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Square Pie Guys ‘bootstrapping’ it to the top

Although Square Pie Guys first opened last year as a weekly pop-up inside Vinyl Wine Bar in San Francisco, the "scrappy" pizza concept now has its own brick-and-mortar location and a plan for growth.

Marc Schechter and Danny Stoller are the guys behind Square Pie Guys.

December 5, 2019

Although Square Pie Guys first opened last year as a weekly pop-up inside Vinyl Wine Bar in San Francisco, the fast casual pizza concept now has its own brick-and-mortar location and a plan for growth — "bootstrapping the whole way" —  Co-founder and COO Daniel Stoller said during an interview with FastCasual.

"It's painfully optimistic to assume this will be true forever, but as we focus on rapid growth, we're not going to forget our scrappy background," said the former chef of traveling pop-up project Dinner Lab. While working as head chef at Culinary Edge — the brand incubator that created Starbird — Stoller met his business partner, Marc Schechter, and created Square. The duo spent $200,000 — including legal fees, their salaries and some handy work — to open Square's flagship store this summer at 1077 Mission St., in San Francisco's Soma neighborhood, where the Giants play baseball at waterfront AT&T Park.

"Our first store was a complete gem," Stoller said. "We are located in a transitional neighborhood with a huge underserved population of urban professionals and spitting distance from some of the biggest tech unicorns."

Square also benefited from the fact that the building was a former restaurant.

"It took us two months to open in notoriously obstinate and bureaucratic San Francisco," said Stoller, who admits that fast casual is certainly not a new concept for pizza. Square, however, is unique in that is has mated a crispy Detroit-style crust with locally inspired and chef-driven toppings.

"There are plenty of pizza places doing California cuisine, a few places now embracing Detroit-style outside of Detroit, and some serious players in the fast casual pizza world," he said. "None of them have distilled those parts into the greater sum that is Square Pie Guys." 

Square vs round
Another differentiator for the brand, of course, is the shape of its pies.

"When you call yourself 'Square Pie Guys' it’s hard to then go sell round pies," Schechter said with a laugh.

In all seriousness, Schechter and Stoller saw an opportunity in square pizza since most pizza brands are focused on serving round pies with their Chipotle-style pie options.

"We wanted to carve out our niche, the one thing that sets our brand and our pies apart from the crowd and to us that was square pizza," said Schechter, who has worked for a variety of pizza concepts as well as in sales and marketing. "It also helped that it tastes amazing and offers a new texture and flavor experience to most guests since the square style is underrepresented in both the Bay Area and in most major cities." 

Perfecting more than the pizza
The menu, Stoller said, isn't the only thing his team has perfected.

"We've spent the last four months refining our offering, dialing our systems, and most importantly, focusing on constant improvement of the guest experience," he said. "This is true for both in-store, and off-premise, which accounts for between 40% and 60% of revenue depending on day part and weekday."

Square is also a brand focused on engagement with guests.

"We have an active social presence, with Marc or myself responding to nearly every comment, Instagram story reply, yelp/Google review. Finally, we are technophiles," he said, pointing out that they have an ecosystem of tech integrations already in place — POS, scheduling, payroll, accounting systems along with digital marketing campaigns, online ordering, third-party delivery and in-store kiosks.

"We are a brand by millennials for millennials and Gen Xers/ boomers that love great food and experience," Stoller said.

The growth plan
As far as growth plans, Stoller has them but wants to first close two consecutive quarters at the first store before committing to another location.

"We are focused on controlled, rapid growth and will likely look to open at least one store in 2020," he said. "Our team members constantly surprise and delight me in their dedication and ownership, especially in a town with such a tough labor model to crack. Because of this, and because we love our guests, we're committed to growing our business to continue to create new opportunities for our team."

Stoller will apply what he learned from the flagship store when considering where and when to open a second location, but he must also consider the market. In the near future, for example, he said there were a couple of neighborhoods in Oakland that were almost more exciting than the hottest neighborhoods in San Francisco.

"We may not build out a brand new space until store four or five," Stoller said. "I actually would be really happy if we were lucky enough to get there with re-worked second-generation spaces."

Long-term growth also depends on what the team learns from stores two and three, said Stroller, who is ultimately shooting for five units and sees L.A., Seattle, Portland and Phoenix as key areas.

"I think Marc and I both see a world where we can bring in some skilled operators to help maintain our culture as we inevitably step away," he said. "At five units, we're hopefully above that $10 million annual revenue threshold that makes us attractive to bigger money or an acquisition."

Making a lot of money isn't the only goal, however. Success comes from creating a brand and a culture that leads to opportunities for the entire team, Stoller said.

"I've heard stories of the Panda Express team bragging about the millionaires they created from their early employees," he said. "The Bay Area just went through a massive 30 years of economic growth, and it left quite a few people behind. Figuring out a business model that works for our team as much as our investors and us, while blowing guests away with over-the-top food and an incredible experience? That's true success, if we're five stores or 700."