I scream, you scream…

Meet Scream Truck: so this is what a next-gen ice cream truck looks like.

photo courtesy of Scream Truck

“There have been three or four big tries in the space we’re in,” Scream Truck founder and CEO Eric Murphy told me during a recent interview. “And they all lacked the one thing we have that makes it work: The ability to create the demand.”

He’s talking about the tech-infused, on-demand food delivery space. Scream Truck is an ice cream truck, but it’s not like other ice cream trucks. It’s a brightly painted, on-demand ice cream truck serving premium soft serve and toppings. It optimizes its daily routes in Central and Northern New Jersey by texting customers in advance. Since launching in the fall of 2020, the company has grown to serve over 700,000 registered households with $6 million in lifetime revenue. And, according to Murphy, unlike all of those other food truck startups — the ones that set out to “change the world” — its model has staying power. 

“Wonder started in the exact same town at the exact same time we started,” Murphy told me. “We didn’t know they existed until we started. I knew from day one it wasn’t going to work because of the economics. They were doing maybe two houses per hour. We’re doing 12 to 14.” 

Scream Truck operates 14 trucks now, each working about 10 hours per day in high season. It’ll add another five by the end of the year. It serves premium ingredients, Murphy said, a 10 percent milkfat soft-serve, Ghiradelli sauces. The menu items, which include sundaes like the “simply lucky” with marshmallows and glitter dust and cones like the “panda” with a black vanilla waffle cone and crushed Oreos, are of course extremely Instagrammable. Murphy, a former record label exec and experiential marketer, is most excited about how happy customers are when the truck shows up.

Next month, Scream Truck will launch in six towns in Bergen County, New Jersey. It also launched a crowdfunding investment campaign that raised over $3 million from over 130 investors. It’s projecting over $5 million in revenue this year. And it could be coming to a town near you — Scream Truck is actively recruiting franchisees. 

It’s a thoughtful and feel-good success story so far, as Murphy explained during an interview last month. Our interview was devoid of any grandstanding or visions of mass disruption. Instead, he spoke at length about creating the type of experience that makes people really, really happy. I love this story. Keep reading below.

Our conversation has been lightly edited for length and clarity.