Bringing a New Zealand favorite to Southern California.

During an extended trip through New Zealand in 2017 and 2018, Christian and Judy bought a van and traveled around much of the country. Whenever they found New Zealand-style ice cream, they stopped. Some places were established ice cream shops; others were small, out-of-the-way businesses. They began comparing versions from town to town, paying attention not only to the taste but to how the businesses operated.

They talked with owners, learned who made the machines, and asked how the product was produced. The more they tried it, the more the same thought returned: this could work in the United States.

They did not launch immediately. For a few years, the idea remained something they talked about while continuing to watch the category. When they eventually saw other New Zealand-style ice cream businesses succeeding outside New Zealand, including in the United States, the concept no longer felt purely theoretical. The market had been partially validated, and Christian and Judy decided to build their own version.

The first setup was not polished. They transported equipment in an old minivan and learned quickly that the machines created problems they had not fully anticipated: they were heavy, the early power system was not strong enough, and one folding table could not safely support the equipment.

The machines required their own high-demand electrical setup, which meant additional generators, circuits, and equipment whenever an event could not provide adequate power. Transporting everything became its own operational puzzle.

Those were not problems customers necessarily noticed when they ordered an ice cream, but they determined whether the business could function at all.

Ice cream added another variable: the environment itself. At an early outdoor event, direct sunlight and heat affected the machine badly enough that the finished product began moving toward smoothie territory instead of the texture Christian and Judy wanted.

The setup had to change. An umbrella became insufficient, and better shade with a more consistent canopy setup helped them control the working environment. Even portions were not as fixed as they originally imagined; temperature, shade, machine conditions, and other variables could change how the product behaved.

Over time, making the ice cream became partly a matter of feel—experience built through enough events to recognize when the process needed adjustment.

The largest early obstacle was more serious. Christian and Judy initially bought inexpensive machines that were not NSF certified, which became a problem when they tried to secure approval in Orange County.

The equipment could make the product, but their Orange County permit application required certification the machines did not have. Individual certification was possible, but expensive, and there was no guarantee an uncertified machine would pass after the money was spent. The machines they had bought could not support the permitting path they had planned.

They eventually had to rethink the machines, the permitting path, and what compliance in their home county actually required. The process was frustrating, but it also changed the competitive landscape: the same standards that made Kiwi Guys harder to launch also made it harder for someone else to casually duplicate the concept in the same area without doing the same work.

Christian and Judy did not solve every problem before they started. They built in layers: a better generator, more appropriate machines, safer ways to transport and support the equipment, more reliable shade, and a booth setup that reduced the variables affecting the product.

Each event exposed something new, and the next version of the setup addressed what the previous one had taught them. That gradual approach became part of their operating philosophy: start with what is workable, observe what fails, and improve the piece that matters next.

They also paid attention to what other businesses were doing. For Christian and Judy, learning from others was not the same as copying them. If someone else had already solved a problem well, there was no reason to insist on rediscovering every solution from scratch.

Some of the most frustrating lessons had nothing to do with the product. Taxes, filing deadlines, bookkeeping, business structure, and record keeping created challenges of their own.

Christian and Judy learned that using accounting software did not automatically mean the books were being handled correctly. They also learned that hiring professional help did not eliminate the need to understand enough of the process to recognize when filings or systems did not make sense. Errors and misunderstandings created extra work, unnecessary expense, and time that could have been spent on the business itself.

That experience made the administrative side of entrepreneurship much more concrete. Permits, taxes, records, deadlines, accounting, and protecting the business name are not separate from the business. They are part of the business.

Kiwi Guys began because Christian and Judy found something they genuinely loved while traveling through New Zealand. The product gave them the reason to start.

The years that followed taught them everything surrounding the product: power, heat, equipment, transportation, county standards, bookkeeping, taxes, and the dozens of small operational choices customers never see.

What now looks like a simple cup of fresh New Zealand-style ice cream is supported by a system they had to learn one event at a time.