Hello people of planet Earth,
There are some exiting news about the project and what’s next. Long story short The Pizza Bike is heading to Kickstarter very very soon! I’m currently outlining the campaign goals, budget, rewards and all the necessary things to turn this into a successful venture.
The story so far: The Pizza Bike started as “art installation” at Bristol Harbour Festival around an year ago. Through next couple of months I was looking at some ways to start my own street food business, but the cost of a catering van, equipment and so on was way out my budget.
In October 2014 I found and purchased that incredible little pizza oven Uuni ( which was also born on Kickstarter ) fired up, roll some dough and I saw that my crazy idea of bicycle that makes pizza was actually possible. Shortly after I found a heavy but beautiful beach cruiser that was able to carry and tow the whole enterprise.
The next few months I’ve spend my weekends and nights into drilling, painting, designing the stall, developing the dough, toppings and so on.
February was the month when everything was ready to roll and The Pizza Bike made its first appearance in Victoria Park, Bath.
In April, May and June we started trading on regular basis at Somerset Farmers Markets, Green park Station, Bath, The Harbourside Market in Bristol with more and more festivals and markets coming in the pipeline as we speak.
Last weekend Team Pizza Bike made it through The British Street Food Awards – The biggest event so far that was way out of my comfort zone, but hey if you don’t challenge yourself you will never see what you are made from.
Smallest pizzeria in the world at @eatdrinkbristol -loving you @thepizzabike! #tipitastic #BeAGreatWesterner #bristol pic.twitter.com/nn5xH65QPy
— Poppy Loves (@poppy_loves) May 9, 2015
In the last few months the project outgrow even my wildest expectations and I can only say thank you to all the people who supported it and help me push it forward! This has been a one man venture so far – but It wouldn’t be possible without the help of my little part time helpers, some top consultants behind the scenes and of course a bit of magic and luck to keep everything in place.
Now it’s time to change into a faster gear and move forward and to do that I need some help. So far the project has been financed with personal funds, hard work and a lot of imagination which can only take you to a certain level, from there you need a bit of cheese to keep everything going properly. The Kickstarter campaign would have few main goals:
Improving The Pizza Bike – Fixing some minor problems, improving the overall appearance of the stall , getting a proper gazebo, buying a bit more cookware so we can make more pizza, serve and make more people smiling.
Buying a support vehicle – In the last few months the project just outgrow the loading capacity of my beloved 99 Renault Megane, I do love that car that has been the backbone of my travels and road trips for the last 4 years, but it’s just not big enough to carry all the equipment and supplies needed for bigger events . I have been looking into some solutions to that and the best one I’ve found so far is one beautiful white van from the future – Nissan e NV200 – one of the few electric vans available on the UK Market. I went for a test drive recently and it’s just the right support vehicle that would allow the whole venture to freely travel around Bath, Bristol and Somerset. One of the core idea of the project is to develop a 21st century business that is sustainable, produces minimum waste and using all the benefits of the the modern technology – so an electric van would fit in that concept perfectly. Bye bye oil change 😉 Hello future!
Hiring employee Number 2 – So far there have been quite a few people helping me for the events on part time basis and I do need someone full time to expand the project . I’ve been splitting myself into a few different personalities through the last few months and It’s a lot of fun to be Chief Entertainment Officer, Chief Extreme Engineer, Pizza Chef, Marketing Director, Financial Director, Web Developer, Graphic Designer, Photographer, Chief Dishwasher Operator ( if you want to be street food entepuneer – prepare to wash a lot of stuff 🙂 ) and so on but I do need someone who can hop on full time on aboard watch over my back and help me turn The Smallest Pizzeria in the World into the best one!
Developing The Pizza Bike sourdough as a stand alone product – Making a handmade dough is a quite a time consuming process – especially when we are talking about sourdough. The recipe for it is simple – water, flour, salt, patience and love . I’ve already got quite a few requests about gluten free dough and have a few other varieties that have been already tested by some friends with great feedback. In order to push them into a real product, there is a need of proper refrigerator (30 quid Gumtree special is just not good enough to do that without compromising the quality ) and a few other bit more cookware to make it happen, packaging and a bit of real life marketing.
Marketing – The marketing strategy of The Pizza Bike is simple – we make and sell quality products sourced from reputable suppliers and let people decide if they are good or bad. There are no top floor marketing meetings wasting time in discussing which shade of orange would make people to buy more. The business so far has been promoted exclusively through social medias and word of mouth which is working quite well, cost almost nothing and will keep it that way for the future.
Securing some Cashflow – We work with some fantastic suppliers and event organizers and to keep buying quality ingredients, participating in more events we need some cash in hand to pay in advance for festival fees, pizza boxes, paper towels and all those not very glamours things that are needed for the show to keep moving forward.
The rewards:
There are several types of rewards that would be offered to people who wish to back up our project. Some of them would be shipped internationally , while some would be available locally in Bath and Bristol area. They are still in development, but rest assured there would something funny and creative for everyone who wants to back up The Smallest Pizzeria In The World!
The campaign would be launched soon, so watch out on your favourite social media platform and thepizzabike.co.uk/kickstarter for more updates.
So how possible is for The Smallest Pizzeria In The World to become the best one in town? 2015 is the year of the future, so what’s possible and what’s not possible is up to you people of planet Earth 😉
See you at a sunny spot near you!
Angel
