Female Disruptors: Katy Flannery and Gwen Burlingame of Beckon Ice Cream On The Three Things You Need To Shake Up Your Industry
An Interview With Candice Georgiadis
Celebrate successes of any size — there will always be times when you have to overcome challenges in business, it is important to celebrate both the bigger and smaller wins.
As a part of our series about women who are shaking things up in their industry, I had the pleasure of interviewing Katy Flannery and Gwen Burlingame.
Katy and Gwen are on a mission to bring back REAL ice cream to all. Katy grew up loving ice cream but couldn’t indulge the way she used to when she became lactose intolerant, and Gwen’s sympathetic sweet tooth wanted to be able to share from the same pint. Together, Katy and Gwen are Beckon’s fearless founders leading this women owned business forward.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit more. Can you tell us a bit about your “backstory”? What led you to this particular career path?
Katy: I grew up loving ice cream. It was something that my family always shared together, but when I was in high school, I became lactose intolerant and couldn’t enjoy the treat I loved. Before starting Beckon, I was an RN in the Pediatric ICU at Boston Children’s hospital. My nursing education helped me understand what lactose intolerance is, what my body was missing, and how lactose free foods could help solve this problem. I was able to leverage what I learned in chemistry, anatomy, and physiology classes to help create Beckon’s patented process.
Gwen: I have always been a foodie, huge ice cream lover, and interested in entrepreneurship. When Katy first approached me with the idea of starting Beckon Ice Cream, I was working in marketing for a beauty company. Our shared passions provided that extra push and (wo)man power to get the idea off the ground.
Can you tell our readers what it is about the work you’re doing that’s disruptive?
Beckon has a truly unique USP because we are the first premium lactose-free ice cream made with clean ingredients on the market. By adding in the lactase enzyme, Beckon allows everyone to be able to enjoy ice cream again. People who are lactose intolerant can finally feel good about eating real dairy ice cream and are able to enjoy it with their family and friends! Add on the component of Beckon being a women-owned business and you have a new level of being disruptive.
Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
One of our popular ice cream flavors is our Sea Salt Chocolate Chip (comes in both a pint and a quart)! The best part about this fan-favorite, is that it began as an accident. Back when Beckon was a Farmer’s Market only product, too much salt was accidentally added to our classic vanilla flavor. After including some chocolate chips to the mix with the intention for a quick fix that was never to be duplicated… it sold out! To this day, our delicious Sea Salt Chocolate Chip flavor continued to be a favorite. Lesson learned that sometimes serendipitous accidents happen, and they are blessings in disguise.
We all need a little help along the journey. Who have been some of your mentors? Can you share a story about how they made an impact?
We have an incredible network of friends and partners who are always willing to help. We’ve received great advice along the way, and continued reminders that help us stay sane when things get a bit crazy.
In today’s parlance, being disruptive is usually a positive adjective. But is disrupting always good? When do we say the converse, that a system or structure has ‘withstood the test of time’? Can you articulate to our readers when disrupting an industry is positive, and when disrupting an industry is ‘not so positive’? Can you share some examples of what you mean?
The nature of Beckon allows us to be disruptive because this concept has never been done before, but also allows us to tap into a need that hasn’t been met. The Beckon customer is not someone who will try and move on. We find that once a Beckon fan, always a Beckon fan.
Can you share 3 of the best words of advice you’ve gotten along your journey? Please give a story or example for each.
1. Don’t be afraid to ask for advice — it is always important to surround yourself with intelligent people who can help teach you things in business. Sometimes all you need is someone in your corner who can help you see something from another perspective.
2. Take the time to learn the different strengths of your team members — every person has something different that they do well that will make the team succeed, so harness those strengths!
3. Celebrate successes of any size — there will always be times when you have to overcome challenges in business, it is important to celebrate both the bigger and smaller wins.
We are sure you aren’t done. How are you going to shake things up next?
We’re always innovating new flavors, so stay tuned for the next one!
In your opinion, what are the biggest challenges faced by ‘women disruptors’ that aren’t typically faced by their male counterparts?
Being a women-owned business comes with its own unique set of challenges, especially when it comes to raising capital. When it comes to female-founded companies, less than 2% of those businesses even make it to $1 million in revenue, and this is a problem that has not changed in the last 25 years. These challenges have inspired us to work even harder as a team to bring Beckon to our customers. One of the important parts of owning a women owned business for us is having the responsibility of not only wanting to succeed for ourselves but also wanting to succeed in order to set the stage for other women in the industry.
Do you have a book/podcast/talk that’s had a deep impact on your thinking? Can you share a story with us?
One of our favorite quotes is from Martha Washington: “I’ve learned from experience that the greater part of our happiness or misery depends on our disposition and not on our circumstances.” There will always be ups and downs, in real life and in startup life, but it’s important to keep perspective through it. We constantly need to remind ourselves of this, since startup life can be a rollercoaster.
You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
We want to inspire women and girls that when they see an obstacle or issue, to feel empowered to try to change it or create a solution.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
Someone once told me that your team doesn’t work for you, you work for your team. This is great advice because when you give your best, you get their best and you push yourself further than you thought you could go. We are so grateful for our small and mighty team, and have continued to prove to ourselves that you don’t need to be a big team to make big things happen.
How can our readers follow you online?
You can find us on all social channels @beckonicecream as well as on beckonicecream.com
This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for joining us!
Female Disruptors: Katy Flannery and Gwen Burlingame of Beckon Ice Cream On The Three Things You… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.