Denise Williams is a graduate of the third cohort of the MORTAR at Bounce program. MORTAR is a 15-week business accelerator. At the end of the 15 weeks, participants graduate and pitch for $3,000. Denise graduated in April and was the winner of the Bounce Life’s a Pitch competition on April 20. (https://bouncehub.org/2021/04/21/plant-based-ice-cream-entrepreneur-wins-mortar-pitch-competition/)
Anyone who has gone on a weight-loss journey knows the struggle of balancing healthy eating. Giving up favorite items can be difficult, even if it’s only for a short time. Denise Nichole Williams, founder and CEO of Diva de la Crème, was missing ice cream as she recently lost weight. And practicing a plant-based lifestyle, her choices for great tasting ice cream with quality ingredients were pretty slim. After tasting a few popular options, she knew she could do better. That’s how Diva De La Crème was born.
Diva de la Crème is a plant-based frozen dessert company. It was founded to provide better-tasting and healthier dairy-free options for customers with lactose intolerance, diabetes and those following a plant-based, keto lifestyle.
For Denise, coming up with the recipes was easy; getting the products developed to her liking was more difficult. But then she won a Cuisinart ice cream maker, which has changed the life of her business. Not one to waste any time, she has one line of almond-based ice cream already established and is working on her second, a hemp/keto line, She just received licensing and is currently waiting for her kitchen inspection to be scheduled.
If all goes as planned, you’ll be able to find Diva De La Crème this fall at area farmer’s markets with both lines available. In the meantime, Denise is using her MORTAR at Bounce $3,000 pitch competition money to pay for licenses and branding and she has her eye on a commercial ice cream maker that produces two quarts of ice cream every 20 minutes.
And if that’s not enough, Denise is also a tech entrepreneur, software developer, data analyst and blockchain consultant. Her company, Tech Diva Consulting, assists business owners with transforming their ideas into viable technology solutions for their products and services.
For more information on Bounce’s GROW program, visit bouncehub.org/grow or email our team at GROW@bouncehub.org.