FLIES IN THE OINTMENT: Each KaBloom store costs about $250,000 to open, five times as much as a traditional florist.
THE "JERRY LEWIS" FACTOR: The makers of Coca-Cola say that European and American tastes aren't all that different. Don't believe 'em. --Marc Ballon
3. The Young and The Caloric
COMPANY: Jeremy's MicroBatch Ice Creams, Philadelphia
YEAR FOUNDED: 1997
CONCEPT: Apply the beer industry's microbrew strategy to ice cream, making the product in small quantities and selling it in limited editions
PRINCIPAL: Jeremy Kraus, 23, president and founder
PROJECTIONS: Growing from revenues of $1 million in 1998 to $5 million to $10 million this year
FUNDING: $70,000 that Kraus raised from selling personal stock; more than $1 million in venture capital from Bluestem Capital Partners
BIRTH LEGEND: Kraus wasn't old enough to drink when the microbrewery wave transformed the beer industry, in the 1980s. But a decade later, as an undergraduate at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, he wondered if the same model--high-quality ingredients, unusual flavors, and loads of cachet--would work with ice cream. He did a feasibility analysis and a business plan as part of his class assignments, then launched the company in his junior year.
WHAT'S TO LOVE: Youth can be a handicap--but not in the ice-cream business. By plastering his own collegiate-looking mug on the product's packaging and appearing in person at ice-cream samplings, Kraus broadcasts the message that there really is a Jeremy behind Jeremy's MicroBatch. And Kraus's strategy of becoming ice-cream supplier to Generations X and Y, a market that rivals the baby boomers in size, could give the company real staying power, says Dairy Foods chief editor Dave Fusaro. With that in mind, Jeremy's uses college students to taste-test new products and put coupons for free pints on the windshields of cars that have gotten parking tickets.
Jeremy's also stands to benefit from recent changes in the relationship between Ben & Jerry's and its longtime distributor Dreyer's. The start-up quickly cut a deal to let Dreyer's handle its products in the New York area, and Kraus hopes to work with Dreyer's in other territories as well. That should help Jeremy's reach its goal of being sold in 5,000 convenience stores and supermarkets from Maine to Arizona by the end of this year.
FLIES IN THE OINTMENT: Competition for space in the nation's dairy freezers is fierce, and HÄagen-Dazs and Ben & Jerry's have both begun releasing their own limited-edition flavors.
THE "127 MILLION VIEWERS" FACTOR: In January, Jeremy's won a 30-second ad during the Super Bowl in a contest sponsored by Mail Boxes Etc. The exposure has helped the company with its pitches to distributors, and after the Broncos won, Kraus says, "we got into basically all the Denver grocery stores and convenience stores overnight." --Emily Barker
4. A Spot In The Dark
COMPANY: Glow Dog Inc., Concord, Mass.
YEAR FOUNDED: 1997
CONCEPT: Sell light-reflective clothing for pets and the people who walk them
PRINCIPAL: Beth Marcus, 41, CEO, president, and founder
PROJECTIONS: Growing from $85,000 in 1998 to $1.2 million this year. "We anticipate that we're going to grow Glow Dog to $5 million to $10 million and then buy somebody else or be sold," says Marcus, who is also considering going public.
FUNDING: $80,000 of founder's capital and $800,000 from outside investors (another $2-million round of financing is planned for this year)
BIRTH LEGEND: Marcus and her cockapoo, Luke, were out for a constitutional one evening when a car almost struck them. "My neighbor came driving around the corner, and we had to leap into the bushes to get out of the way," Marcus recalls. "I wasn't wearing particularly dark clothing, and Luke has a light coat, but this guy didn't see us at all." At the time Marcus was a consultant to start-up Reflective Technologies Inc., a maker of a glow-in-the-dark fabric called IllumiNite. Reflective was targeting nocturnal joggers, a strictly two-legged market. Quadrupeds, Marcus thought, represented a whole other opportunity.
WHAT'S TO LOVE: With its message that healthy pets have shiny coats, Glow Dog is poised auspiciously at the intersection of two trends. Pets today "are frequently considered companions and members of the family," says Bill Schoolman, executive vice-president of the American Pet Products Manufacturers Association. As a result, the $25-billion market for pet supplies and services is growing 4% a year, and the safety-products niche is expanding. Meanwhile, safety products for nocturnal athletes are more popular than ever: worldwide sales of reflective clothing are expected to grow to $7.5 billion in the next few years.
