The sun peeked through the fog over San Francisco. People bustled along the city streets; everyone had somewhere to go. Wagon wheels on pavement made a bumpety-bump sound. Um… Wagon wheels in the middle of the city? What WAS that?

Robyn Sue Fisher’s little red wagon creaked under the weight of the “Brrr® Machine,” the ice cream-making device she’d spent the last few years inventing. She had poured every ounce of her energy – AND a lot of her savings – into creating this contraption.

And now, standing on the grassy lawn of one of San Francisco’s city parks, she was waiting for strangers to buy ice cream from her. A bout of anxiety washed over her. Had she wasted her time and money? Would anyone want to buy ice cream from a wagon on the street?  She would soon find out.

I’m Sarah Thomas. And this is Goodnight Stories for Rebel Girls. A fairy tale podcast about the real-life rebel women who inspire us.

On this episode: Robyn Sue Fisher, inventor and founder of Smitten® Ice Cream.

Robyn grew up outside of? Boston, Massachusetts. She was naturally athletic and competitive, so she found herself playing sports year round. And whether she was on the court or in the field, she was all in, playing to WIN. Participating in sports kept her in the moment, not thinking of anything but the challenge ahead. When she dribbled on a fast break down the court or hurled the ball across the baseball diamond, all the worries that sometimes darted into her mind just… disappeared.

Then, when practice was over, Robyn would indulge in a giant scoop of her favorite ice cream. The sweet, creamy ball, perched on top of a pointy cone, melted all her worries away, just like sports did.

Robyn always had room for ice cream! Her mom even joked that Robyn had two stomachs, with the second one reserved solely for her favorite frozen delight.

One day, when Robyn was 16, her parents packed up the family and moved all the way across the country from Massachusetts to Marin County, California. Robyn didn’t want to go. She was sad to leave the life she loved, and anxious about the future.

From the shores of Marin County, Robyn could see the red towers of the Golden Gate Bridge. Gazing out across San Francisco Bay, she watched the twinkling lights of the city, and a new kind of worry began to form.

What was she going to be when she grew up? And how was she going to figure it out?

After a few years in California, Robyn decided to go back to Massachusetts. She picked a college there and headed east. At school, she was as competitive as ever, playing basketball and studying Psychology to learn about the mind and human behavior.

The years flew by, and before Robyn knew it, she had graduated from college. It was time to launch her competitive spirit into the working world, and answer the question of who she would become. She got a job with an international company that helped people build their businesses all over the world. One day, she could be working in a New York City skyscraper. The next, she could be packing her suitcase for a business trip to France.

But something was missing. Maybe walking the halls of a corporate building wasn’t for her. Robyn’s job didn’t make her smile. And it didn’t give her that happy flutter she felt when she dove into her favorite dessert. She started getting more curious about her love of ice cream and the product itself, and she was troubled by what she discovered. Some of the ingredients she read on the containers of her favorite flavors made her put her spoon down and CRINGE. Magnesium hydroxide, potassium sorbate, and polysorbate 80? Was there a way to make ice cream without so many preservatives and unpronounceable ingredients?

Robyn knew it was time for a change. So, she moved back to California. This time, she was going to study at Stanford University Graduate School of Business, a place where entrepreneurs went to make the things we love even better.

Robyn decided she was going to be an entrepreneur. She was going to put all of her passion, her competitive nature, and her business sense into making the best ice cream anyone had ever tasted.

But where to begin? Robyn knew that big companies put preservatives in their ice cream to keep it fresh in someone’s freezer for months or years. She dreamed about making ice cream in the moment, right when her customers ordered it, with ingredients that were fresh and natural.

Robyn started learning everything she could about ice cream — studying Food Science and trying out recipes. She was fascinated by the science of it. One fact in particular stuck with her: the colder you freeze ice cream, the smaller the ice crystals can be … and the smaller the ice crystals are, the smoother the texture.

Robyn wondered, “Can I freeze ice cream so cold that I can make a higher quality product and freeze it fresh, to-order?” She was inspired by the idea that ice cream could be made the same way a Barista at a coffee shop makes a fresh latte — it takes a few minutes, but the customer is willing to wait for a better product.

To make this dream a reality, she needed a special machine – something to blend and freeze the ice cream at the coldest possible temperature. FAST!

