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Neighborhood Pizza Guy, Matt Burr
Neighborhood Pizza Guy started at the height of COVID in March, 2021. I was recently laid off from work, watching too much Food Network, and in need of something to occupy my time.
I began making pizza for my girlfriend and myself once a week, then twice, then too many times. I reached out to neighbors to have them take the pizza off my hands and provide feedback. Things snowballed from there. Two days after my initial post online about selling pizzas, I was sold out for the entire month of April.
At the end of April 2021, I received two cease and desist letters for running an illegal restaurant out of my studio apartment. It never occurred to me that I had already started a business; I was just making pizzas for neighbors. But I figured if I was popular enough to get shut down, I might just have something to run with.
Over the summer of 2021, I got set up with a SCORE mentor to help me with business planning and contracted with a local cafe owner to rent out the back of her kitchen. On October 1, 2021, Neighborhood Pizza Guy opened legitimately and for real. Things continued to snowball as they had when I was selling "underground".
Over the next two years, I worked as a one-man show, making and selling pizza after the cafe had closed on weekend evenings. In August of 2023, I completed an asset purchase of the cafe.
I grew the staff to 9 employees, extended business hours, and was able to generate revenue from coffee sales, as well as pastries, lunch items, beer, wine, and of course, pizza. Now in April 2024, three years after the first days of operating, I have closed on an SBA loan to renovate the cafe, purchase equipment, and grow operations.
Initially, Neighborhood Pizza Guy only sold pizzas for takeout as a "pandemic pop-up". Cafe Zoe has been a neighborhood hub for over 15 years, selling coffee, espresso drinks, pastries, sandwiches, salads and more. Now the two businesses are operating as one, selling quick serve breakfast items, full lunches and artisanal pizzas.
The community centered focus of the cafe is a valuable part of our appeal. Live music by local musicians is hosted every Friday night, local visual artists have a space to showcase their work, and neighbors have a place to congregate and catch up.
The main inspiration behind Neighborhood Pizza Guy was a lack of good pizza in the area. That, coupled with plenty of free time because of lock down restrictions during the pandemic, meant I had the opportunity to turn a passion project into a business.
I started as a one man show making less than 10 pizzas a day for neighbors. My business has grown because of strong community support and help from those in the community. I tap in to the diverse population of the Bay Area to source recipes and food ideas, which I then present as a weekly rotating pizza experiment that I call "Pizza Lab".
Every week, I debut a new pizza with unique toppings and ingredients. I've done pizzas with lamb gyros, tzatziki and cucumber; golden beets, arugula and goat cheese; paneer tikka masala, nopales, seasoned corn and pickled jalapeño, and more!
My mom encouraged me to seek out help from SCORE. It was a natural decision, since I had a product and a following, but needed help with business planning and research. As the business grew, my SCORE mentor helped me with scaling, an asset purchase of a business, hiring and employee management, and more.
SCORE connected me with the resources needed to start and grow a business. Mentorship from a SCORE advisor has provided me with tools such as financial planning spreadsheets, help navigating purchase agreements, leases, and other documents, product offering suggestions, and employee management.
I would recommend doing your research and spend plenty of time planning. Form your business plan and do your best to plan for contingencies. But at a certain point, just jump in and get going. There will be unexpected challenges that you'll just have to push through.
You'll learn more from getting your hands in the mix and making mistakes. As long as you can keep pushing forward, learn from your mistakes, and improve, you're doing better than most.
I am a hands-on consumer, food service, retail and medical industry veteran executive experienced in...
