Greetings everyone!
I hope you are safe and healthy in this unprecedented time.
- Firepie is weathering the crisis well and continuing to support our community
- Our revenue was up 12% in Q1 2020, over Q4 2019, despite coronavirus
- As an investor, the best way you can help us right now is to share this campaign (see below)
Longer version:
We now have 79 investors and are almost at our goal. Thank you!
I have been leading our incredible team through this challenging situation with a focus on ensuring safety for each other and our customers and providing community support to first responders. In this difficult time, it has been truly encouraging to receive messages from you and to watch our investment volume continue to grow. Yes, you get why this is the right concept at the right time. And you see what I see and share this vision of building a national brand, but what you are doing brings so much more. You have lifted me and Firepie up. Words cannot do justice to the deep sense of gratitude I have.
To our cherished customers, many who are also investors now, on behalf of me and our team, thank you for continuing to order Firepie. Because of you, Firepie will move through this, emerging stronger than before.
As a reminder, all of you are entitled to a lifetime discount on Firepie, per your investment amount below:
$100+ you will always have 10% off every order
$250+ you'll always have 15% off every order
$500+ you'll always have 18% off every order
$1,000+ you'll always have 21% off every order
I will be sending special codes to you upon completion of the round.
Safety focus
As I had mentioned previously, our amazing team continues to exceed my expectations with our advanced safety protocols. The entire team is reporting healthy. We began wearing protective masks far before it was recommended, handwashing with chlorhexidine gluconate, repetitive and detailed disinfecting, and distancing protocols. They are managing this while handling periods of increasing volume. I am very proud of them.
While we have hand sanitizer, masks, gloves, and disinfecting chemicals and wipes throughout our operation, our team needs protection outside of work as well. For this, I was able to procure for our team members and their families, personal washable masks, hand sanitizer, gloves, and paper products for outside of work. We want everyone and their families safe.
Giving back to our community
We continue offering free cheese pizzas to our younger customers that are out of school if they walk up and ask. They need to eat!
We are providing free pizzas to the ICU team at the hospital across the street.
We are continuing our work with 826 Valencia. They need support and every year we put the poems of the students on our pizza boxes with information on this incredible organization. 826 Valencia is a nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting under-resourced students ages six to eighteen with their creative and expository writing skills and to helping teachers inspire their students to write.
Revenue
I am finalizing financials for Q1 but have our baseline revenue numbers for this update.
Encouragingly, our sales in Q1 2020 are up 12% on Q4 2019, even during this COVID crisis.
This is despite a drop of 22% industry-wide in the fast-food category, and a 50% drop in fast-casual.
How can you help?
Right now, the biggest way you can help is to share our Wefunder crowdfunding campaign, which will end on April 29.
Please consider sharing this message on your Facebook and LinkedIn:
“I am proud to be an investor in Firepie, which delivers delicious, wood-fired pizza in just 15 minutes. You can join me as an investor, and earn a lifetime discount on Firepie pizza, for just $100: Wefunder.com/Firepie”
If you know any investors who might be interested in investing a larger sum (e.g. $1,000+), please do connect them with me by email. [email protected]
From here
My immediate focus is what I consider my highest responsibility, leading our team through this crisis, ensuring their safety and our customers’ safety while helping our community in any way possible.
As the situation begins to stabilize, I will continue this focus while using your investment to grow our customer base and increase our EBIDTA.
I will continue to update you as I move our company forward but just want to say, thank you for lifting me and Firepie up.
Until my next update, please stay safe and healthy.
Best regards,
Rick Richman
Founder & CEO
415-948-4099