Natasha Case, co-founder and chief executive of Culver City-based Coolhaus, is not afraid to jump into the game. This tendency was made clear by the cast on her wrist during a recent Business Journal visit to Coolhaus, the result of a hairline fracture incurred while playing basketball.
The go-for-it approach came in handy when Case and her wife, company co-founder Freya Estreller, jumped into the ice cream business. Estreller, who still contributes ideas, moved on two years ago to become head of operations for Tea Drops organic teas company, located downtown.
Launching Coolhaus in 2009 called for a career U-turn. Case holds a master’s degree in architecture from UCLA and worked for Walt Disney Imagineering before going pro with her taste for the dessert business.
The company name Coolhaus represents a mashup of the names of Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas and the German Bauhaus architecture movement. Plus, the signature ice cream “sammies,” a scoop between two cookies, look like little “cold houses.”
“What I feel like I’ve done is take an architecture design skill set and just apply it to building a brand as opposed to designing a building,” Case said. An architect, she added, is “kind of an artist but within a lot of rules and constraints, and I think of being an entrepreneur, you think outside the box but ultimately it has to be viable.”
To Case, design skills are as crucial as taste when launching a new food product in the digital era. “Things are more visual than ever,” she said. “When you create something like a flavor or a package, you have to think about what it’s going to look like on social media, what is going to resonate with people. … You really want to serve it more on a silver platter than ever.”
Social media also brings the company owner’s style and personal profile into the mix. Case said Coolhaus has identified three “brand pillars” on which to build the image.
The first is the appeal of a woman-owned business, and a mom-owned business now that Case and Estreller have a young son.
The second has to do with the product: Novelty flavors — Coolhaus recently created a mustard ice cream for a French’s mustard promotion — and what Case calls product architecture: “The cookie has to be just so, the thickness, just chewy enough, soft and pliable enough but substantial enough to hold the ice cream,” she said.
The third is perhaps the most important for the young consumer: showing through example that it’s OK to be yourself. “People really connect with that,” Case said. “It’s not about changing who you are, it’s about going deeper into who you are. And then with Freya, we are an openly gay family, and I think that’s important to see for this next generation. It’s hard to be what you can’t see.”
See the full executive style photo spread in the Dec. 2, 2019, print edition.
