Jon Snyder is not your average entrepreneur. He has actually established the same business for the second time. Inspired by stints in his Italian grandmother's ice-cream parlor, he left school at 19 and launched his own ice cream business. For six years, he worked long and hard at building up the business, putting in seven days a week, and was rewarded, at 25, with a burnout. He decided to heed the signs and sold his first business "Ciao Bella" which laid the groundwork for a large company that, today, sells ice cream in many parts of the US.
Sixteen years have passed since then. A long time, in which Jon took a completely different direction. After going back to college and earning his MBA at Columbia, he went on to trade shares on Wall Street. First for Lehman Brothers, then for ABN Amro. Yet, Jon says, he was never able to recapture that excitement, that impetus to get up in the morning and rush to work, the get-up-and-go that he had felt in his first venture. So he decided to give it another whirl. And that has turned out to be an excellent decision.
Today, Jon creates gelato flavors in close cooperation with New York's best chefs which are then offered exclusively in their respective restaurants. "The Lab" – as it is called - has invented and produces over 200 new gelato creations. Actually, it took only a short while before Jon and his select team found themselves affiliated with the most sought-after restaurateurs in the Big Apple. Such is the demand that the two gelato machines churn away non-stop 10 hours a day.
