Ben & Jerry's

The company was founded on May 5, 1978 by longtime friends, former hippies Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield, who had previously taken an ice cream making course at the University of Pennsylvania. With a $12,000 investment, they opened an ice cream parlor in a former gas station in Burlington, Vermont, with the intention of making money in a year, buying a truck, and doing long-distance trucking. However, the cafe quickly gained popularity in the city, and in 1979 the owners celebrated the anniversary of the start of the business with a free ice cream day, which later became celebrated throughout the country.