"A Sh#tty Goal" - Ben & Jerry’s Founder CALLS OUT Those Who Sell Their Company

Added: 2026-05-31

[00:00:00]Ben and Jerry's founder, Ben Cohen, whom I've had on, which by the way, I actually liked them. I don't like his policies, but I liked them. We had a good time together. He says, "Selling your business is a shitty goal." What does this mean? So, Ben Cohen said, "Many founders wrongly treat selling their company as the ultimate goal, arguing businesses should instead focus on long-term purpose, profitability, and shared values." Cohen spoke while promoting the free Ben & Jerry's campaign which urged current owner Magnum ice cream company to spin off the brand to investors willing to preserve its local mission social mission. The campaign has gathered gathered more than 130,000 petition signatures and stage public protests including a boycott magnum proh demonstration outside the company's annual meeting. Why activism resonated with customers. Cohen argued Ben & Jerry built unusually strong customer loyalty because it connected with his customers through shared values, not just products. He criticized corporations focused solely on maximizing short-term profits at the expense of workers, communities, and the environment. He said consumers are eager to support companies whose value align with their own, especially during the what he described as the age of Trumpism. Why Cohen opposed selling the unilever.

[00:01:10]Cohen said he opposed selling Ben & Jerry to Unilever in 2000 because he believed the company's values would not survive under ownership that did not share its mission. He now sees the ongoing dispute with Unilever as proof that concern was justified. He encouraged entrepreneurs to build meaningful businesses rather than aiming to eventually sell the company to the man. Brand purpose must be ready, not trendy. So Tom, do you do you agree with them on this? Because they act didn't they end up selling their company, Rob?

[00:01:36]>> Yeah.

[00:01:36]>> Yeah. I I thought they sold the company for a billion dollars if I'm not mistaken.

[00:01:40]>> They did.

[00:01:41]>> Yeah, they sold it for a good amount of money. It sold it for $326 million with one condition. The new owner broke it and now the co-founder wants it back.

[00:01:49]Tom, do you agree with Ben Cohen on this?

[00:01:51]>> So capitalist on Monday cash a check from Unilver back to Liberal on Tuesday.

[00:01:57]Who what this guy is funny. He was here.

[00:02:00]He had the the interview. It you ate ice cream together. You guys did. And it was that was really funny. I mean, it was entertaining, but really I I take issue with his position. It's like, okay, you want to buy the company back because you don't think Unilver did a real good thing with it. Are are you going to give your original check back? What are you going to do? Are you going to help do that? Do you want to buy it back? Use all the money that you've got to buy it back. So, I find it very ironic that on one hand, they take the check, Pat, but then on the other hand, he's criticizing capitalist system and then wants the brand back and things like this. Look, you're not the first person that sold your company to private equity or someone and saw changes. But once you've sold, the new owner has it. You want to protect your employees. You want things to happen. But for him to come out and say, "Oh, I you know, I don't like this." You know, because Unilver is is is, you know, coming out with spinning turd swirl. And that, you know, I think that's against the the the the values of the company. Well, look, it's not your company anymore and you sold it. And so I see what he's saying, but you got to remember if you were this altruistic, why did you cash the check way back when? Even if you say you you were against it, why did you do it?

[00:03:11]>> Yeah, they sold for 326. Apparently Ben got 40 million. Jerry got 10 million because they had a very small percentage of it. The company's today worth one half billion to$2.5 billion. And you know, now you're coming back saying it wasn't a good idea to sell it. Jeeoff, where are you at with this?

[00:03:25]>> I agree with Tom here, except I think it's it's a little more than it's sour grapes kind of a thing. It's um I mean in many ways Unilver especially more recently has stifled some of the political activism that Ben and Jerry's the brand was trying to undertake and you can understand why Unilver would do that because I mean smartest thing in business is not to >> we don't buy it in our house because of this.

[00:03:43]>> Exactly. And Unilver says look we want to maximize our profits and there's nothing wrong with doing so. So we're not going to engage in political activism and we're going to tamp that down. So, I think, you know, some of this is just Ben saying, uh, we we didn't think that was going to be the case. And either he was either he's lying about that or he's just naive.

[00:03:59]>> Uh, I don't think he's the first on the list of people that regret, you know, selling their businesses. You know, the the co the founder of Instagram that s for 1 billion, the company, what's the valuation? Steve Jobs went through this, you know, after exiting Apple and then coming back. Um and then again there's different there's no like I the way he put it I I think there's no wrong reason to start a company. All right. Uh I think there's companies that they they have your vision and what you want to achieve. You want to build an institution for the future. You want to build a way of thinking, a way of designing, a way of inspiring people. Uh that is pretty much what we're doing here. But having a company and exiting, you know, having plans to exit at some point to build your dream business, I you can't fault anybody. Uh, I don't know what the main reason the the rule they broke. Uh, but it's probably the really bad ice cream collaborations they they they've done. They gave Jimmy Fallon an ice cream flavor. All right.

[00:04:54]If they do that to my company, I'm out.

[00:04:56]All right. I'm going to try to buy them back.

