Walking through the ice cream aisle of their local grocery store, Paul Reiss and Michael Meadows could not find the one thing they were hoping to find — protein-packed ice cream. The two friends and then-college students decided they would have to come up with a solution themselves, bought a tabletop ice cream maker and began creating their own protein ice cream.
Just a year and a half following their walk through the ice cream aisle, Reiss and Meadows had their ice cream, aptly named Protein Pints, in stores. Protein Pints offers seven flavors of protein ice cream, ranging from chocolate to mint chip, with each pint containing 30 grams of protein.
The Protein Pints cofounders had not initially planned to turn their desire for a protein-filled frozen dessert into a business opportunity. Reiss, studying accounting and finance at Aquinas College, was a collegiate soccer player and Meadows, studying computer science engineering and entrepreneurship at the University of Michigan, was passionate about weightlifting and bodybuilding — the lifelong friends were both just hoping to find a way to combine their love for ice cream with their protein goals.
After just a short time making various protein ice creams for their own personal enjoyment, however, Reiss and Meadows quickly realized the broad appeal of their product.
“It’s wholly surpassed all of our expectations for the market acceptance for this product and the number of people who are purchasing and enjoying the product,” Meadows said. “This still blows our mind.”
The two brought on a third cofounder, Chris McKellar, who had previously founded Love’s Ice Cream. Partnering with McKellar allowed the two college students to begin formulating a product for a mass market in the Love’s Ice Cream’s kitchen.
Trying out thousands of samples and tweaking the product based on feedback from local community members, the trio of cofounders eventually found a delectable mixture and prepared to put Protein Pints on the market.
Producing Protein Pints at McKellar’s ice cream facility, the brand entered several Meijer stores to expand their retail sales, and the company continued rapidly growing from there.
When Reiss and Meadows first decided to expand their protein ice cream into a whole business, they both left college to pursue the company’s growth. Shortly after leaving, amid quick success of the company, they realized that college presented several opportunities to scale Protein Pints even further.
Through Michigan State University’s Burgess Institute for Entrepreneurship & Innovation, the cofounders were able to connect with resources that helped them secure over $200,000 in funding from pitch competitions across the country.
Michigan State University’s biggest asset to Protein Pints — beyond its educational programming and resources for entrepreneurship — may have been the school’s on-site dairy complex where the university produced their own ice cream. Once Protein Pints began producing its signature ice cream in the university’s dairy facility, they were able to scale production to make thousands of pints simultaneously.
Just as Protein Pints went from producing tens to thousands of ice cream pints at a time, the company went from being in just over ten stores to being in more than 8,000, including Target, Kroger, and Sprouts Farmers Market, in under two years.
“It’s honestly surreal,” Meadows said. “It’s also very motivating that we now have this platform to create new products, new recipes, new flavors and to put it out there, and for it to be nearly instantly on a national scale is just really exciting.”
Despite the rapid growth Protein Pints experienced while Meadows and Reiss utilized Michigan State University’s resources for student entrepreneurs, that immense success also meant that the cofounders would need to dedicate even more time to the company if they wanted to see it grow further, so they once again made the decision to leave college.
Meadows said college can be a valuable opportunity for any student entrepreneurs due to the vast amount of resources and people that universities’ entrepreneurship programs can give you access to.
“Don’t wait for the right idea and just start working on something,” Reiss said.
What started as a snack intended for two friends to make at home with a tabletop ice cream maker has transformed into a company not only producing delicious frozen desserts, but also helping people with their health.
Reiss said Protein Pints has heard feedback from various customers about how consuming Protein Pints has helped them add more protein in their diet, enjoy ice cream without their blood sugar spiking and even helped them lose weight.
“That’s just like the best feeling in the world, you know, that the product is making such a huge impact on people’s lives and really helping people,” Reiss said.
Protein Pints is flourishing in a market continuously seeing the rise of protein-packed products, both on retail shelves and in home kitchens. Many grocery stores carry protein chips, protein pancakes, protein cookies and now, thanks to Protein Pints, protein ice cream.
While protein has always been a core macronutrient, recent years have seen its popularization in nutrition trends, whether that is in the form of high-protein snacks or in influencers dedicated to consuming as much protein if possible.
The friends-turned-cofounders have formed a super team that is building a million-dollar business. With Meadows focusing on operations, Reiss handling marketing and investments, and McKellar perfecting the company’s ice cream recipes, Protein Pints has generated more than $10 million in revenue this year alone.
To put a cherry on top of the company’s sweet success, Reiss and Meadows were recently recognized on Forbes’ 30 Under 30 list in the Food & Drink category.
Protein Pints is only beginning its journey and the cofounders are already looking ahead at continued expansion and the next set of flavors to satisfy everyone’s sweet tooth.
“Everything goes back to just how great the product is and how beneficial it is and how much it is actually helping people, and how the right timing of consumers’ education around protein, cleaner ingredients, macronutrients — all those things came together all at once to create this perfect storm for Protein Pints to exist,” Meadows said.