Gelato Q is a new student-run business that is bringing homemade gelato into Quinnipiac residence halls. Michele De Palo, founder, and CEO, and Chris LoMonaco, vice president and director of marketing, are two of the four student team that are behind this delivery business.
“I’m originally from Rome, Italy and in my country gelato is a very big thing…so what I wanted to do was kind of introduce premium Italian gelato and prove that people will choose it over more traditional ice cream,” De Palo said.
And although they do market Gelato Q to be selling homemade ice cream, the students aren’t exactly making it in their dorm room. De Palo explained that it comes from a small factory run by family friends in New Haven.
“About a month ago I started talking to her, introducing her to this idea,” De Palo said. “She gave me a few free samples. I brought them to class and people loved it, and then from there I started getting serious.”
De Palo, LoMonaco and the rest of the Gelato Q team take orders through Instagram direct messages.
“It’s very easy, all you need to do is send us your address and what you want. And we take care of the payment through Venmo, all through the app, or you can pay cash,” LoMonaco said.
Right now Gelato Q sells five flavors: chocolate, roman vanilla, blood orange raspberry, espresso and pistachio. But De Palo said that they have the recipes to make 48 flavors of gelato.
Both De Palo and LoMonaco agree that they did not expect to see this kind of engagement so quick.
“Most of the people we’ve sold to, it was their first time trying gelato they always had the Ben and Jerry but never really tried this,” De Palo said.
With their business growing so quickly, De Palo and LoMonaco are now looking to the future for Gelato Q. They are looking at both the long-term and short-term expansion of their business.
“A year from now we’re hoping to have established a York Hill facility where we can be delivering…maybe put a freezer or two up there as well,” LoMonaco explained.
While they are focusing now on capitalizing on the Quinnipiac market in two-to-three years the Gelato Q team is looking to bigger things.