[00:04:59]>> Yeah. I think a part of it when you're buying a business that has got this big of a social justice. The buyers knew what they were dealing with. Okay. The buyers knew what they were dealing when they bought the company. They knew these guys are socialists. They knew these guys are hippies. They knew these guys are not the traditional, you know, operator that's selling selling the business. And by the way, the guy, I don't know how old Ben is, Rob. Type in Ben Cohen age. He's got to be in his 70s, maybe late 60s, early >> 70s. Garcia, >> 75 years old. And the guy is still out there. So, he is he, you know, he has his beliefs that are core beliefs when he and I sat down and talked. When you sell your business, there are certain things that happen when you sell your business. As the founder, you have the emotional touch.

[00:05:42]You built the company. The people miss the founder because there's safety with the founder. The the founder did certain things that you were protected of. The new company now comes in may make certain changes that you may or may not like. Now, typically when you buy a business, the new owner can do whatever the hell they want to do. They literally can do whatever they want to do.

[00:06:02]Sometimes they do too much and the company collapses. Sometimes they empower people to keep running the company. uh and and that also continues.

[00:06:10]But the founder coming back and constantly saying what went right, what went wrong, constantly needing that attention. If if you're at a phase, if somebody's watching this right now, they tell me they're 42 years old, they're 35 years old, they're 53 years old, man, I'm so excited about selling my company, you know, the first thing I ask him, what do you think is the first thing I ask him? What do you think is the first thing I ask him if you're selling afterwards? Exactly.

[00:06:32]>> Yeah.

[00:06:32]>> What are you going to do afterwards?

[00:06:34]>> Same thing with retirement.

[00:06:35]>> Yeah. What are you going to do afterwards? Go ahead. You say you sold the company. You got 60 million in the bank. Go ahead. What are you doing now?

[00:06:41]How long do you think you can go golf every day? How long you can go try? I'm going to go on a 90-day cruise with my wife. By the eighth day, you guys want to kill each other if you go on a cruise. Okay. You think you think it's going to be like every day having a blast when you retire and sell your business? No. So, half the battle is if you don't yet know what you're going to do after you sell, do not sell. Now, does timing go into it? does other of course uh we felt Tom and I when we sat through when we sold the business we sold June 27th of 2022 when we were in Monaco we felt we s sold at the most perfect time we knew what we want to do later we had all I had already moved to Florida we had already knew we're going to build a media company and a consulting firm so there was a transition from the day I sold to the day before and the day after Tom and I talked and Jennifer Tom you'll remember this me you Jenna and um moral and tren we talked we said listen guys when we sell the business we're going to go get a yacht in Monaco and we're going to be on it for 90 days you know till today we haven't done that yet we said a few other things we haven't done that yet so yeah we're not going to talk about that one that's just >> okay so so what's what's the point the point is the day we sold the next day I was at the office same time I was a day before there wasn't a difference because we already know what we're going to do next so I think he's playing a little bit politics but I think he's also got a touch with the brand. His name's in the brand.

[00:08:06]>> Yeah. But there's one last point here. I mean, he's it's capitalism for me, socialism for these. It's the total hypocrite here, right? It's I'm going to get rich being a capitalist and then I'm going to argue >> welldeserved criticism to him. It's it's welldeserved criticism. Folks, if you're running a business and you're hiring people, there is nothing more annoying than when you hire people and it doesn't go your way. And often it ends up costing you a ton of money. Rob, go ahead and play this clip. So, the average bad hire a small business owner makes cost the company $17,000. The worst hires could cost you $240,000.

[00:08:41]Why? It's not just losing the employee.

[00:08:43]Many times you lose them. They're sitting next to somebody. They've already infected the negativity on them.

[00:08:48]They draw that person out. Imagine that person was with you for two years. And many times you knew this was not a good fit. You knew this wasn't going to be somebody that was going to work with you culturally, but you look the other way.

[00:08:57]You didn't have a system on who to hire.

[00:08:59]You didn't have a system on what questions to ask. your calibration wasn't in place. So, one of the best things we're going to do this year at the Vault Conference live in front of 12,000 people, we're going to bring a few of our employees up there and show you how we calibrate quarterly on how we score people on five different metrics and why this has helped our company's retention go higher as well as grow exponentially in ways we've never experienced before. And this will only happen at the Vault Conference that we host once a year. 12,000 people from 60 plus countries will be attending the MGM Grand Arena in Las Vegas August 31st through September 3rd going through this 296 page manual together. And if you haven't yet registered, click on a link above or below. Get registered. You may want to bring your team with you. It'll be a very special event this year.

[00:09:45]Looking forward to seeing you there.

[00:09:46]>> There you go. Go to vault2026.com.

[00:09:48]Again, vault2026.com.

[00:09:51]Speaker Steven Bartlett from the diary co. He'll be there. Logan Paul will be there to talk about how to create a brand. Then we'll have Joe Montana and Jerry Rice simultaneously interview on how to find a running mate. When you get a running mate, what happens to you? And last but not least, Dan Martell, author of uh Buyback Your Time, who has exited multiple companies. We'll discuss how to leverage AI today. Go to vault2026.com, get registered. Cannot wait to see all of you guys there. If you enjoy this video, you want to watch more videos like this, click here. And if you want to watch the entire podcast, click here.