44°
She's got customers following her bubblegum pink truck to all of its events. She's got lines out the door of her 2-year-old Flemington ice cream shop, Humdoo.
And on slow business days, she dances in the rain.
But the 24-year-old Hunterdon Central Regional grad's road to success was far from smooth.
Truppi dropped out of college (twice). COVID hit just as she'd hit her stride with her ice cream truck, Scoops on Wheels, and she had a fully-booked summer of events ahead.
Then, just as she was getting ready to open her Flemington storefront, the truck broke down.
This season marks the second anniversary of Truppi's brick-and-mortar ice cream shop, and Truppi's second Scoops On Wheels truck is rolling smoothly around town.
And Truppi can't imagine having given up.
"When I first started, I made a plan. And I also decided I was going to stick to it because it was solid," the Whitehouse Station native said. "But part of owning a business ... means failing in between, and the only way to learn is by making mistakes.
"A lot of people get sidetracked by giving up after the first failure, and that's super tempting ... but the only way to get to where you want, is through."
Actually, Truppi's plan was to become a teacher. It didn't take long for her to realize, that wasn't the plan for her.
She somehow stumbled upon the idea of an ice cream truck, and it lit a fire inside of her.
"I was in the perfect position to take a bunch of risks," she said. "If I failed, I had the rest of my life to fix my mistakes. I just went for it.
"It was the definition of a leap of faith."
Truppi took it day by day. Her first step was finding a truck. It wasn't easy.
At the time, she was 20 years old and had only a few thousand dollars to work with. Truppi wasn't getting any loans, and the truck she wanted was $12,000.
By a sheer stroke of luck, Truppi happened to check Craigslist one night and saw that the price of the truck she'd been eyeing had dropped to $5,000.
Within days, she was in New York picking up the truck, then had it wrapped in pretty, bubblegum pink.
Within weeks, Truppi had found a high-quality purveyor, then hit the streets selling hard ice cream. Campfire S'mores, Lemon Bar, and Rich and Famous are just some of the most popular flavors.
Truppi booked a mix of public events and private parties. She learned a lot.
"Going into my second year I was really excited," she said. "I had a lot more knowledge at that point. And I had my whole summer booked."
In March 2020, the pandemic hit, "and we all know how that went," Truppi said with a laugh. She can joke about it now, but then, she was crestfallen.
"I was absolutely crushed," Truppi added. "We weren't even in business a year yet and I was on what I felt like was the right path... but I hadn't even had a chance to make it yet."
Truppi gave herself two days of tears, but on the third, picked herself up by her bootstraps, and pivoted.
The new plan? Deliver pints of ice cream.
In the first month of COVID, Truppi delivered more than 2,000 pints a week. She was bringing in more cash than her initial three months of business.
When the world reopened, Truppi pivoted again, this time parking her truck outside of Blue Fish Grill in Flemington every Wednesday. It became her hub.
One day, Truppi noticed a vacancy on Stangl Road. On Labor Day Weekend, she got in touch with the landlord, and by Christmas 2020, she had inked a lease.
On June 18, 2021, Truppi was a week away from opening her ice cream shop when the truck broke down. And it wasn't fixable.
On the one hand, it couldn't have happened at a better time, because the shop was another avenue for revenue. On the other, Truppi felt like she was just finding her stride.
"We lost a lot of money getting a new truck," Truppi said. "That was a very rough year."
The refunds and event cancellations were devastating. But Truppi looked at her options: Quit and lose everything or keep going.
On June 26, 2021, Truppi opened her shop, Humdoo's. The name is the word her sister called ice cream when she was a baby. Truppi said if she was going to open an ice cream shop in her hometown, then she was going to make it feel like home.
Throngs of people turned out for the grand opening, both excited about the new store and knowing that Truppi had lost the truck.
"It was very uplifting," Truppi said.
In January 2022, Truppi found what she'd been looking for. It was in Florida, but that didn't stop her. Truppi found herself behind the wheel of her new ice cream truck and drove it back to Flemington.
Truppi says she's still recovering from the loss as she heads into her second ice cream season with a fully-functioning shop and truck, but couldn't be more proud of what she's built.
"We've created a place that's extremely welcoming," Truppi said. It's inviting, it's happy, it's about the experience.
"It's a fun place to go on a date. It's a fun place to go when you come back from college. It's fun to go after dinner, or just to hang out."
"The fact that the ice cream is good is obviously just a bonus."
Humdoo Ice Cream, 20 Stangl Road, Flemington.
Click here to follow Daily Voice Northern Valley and receive free news updates.
