If you live in LA, you'll know that Pinkberry is the new ice cream, the latest in dessert couture. According to Young Lee, co-founder of the popular frozen dessert chain, its success is due to a combo of high quality product and great design concept. Read the story here... A Berry Good Idea
Young Lee of Pinkberry

Title: Co-Founder and Co-Creator of Pinkberry
Age: 43
Hometown: Korea
School(s): Parsons School of Design

With temperatures soaring into the hundreds and our air conditioners on full blast, cooling down in California has become a fine art. Needless to say, we are pretty tough critics when it comes to our frozen treats. So what’s the secret to pleasing our discerning palates? According to Young Lee, co-founder and co-creator of the popular frozen dessert chain Pinkberry, creating a successful business requires a delicate combination of a high quality product and a great design concept.


With the overwhelming success of Pinkberry (lines often form out the doors), it is a little surprising to learn that Lee worked as an architect and interior designer prior to serving up swirly goodness to the salivating masses. After moving from his home of Korea in 1980, Lee attended New York’s Parsons School of Design where he studied interior design. But after designing a series of restaurants and food stands for clients, Lee decided to try his hand and “formulaic mind” at designing a shop of his very own. “I had designed so much for other people, I thought, ‘Why am I doing this for other people, why not do it for myself?’” What exactly he would sell was still in question.

It wasn’t until Lee took two very influential trips, that the idea for Pinkberry was born. In 1993, Lee traveled to Italy where he was introduced to gelato. Lee was taken with the rich and creamy dessert and was especially impressed to learn that it was less fat than ice cream. A few years later, Lee took a trip to Hawaii where he visited the pineapple fields. It was there that he was served a dish of soft serve ice cream topped with a delicious slice of fresh pineapple. Lee was inspired. Perhaps if he combined a healthy but decadent alternative to ice cream with toppings that included the freshest fruit possible, he might have a winning business plan.

But when Lee opened Pinkberry in January of 2005, his winning combination seemed like a flop. Opening a froyo shop in the middle of winter didn’t make for perfect timing, and the first couple months were a bit of a struggle. “It seemed doomed from the beginning,” says Lee. Lee even worked as the shop’s cashier, hoping his enthusiasm for his product – which his girlfriend and business partner Shelly Hwang perfected – would catch on. It did, and the store started turning a profit just four months after opening. Fans just couldn’t get enough of the tangy-tart delight, and the business has become a multi-million dollar empire with 21 stores and counting in L.A. and New York.

While hitting it big with a froyo shop may seem like a tremendous stroke of luck, Lee’s interior design background and dedication to producing a quality product ensures that Pinkberry isn’t your everyday yogurt stand. For starters, only two flavors are offered – original and green tea – and, instead of candy and syrup toppers, customers can choose from a large selection of fresh fruit and cereal to top off their swirls. The store’s décor was also carefully crafted, according to Lee, to help compliment the product. The gravel floors, for example, are meant to remind customers of the park or the beach – places where they are used to enjoying frozen treats. The modern plastic chairs are intended to be reminiscent of plastic toys associated with one’s childhood, and the loud, energetic music is meant to sound similar to the inviting and excitement-inducing music of an ice cream truck. In other words, as Lee explains, “The Pinkberry experience is like a childhood experience.”


When cultivating the concept for Pinkberry, Lee says he studied a handful of successful businesses in hopes of incorporating the aspects that made these models successful into his own plan. For example, Starbucks, he says, took an innovative approach to the simple product of coffee and he wanted to do the same with a frozen yogurt. In-N-Out Burger was also a company Lee considered because the chain has done little to change its menu over the years and instead chooses to keep their offerings simple while maintaining quality. Rather than offer a plethora of different flavors and toppings, Lee chose to keep his menu simple as well. The Apple Store also caught Lee’s attention, because of its ability to bring technology to the masses in a non-threatening, not overwhelming environment that generations young and old can appreciate. It was important to Lee that, while taking an innovative approach frozen yogurt, he not alienate adults who grew up on ice cream parlors and froyo shops. Instead, it was his mission to establish a “social gathering place” that everyone can enjoy.

Despite the overwhelming success of Pinkberry, the company does have its critics. In May of this year, The Los Angeles Times launched an investigation in which Pinkberry product samples were lab tested, and results revealed the product did not contain enough active yogurt cultures to call itself “frozen yogurt” according to the California Department of Food and Agriculture standards. Since then, official “yogurt” references to have been removed from Pinkberry’s website and promotional materials. “It is what it is,” says Lee, who is refreshingly honest and upfront about the topic. “The important thing is to stay focused and cherish your business, and I love my business.”

Whether officially yogurt or not, the product is officially good, and the store’s popularity continues to rise in spite of the negative press. In fact, the Times piece only helped boost Pinkberry’s popularity, according to Lee, when the story was picked up by CNN and Nightline. “It ended up being good in a way because it got the name out there,” he says. With dozens of Pinkberry look-alikes cropping up with “berry” in their titles, it’s no question the name is “out there,” but when it comes to copycats, Lee is more flattered than annoyed. “If they copy you, it means you’re good,” he laughs.