pitch unfairly

Cheat Codes · Strategy and planning

Ben & Jerry's, 1978. Pitched unfairly, 2026.

Two friends, a $5 course, and an old gas station. Same story, same numbers. Rebuilt the way we'd pitch it today.

Template: Business plan

  • $5 course
  • $12,000 to open
  • May 5, 1978
Play the 2026 deck Read the real story Steal the structure
1978 Business plan

Ben & Jerry's

Two friends, a $5 course, and an old gas station.

Legend
Original craft
Unfair

The story→12 slides

It's a live deck. Press start, then scroll or use the arrow keys, or play it full screen.

Play the 2026 deck

Ben & Jerry's business plan, slide by slide

Every slide opens the live deck right where it is.

  1. Ben & Jerry's deck, slide 1: Homemade ice cream, in an old gas station. 01Homemade ice cream, in an old gas station.
  2. Ben & Jerry's deck, slide 2: Burlington is a college town with nowhere to get a cone. 02Burlington is a college town with nowhere to get a cone.
  3. Ben & Jerry's deck, slide 3: Dense, homemade ice cream with chunks you can find. 03Dense, homemade ice cream with chunks you can find.
  4. Ben & Jerry's deck, slide 4: One downtown corner, between the campus and the lake. 04One downtown corner, between the campus and the lake.
  5. Ben & Jerry's deck, slide 5: Our toughest competitor isn't another shop. It's January. 05Our toughest competitor isn't another shop. It's January.
  6. Ben & Jerry's deck, slide 6: Our ad budget is a bedsheet and a brick wall. 06Our ad budget is a bedsheet and a brick wall.
  7. Ben & Jerry's deck, slide 7: Every batch is made in-house, by a $5 education. 07Every batch is made in-house, by a $5 education.
  8. Ben & Jerry's deck, slide 8: One former ice cream man, one lab tech, friends since seventh grade. 08One former ice cream man, one lab tech, friends since seventh grade.
  9. Ben & Jerry's deck, slide 9: We need $12,000 to open, and two-thirds is ours. 09We need $12,000 to open, and two-thirds is ours.
  10. Ben & Jerry's deck, slide 10: Summer pays for winter, as long as summer sells enough cones. 10Summer pays for winter, as long as summer sells enough cones.
  11. Ben & Jerry's deck, slide 11: Three things could sink us. We have a plan for each. 11Three things could sink us. We have a plan for each.
  12. Ben & Jerry's deck, slide 12: Lend us $4,000, and we open May 5. 12Lend us $4,000, and we open May 5.

Then · 1978

How it really went

Read the real storythe company's own history, Ben & Jerry's About Us
  1. Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield, friends since seventh grade, plan a bagel shop
  2. The bagel equipment costs too much, so they switch to ice cream
  3. They take a $5 correspondence course in ice cream making from Penn State
  4. They pick Burlington, Vermont: a college town with no ice cream shop
  5. They find an old gas station at College and St. Paul, leasable a year at a time
  6. Banks turn them down over the short lease; one finally lends $4,000
  7. With $8,000 of their own, they open on May 5, 1978
  8. A good first summer, then a hard first winter
  9. On the first anniversary, they give away free cones all day

Now · 2026 · 12 slides

What we changed

  • The ledger adds itself upSources and uses of the $12,000 write themselves in, the running total ticks to the bank's third, and the $5 course gets its own line.
  • Break-even you can argue withDrag the cone price, July traffic and monthly costs; twelve months of bars show exactly how much summer has to carry the winter.
  • The corner, on a mapOur own drawing of downtown Burlington: tap the shop, the campus up the hill, Church Street, the park across the road and the lake.
  • Chunks, adjustableA chunk-size slider runs from supermarket flecks to ours, because the co-founder doing quality control tastes in texture.

Steal the structure

Build your business plan like Ben & Jerry's did.

  1. 01 The business in one line What you sell and where, in one sentence on the cover.
  2. 02 Customer and problem Who buys, and what they can't get today, shown as the reason for this place.
  3. 03 Product What makes it different, shown rather than listed.
  4. 04 Market and location Where the customers are, drawn on a map with the site pinned.
  5. 05 Competition The real alternatives, including doing nothing, with the biggest one as the hero.
  6. 06 How we'll sell The channels, cheapest first, with one clear lead.
  7. 07 Operations How the product is made and delivered, day to day.
  8. 08 Team Why these people can run it: credentials first, one playful detail.
  9. 09 Startup costs Sources and uses of funds, and how much the owners put in.
  10. 10 Break-even and year one The break-even point and first-year months, with every assumption labeled.
  11. 11 Risks A register with likelihood and a mitigation for each, biggest first.
  12. 12 The ask The amount, what it buys, the dated milestones, and how it gets repaid.

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