Tony Lamb launched Kona Ice in 2007 as a side hustle to teach his children entrepreneurship, selecting shaved ice for its low product and labor costs and interactive appeal. Lamb applied door-to-door sales and marketing experience from running multiple offices to develop a mobile, kid-friendly concept featuring tropical trucks and a Flavorwave station. Kona Ice scaled to 2,200 franchise units nationwide and returned more than $200 million to schools and local organizations while preserving a $3,000 annual royalty fee for nearly two decades. During the pandemic, Lamb expanded into mobile coffee and dessert concepts under Travelin' Tom's Coffee and Beverly Ann's Cookies.
Tony Lamb is the founder and CEO of Kona Ice, the mobile shaved ice franchise (ranked #30 on the 2025 Franchise 500) known for its tropical trucks, kid-friendly Flavorwave station and deep community involvement. Lamb started out in sales, then launched Kona Ice in 2007, initially as a side hustle to teach his kids about business. He felt the ice cream truck model was outdated, often associated with poor quality and unreliable operators.
I started selling vacuum cleaners during college, door-to-door, in Kentucky. I eventually graduated and ran six offices, had 300 salespeople and made "rock star" money for a while. It's a tough business, but it teaches you everything about small business: marketing, customer interaction, sourcing and building teams. After that, I did marketing consulting for a while. That gave me the confidence to think, If I can figure out vacuums and mobile marketing, I can figure out an ice cream truck.
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