first “ice cream truck” was a “barely driveable” former postal vehicle they had towed (!!) to 2009 Coachella. Since the truck was more set dressing than operable business location, they gamely set up a tent beside it, and started serving. </p><p><br /> </p><p>Natasha knew that Coachella’s crowd was who they wanted to focus on as their core audience: millennial, highly influenced by the desert heat and music fest vibe, armed with expendable income, and in a heightened state where “you might be buying a lot of ice cream and eating all of it.” For Natasha, she wanted to connect her product with people’s memories of their Coachella experience. </p><p><br /> </p><p>Natasha and Freya started with a <a href="https://www.agilealliance.org/glossary/mvp/" target="_blank">minimum-viable-product</a> mentality, and knew that if Coolhaus flopped, it would be a fun experiment, not a financial catastrophe. They planned for a little bit of success—a website with some pictures, a Twitter handle, a logo, and they filed the business through <a href="http