Halo Top Co-Founder and Georgetown Alumnus Doug Bouton Speaks with Students about Entrepreneurship

Georgetown University alumnus Doug Bouton (C’07) visited the McDonough School of Business on Feb. 20 to speak with students about entrepreneurship and his journey to co-founding Halo Top Creamery, an ice cream company that focuses on low calorie, light ice cream that still tastes like ice cream.

Among other accolades, in August 2017 Halo Top became the #1 selling pint of ice cream in the United States, and in November 2017, Time Magazine named Halo Top one of its top inventions of the year. Bouton currently serves as CEO of Halo Top International.

Jeff Reid, founding director of Georgetown Entrepreneurship, invited Bouton back to Georgetown to share his experiences with current students and aspiring entrepreneurs.

“I really enjoy engaging with students, hearing from them, sharing my story, and hopefully helping them in some way. I try to make sure that when I come back, I engage in a dialogue with everyone — not a monologue or speech delivered at a podium. I’m not comfortable speaking at people; I want to talk with them,” said Bouton.

At Georgetown, Bouton spoke to MBA students in Professor Arun Gupta’s Entrepreneurial Finance and Venture Capital course, had a conversation with Reid in front of an audience of over 100 Hoyas as part of the Paul and Carol Hill Distinguished Lecture Series, and spoke to alumni at Georgetown’s inaugural Food Entrepreneurs Summit at the Georgetown Venture Lab in downtown Washington, D.C.

He discussed ways Halo Top has differentiated itself in the crowded ice cream and frozen dessert market. “For food and beverage, product quality trumps brand. If your product is objectively better than your direct competitor’s, that will keep consumers coming back,” Bouton said during his conversation with Reid.

In 2015, Halo Top redesigned its packaging to tout its low calorie count per pint. “Our biggest differentiator was our calorie count — let’s smack that right on front. If you try to say everything, you say nothing, so we honed in on this single message,” he said.

Bouton also offered words of wisdom to the student entrepreneurs in the audience.

“When times get really tough, have faith in your concept, go to work at one task at a time, and seek out advice,” he said.