“My daughters seemed disappointed … so we wrote the idea in their invention journal,” Fonte said. “We signed it and then the next day I went into work, and I started asking my engineer friends, ‘Do you think we could freeze six ounces of ice cream in a minute?’”

“Marketing is about storytelling,” he said. “It’s about connecting with people. And mastering those fundamentals like empathy, insights, what motivates people, how to connect with people through story and words—that is the craft.”

“My whole life is dedicated to studying what happens with the clash between idealistic educators and the reality of politics and power,” he said. “Our society has become more and more grotesquely unequal, and that’s really bad for childhood well-being.”

“Everyday there were and still are tough challenges, whether that’s product market fit, fundraising, building the team, or programming,” McDermott said. “There were multiple times when we wondered if it would even work or be able to stay alive. Some of our highest highs and lowest lows have happened in the span of the same day. It’s very much how a startup works.”

“We’re constantly producing chocolate,” Addison said. “We’re roasting, we’re grinding the beans, we’re molding chocolate or packaging. So every day is a little bit different. Depending on the order, sometimes we’re doing chocolate tasting events.”