No need to introduce Mark Cuban to you, dear readers. The outspoken tech billionaire and owner of the Dallas Mavericks has already made quite a name for himself as a savvy tech entrepreneur, angel investor and blogger. Cuban is today announcing that he has finalized an investment in New Orleans, Louisiana-based NAKEDpizza after 3 months of negotiations.
NAKEDpizza is an all-natural pizza delivery shop that has famously done most of its marketing efforts on and centered around its Twitter profile and Facebook presence. Two months ago, the healthy pizza store even erected a Twitter billboard above its first – and for now – only store.
The franchise’s got big plans for expansion, though. NAKEDpizza awarded Cuban with the Area Developer rights for the entire State of Texas, and while they haven’t disclosed how many stores the company plans to open in the state, NAKEDpizza co-founder Randy Crochet has indicated that “the market will support between 50 and 75 units.” The company is also actively seeking a group of Area Developers in the U.S. to open initial units as part of “founding cluster” of partners by year’s end.
Apart from the interesting concept behind NAKEDpizza and its bold expansion plans, the way the company got Cuban to back them is interesting. It’s the first company to attract funding from the man after his self-proclaimed Mark Cuban Stimulus Plan, which he refers to as an open source funding environment (click the link for the full explanation). Here’s what convinced him to invest in NAKEDpizza:
“Simply the Worlds Healthiest Pizza. Based in New Orleans, it tastes good. They work their asses off.”
Curious to see if that will prove enough to make it a success nation-wide, but gotta admire the passion on both sides of the table here. Although I think NAKEDpizza’s logo was clearly inspired by the TechCrunch brand. We’re considering a lawsuit, although we might settle for a free pizza coupon.
Pizza?It remains to be seen whether it will be nationalwide……
Try out the tinyurl of Wolframalpha.com
http://wolpha.com
hey guys. got a piece of the story wrong. note where it says : “NAKEDpizza has been awarded Area Developer rights to the entire State of Texas. ”
should read “Mark Cuban has been awarded.” that is, we awarded it to Mark.
right, read that wrong. updated the wording.
Nice work. But did they really manage to win the funding with a one-word proposal? ; )
http://www.nake...ource-cuban.htm
Oh totally, good call on the logos. It’s not easy to find logos consisting of a free fontface and the color green in this era of green free things.
Does anyone know the size of this investment? I love the stimulus project, and hope Mark continues to invest in promising companies. We all know he has plenty of money to invest.
They only have one store? Now they’re expanding to 50-75 units? That’s really ambitious.
the units in Texas will take years to develop. as will units throughout the US. will not be easy.
Naked Pizza needs to invest in a new logo. Bright green colors do not look appetitizing.
As the editor of http://www.worstpizza.com I welcome his investment. Anything that can keep the masses from ordering dominos or papa johns is a step in the right direction. We wish you luck Mark
in a deep recession lets launch a gourmet pizza joint with a funky name. right now people care more about what’s coming out their wallets than what’s clogging their arteries. we dont need another pizza joint just a good coupon on where to get one from an established player. still i’d rather see someones investment failing in the market than under their mattress.
GourmetLocator.com – good stuff
as a naked pizza regular, i can say that their za is not really gourmet in terms of price – costs about the same as other local pizza joints. and, if you get on their email/twitter lists, there are lots of great coupons.
contrary to your generalization, a lot of us really do care what’s clogging our arteries. give me a healthy alternative that tastes good for the same price any day!
I partially disagree. while I respect your right to an opinion, I don’t think it’s a fair assessment to trivialize what they are doing by saying it’s just, “a gourmet pizza joint with a funky name”. the fact that this is happening in new orleans of all places is an anomaly within itself. needless to say, I think they’re special. also, when you’re eating better and doing some exercise, everything is better. is pizza health food? not even close. but if you’re going to spend money on pizza in this economy you mention, do it right. /tangent
lastly, though it’s an obvious comparison, you can’t really compare nakedpizza to the big 3. at least naked pizza is food(I’ve eaten it). the big 3 sell pizza flavor/shaped products… huge difference.
Congrats to Naked Pizza. As a fan and friend of Jeff and Randy, I have to say, they have taken New Orleans by Storm. I first met them at a entrepreneurship presentation at Tulane 2 years ago, and they had this crazy idea that they could change the way people in this country ate through pizza. Less than two years later, they are the hottest thing on Twitter in New Orleans, and they’ve gotten Mark Cuban on board. Congrats on the investment and keep up the passion and drive.
I’ve love to order a pizza with Tipjoy + Twitter: p $20 @nakedpizza for a large cheese pizza to my house
You could build this with http://tipjoy.com/api
awesome news for nakedpizza and I hope this turns into more jobs in nola.
so if i order pizza do i get naked girls to deliver it
Congrats guys. Besides having a great tasting, healthy, affordable alternative to traditional pizza they are a great group of guys. Awesome…
And yet they still have a website that looks like it was designed in 1996.
http://www.tech...comment-2715095
Okay, so why is anyone reading about a stupid pizza franchise, the name of course ‘NAKED’ Pizza. Would it get the same buzz if it was called something else, likely not? So this threads to the other discussion about Bing, as to how important naming for a service, a business, whatever can be.
But my take is this pizza franchise will not be about naked delivery people or in-store workers, or patrons that shed clothes, so let’s hope the intent of the best natural ingredients, whatever is a longterm draw, otherwise just one of many pizza pie joints.
just…. wow
Another dining establishment that is using Twitter to power it’s business to great success is Los Angeles based KogiBBQ (@kogibbq)
good luck nakedpizza —- just don’t let cuban be your frontman…..many people would not buy the pizza just to spite him.