On many Miami mornings, Olivia Gonzalez is packing a cooler with small-batch pints and heading out to meet customers where they are — gyms, neighborhood markets, and small retailers. Gonzalez is the founder of Guudy, a healthy ice cream company built for people who want dessert without the sugar crash — or the additives. It’s also, very literally, a brand she built for herself.
Gonzalez is a graphic designer. In Venezuela, she ran a branding studio and helped entrepreneurs give shape to their ideas. When she moved to Miami, she kept designing, but a Hashimoto’s diagnosis, an autoimmune condition that pushed her to eliminate sugar, gluten, casein, and chemical additives, also pushed her into entrepreneurship. “I have a very sweet tooth,” she explains, so she started making her own snacks without sugar, and as she started analyzing the ingredients of sweeteners out there, she discovered all the chemicals. A book by neurologist David Perlmutter sent her deeper into the science of how food affects the brain and body.
Soon, research turned into recipes. Gonzalez took a course on ice cream making, developed a healthy formula that was different from others on the market, and tested early flavors at farmers markets. The idea resonated with customers navigating diabetes, cancer treatment, and other conditions that make dessert complicated.
“People were really looking for something special like this,” she says. “They would tell me, finally there is something really delicious, like normal, that I can eat without problems.” One customer undergoing chemotherapy ordered weekly. She told Gonzalez that after her sessions, she just wanted “something super” that wouldn’t hurt her. Another customer said his diabetic father loves Guudy ice cream. “I thought, oh my god, there is something here.”
Creating Guudy
Guudy contains only clean ingredients — no gluten, sugar, or chemicals. Gonzalez even makes her own coconut milk when store-bought options include additives. To further separate Guudy from the pack, Gonzalez leaned into function: chocolate and vanilla with collagen; strawberry with probiotics and plant protein (a vegan option); and an anti-inflammatory turmeric-ginger flavor with cinnamon and a pinch of pepper to activate the curcumin, for instance. The turmeric-ginger is now the best seller, followed by chocolate (her favorite).
The brand identity comes straight from Gonzalez’s design skills. Even so, she often has to convince new fans that the person behind the logo is the same person behind the recipes. “People ask, ‘Who did your branding?’ and I say, ‘I did!’ Then, ‘Who made the ice cream?’ also me,” she says. The name, Guudy, came to her after many unavailable “good” variations. Guudy evokes a goodie bag and all the good things inside, she thought.
Guudy launched in 2020 with neighborhood deliveries during the pandemic. In 2021, Gonzalez secured her first retail accounts. Early on, she tried shipping to customers in Texas and New York, but fulfillment logistics were daunting. She was advised to focus on Florida first. That focus has helped her grow step by step.
Seeking help from SBDC at FIU
Like most solo entrepreneurs, Gonzalez has wrestled with the business side: finance, production, distribution, messaging. A fellow entrepreneur pointed her to Florida SBDC at FIU, the small business development center with Florida International University’s College of Business that offers no-cost business consulting to small businesses in Miami-Dade and Monroe counties. At SBDC at FIU, she began meeting regularly with business consultant Mark Mungenast, who specializes in marketing, sales and business development.
“He keeps my feet on the floor,” Gonzalez says. “I’m a creative person — he helps me focus… he’s given me the motivation to continue moving forward and given me ideas on different ways to do things.” With Mungenast’s guidance, she is pursuing grants and prioritizing sales. He’s also referred her to other SBDC at FIU business consultants, including for help with accounting. “Every week or two, we tackle something new,” Gonzalez says. “He says, ‘you have a good product, we have to focus on this, and here’s what we have to work on.’ You have to find a way.” Every month, sales are growing.
“Guudy has created a dessert that feels indulgent but is diabetic-friendly and enriched with ingredients like turmeric and collagen,” says Mungenast. “Born from her personal need for a healthier dessert, her innovation is opening new doors in the frozen dessert space. It’s a privilege to work with her as we introduce more neighborhood grocery stores to Guudy and meet the growing demand for healthier indulgence.”
Mungenast also pushed her to apply for the Cultivate Small Business program by Santander Bank and Babson College last fall. Participating helped her reframe her go-to-market strategy. For instance, she thought she should put all her energy into pursuing Whole Foods right away, but a program mentor convinced her that with her specialized product, small retailers is the way to go. “I did things differently based on recommendations from that program.”
Moving forward
Guudy is still mostly Gonzalez, with occasional help from others from time to time. She’s focused on growing sales and hopes to be able to hire a helper for sales and distribution.
She has also added a line of functional cookies — Choco Nuts + Collagen (a chocolate-chip cookie with minimal sugar from the chocolate itself) and Ginger Beet + Collagen (zero sugar, with ginger pieces) — and is working through updating packaging and labeling so she can expand where they’re sold.
Today, the Guudy brand is in eight retailers in Florida, primarily the Miami-Fort Lauderdale area. Gonzalez’s advice to fellow entrepreneurs is to consult with SBDC at FIU to get help with knowledge and skills they are missing.
Through it all, Gonzalez keeps coming back to why she started: a personal health journey that turned into a mission and, slowly, a company. “Sometimes I wanted to quit,” she says, “but there’s something here.” If good business is where calling meets market, Guudy is Gonzalez’s proof. “It’s a good product with good ingredients,” she says, “and I’m not finished.”
