"Hiring slowly leads to having passionate and self-motivated colleagues."
Welcome to ValiantCEO Magazine’s exclusive interview with Neil Hershman, the visionary entrepreneur and CEO of 16 Handles, a rapidly growing and innovative player in the world of frozen desserts.
In this candid conversation, we delve into the extraordinary journey of Neil Hershman, who started his career in the world of finance and astrophysics, only to later embark on an entrepreneurial adventure that has reshaped the landscape of frozen desserts in the United States.
Hershman’s story is one of passion, dedication, and a relentless pursuit of perfection.
From his initial encounter with a seemingly passive investment in a 16 Handles store to his transformative vision for the brand, he has not only demonstrated exceptional business acumen but has also shown what it takes to challenge the status quo in the highly competitive world of frozen yogurt.
As we sit down with Neil Hershman, he shares his insights on business achievements, the art of keeping employees happy, and the challenges he has encountered along the way. In a world of ever-evolving consumer trends and a shifting business landscape, Hershman’s wisdom and experience provide invaluable lessons for both aspiring entrepreneurs and seasoned business leaders.
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Table of Contents
We are thrilled to have you join us today, welcome to ValiantCEO Magazine’s exclusive interview! Let’s start off with a little introduction. Tell our readers a bit about yourself and your company.
Neil Hershman: Thanks for having me! Sure, my name is Neil Hershman, and my company 16 Handles, is one of the fastest-growing frozen dessert concepts in the USA. I originally graduated from college with a degree in finance and astrophysics, then went on to work for a structured credit asset manager and hedge fund, where I got the chance to understand how money moves.
I loved the work I was doing, especially in M&A and valuation, but it wasn’t a fulfilling career, so I resigned for my own entrepreneurial ventures. After some success with various companies, I acquired a 16 Handles store in midtown Manhattan as a passive “turnkey” investment…or so I thought.
Even though the store had 10 years of profits behind it, I realized there were a lot of inefficiencies I could clean up, so I worked the store every day and nearly doubled the expected return.
What I loved about franchising was the scalability of it, so I looked into acquiring other stores with similar issues and repeating my process. I then began to build new stores where I saw undeveloped markets and learned a lot about retail construction and how to open a 16 Handles frozen yogurt store end to end.
I knew the concept could be so much bigger and more successful with new, active leadership at the brand level, so I put in an offer to acquire. Now, just over a year later, we are seeing unprecedented growth with scores on new stores under construction in new territories stretching across the east coast and Boston, and many of our 30 existing stores are seeing year-over-year growth.
Quiet quitting, The Great Resignation, are an ongoing trend causing many businesses to struggle to keep talent engaged and motivated. Most are leaving because of their boss or their company culture. 82% of people feel unheard, undervalued, and misunderstood in the workplace. In your experience, what keeps employees happy? And how are you adapting to the current shift we see?
Neil Hershman: I have always operated lean, valuing a few amazing employees rather than a lot of okay ones.
This makes the hiring process more difficult, but by having patience, I have surrounded myself with zealous and self-motivated coworkers.
When everybody is involved with multiple facets of the company, and we’re able to execute decisions and turn around projects quickly, everyone has that sense of fulfillment that larger, bureaucratic companies usually don’t.
We do hybrid remote, and I’m a fan of working flexible hours – for example, I’m a night owl and consistently do some of my best work late in the evening.
Here is a two-fold question: What is the book that influenced you the most and how? Please share some life lessons you learned. Now what book have you gifted the most and why?
Neil Hershman: Wow, that’s a tough one. Both Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand and Endurance by Alfred Lansing immediately come to mind as favorites, and both share a common theme about perseverance and overcoming insurmountable odds.
Outside of the office, I’m an endurance junkie and mountain climber, having raced a 700-mile triathlon and climbed Ama Dablam and Mt. Everest, so those stories have helped me when I’ve been in tough spots thinking about giving up.
I take those lessons to my work ethic, too – just keep grinding, even when the odds seem against you or the workload is too great – eventually, you figure it out and succeed if you never give up.
Business is all about overcoming obstacles and creating opportunities for growth. What do you see as THE real challenge right now?
Neil Hershman: At 16 Handles, one of the biggest challenges I’ve faced is how to help franchisees build stores around the country simultaneously while giving them all the tools for success they need. Fortunately, I’m surrounded by experienced professionals who use a decade of experience running successful stores to teach these new entrepreneurial operators.
However, I still feel personally invested in each franchisee’s success and want to make sure every detail of every location is perfect.
To help, I’ve further invested in technology and software, and now our tech stack includes CRMs and onboarding software that is so far in advance of our competitors, so we’re moving in the right direction, and all the stress forced me to think outside the box, which will have substantial long-term benefits for our company and franchisees.
Additionally, I think this prolonged inflationary period has been tough to navigate in the retail food industry, and consumers are a bit more cash-tight today than they were a few months ago, so we’ve got to make sure we are smart with our pricing strategies.
In your experience, what tends to be the most underestimated part of running a company? Can you share an example?
Neil Hershman: Software implementation has been a greater challenge than I had hoped. We are investing in an excellent tech stack, but with that, we have been transitioning away from the “status quo” software, and I’ve done a lot of the heavy lifting myself to ensure our new technology is perfect.
As a brand, we need to be relevant and consistent and to do that, we must integrate technology between the store operations and the consumer marketing.
It all has to speak to each other, and we have to use data to get smarter, fix issues, and serve our customers better.
What does “success” in 2023 mean to you? It could be on a personal or business level, please share your vision.
Neil Hershman: Success for 16 Handles will be the smile on the new franchisees’ faces as we help them open their locations to a huge crowd in their local communities.
I don’t like to talk about our competition, but everyone else in frozen dessert and frozen yogurt has gone stale, and we are about to explode with new stores opening across the country.
The grand openings are each so special to everyone on our team, so those are the big payoffs.
Jed Morley, VIP Contributor to ValiantCEO and the host of this interview would like to thank Neil Hershman for taking the time to do this interview and share his knowledge and experience with our readers.
If you would like to get in touch with Neil Hershman or his company, you can do it through his – Linkedin Page
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