Robyn wasn’t an engineer or a scientist, but she wasn’t going to let that stop her. She started tinkering, and recruited an engineer and a chef to help her.

During long days experimenting, Robyn liked to remind herself of the motto “no regrets.”

“I’m actually really comfortable with failure,” Robyn thought. “I’m just not comfortable with looking back and saying I didn’t try.”

And try she did! The first prototypes had problems, but that led to new ideas. She discovered that liquid nitrogen could freeze the ingredients to a super cold temperature super quickly super cold and super fast, resulting in smooth, silky ice cream! BUT, liquid nitrogen is also EXTREMELY cold. -321 Fahrenheit to be exact! Because of its extreme cold, liquid nitrogen could easily over freeze the ice cream or freeze it unevenly.

Robyn realized she needed a scientific way to mix the ice cream that would keep the ingredients moving and prevent the particles from clustering or sticking while the liquid nitrogen did its job.

One day, while she was prototyping and brainstorming with her engineer, a small screw on the table caught their eye. They gazed closer at the shape with the downward spiral. Ah-hah!

The screw inspired them to make a set of beater blades, shaped like two DNA spirals, that churned and scraped every surface of the ice cream bowl and pushed the ice cream down into itself to create a mega dense and flavorful scoop. Finally, the core mechanism of the Brrr® Machine was born!

Robyn then worked with a broader team of engineers to create the “smarts” of the Brrr® Machine.  This included computer programming, sensors and mechanisms that could “feel” the thickness of the ice cream and automatically manage the freezing process. Ice cream had never been so nerdy! And this made Robyn super happy.

Robyn had invented and developed the recipe for the fresh, smooth, pure and delicious ice cream she’d been longing for! And, whoa, did it taste good and look cool! Each time the Brrr® machine made a batch of ice cream, a fog billowed out of the bowl.

After 90 seconds, the fog cleared and the ice cream was frozen to perfection! That happy flutter was back!

Robyn found the perfect word to describe the feeling of eating her fresh, delicious ice cream. It was a little bit like being in love. That feeling was SMITTEN.

So, after a few years and her life savings, Robyn had finally perfected AND patented her Brrr® ice cream machine. She was an inventor!

Robyn loaded up the Brrr® machine onto a little red wagon and decided to test it out on the public. In no time, there were people lining up around the block to get a scoop. With her customer base growing, she began tweeting out where they could find her and her little red wagon full of ice cream. And soon, she had more customers than she could serve!

Two years later, Robyn opened her first SMITTEN® ice cream shop in San Francisco, and then she opened another shop. And another.

Robyn had learned the science behind ice cream, and now it was time to expand her business. She interviewed and hired people who were as passionate about ice cream as she was. Together, they worked to make Smitten® Ice Cream shops into fun and happy places to be – for customers AND workers alike.

They experimented with new flavors and toppings, choosing local, fresh ingredients every time. They even tried California specific flavors! And while one of Robyn’s favorite ice cream flavors was Bay Leaf, it wasn’t for everyone. And that’s ok! She’d much rather try and fail than not try at all.

Today, Robyn serves customers fresh, delicious ice cream from her Smitten® shops in the Bay Area. And after all her work inventing and starting the business, she still has the greatest job of all – she gets to taste EVERYTHING.

Robyn has faced lots of worries and challenges along the way. But she was determined to learn everything she could about ice cream and how to make it perfectly delicious, down to the tiniest ice crystal! She followed her curiosity – and learned from many failures – until the answer was in her hands.

To her, Smitten is more than a business. It’s a mirror. It reflects Robyn’s love of ice cream, and the joy she gets from making people smile over the simple things in life. Like putting your worries aside, being in the moment, and trying something completely new.

This podcast is a production of Rebel Girls. It’s based on the book series Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls.

This episode was narrated by me, Sarah Thomas. It was produced and directed by Haley Dapkus, with sound design and mixing by Mumble Media.

The story was written by Gina Gotsill. Fact checking by Eliza Kirby. Our intern was Arianna Griffiths. The executive producers were Jes Wolfe and Joy Smith.

Original theme music was composed and performed by Elettra Bargiacchi.

A special thanks to Robyn Sue Fisher and the whole Rebel Girls team, who make this podcast possible! Until next time, staaaay rebel!