Mike Bausch is an industry leader whose restaurant, Andolini’s Pizzeria, is a top ten pizzeria in the US, as named by TripAdvisor, BuzzFeed, CNN, and USA Today. Andolini’s began in 2005 and has grown to five pizzerias, two gelaterias, two food hall concepts, a food truck, and a fine dining restaurant by 2019. Mike is a World Pizza Champion, a Guinness Book world record holder, and a writer for Pizza Today.
Key Takeaways:
[0:18] Today’s episode of Franchise Euphoria is brought to you by IndyFranchiseLaw.com, a leading resource in the franchise space. Head over to IndyFranchiseLaw.com learn more!
[0:59] Josh introduces today’s guest, Mike Bausch, the co-founder of Andolini’s Pizza.
[2:30] Josh welcomes Mike to Franchise Euphoria.
[3:31] Mike shares what led his brother and himself to found the Andolini’s Pizza concept.
[8:09] Early on, Andolini’s struggled with success, and Mike was determined to discover a way to turn it around because there was no backup plan for failure.
[13:36] Mike discovered his first pitfall was trying to be like other pizzerias, but when he started allowing his personality to come into the business, they were able to differentiate themselves from their competitors.
[19:12] Mike discusses how they considered franchising Andolini’s but ultimately decided on corporate expansion instead.
[25:33] Josh and Mike examine how people like the idea of “buying into the dream” with franchising.
[30:45] Mike explains what how he earned his title of “World Pizza Champion.”
[33:51] Mike shares the idea behind his book, “Unsliced: How to Stay Whole in the Pizzeria Industry.”
[37:09] If you want to learn more about Andolini’s, visit their website listed below.
[37:41] Thanks for listening, and please, reach out to Josh anytime through email at josh@franchiseeuphoria.com. If you enjoyed this interview, please leave us a review on Apple Podcasts.
Mentioned in This Episode:
https://www.andopizza.com/menu/
