[2] After taking a course in ice-cream making from Penn State, Greenfield and Cohen opened their first ice cream store in downtown Burlington, Vermont.

[2] The company, which sold to the British-Dutch corporation Unilever in 2000 has since opened almost 200 franchised shops and reports earnings of $237 million annually.

[5][6] Greenfield chose to pursue a pre-med curriculum at Oberlin College,[2] where he began working as an ice cream scooper in the school's cafeteria.

[2] At this point, Greenfield decided to move back to New York where he shared an apartment with Cohen and worked as a lab technician.

[7][8] In 1974, Greenfield was again rejected from medical school and decided to move to North Carolina with his future wife, Elizabeth Skarie, and continued to work as a lab technician.

Repeatedly they found themselves rejected because the gas station could only be leased for one year at a time and it was judged unwise to invest large amounts of capital in such a venture.

[15] Since the purchase, Greenfield and Cohen have continued to be involved at the company but Jerry said in an interview they had "no responsibility, no authority, and very little influence.