Alex's Awesome Sourdough Pizza

The gut-friendly pizza that tastes awesome

Summary

• 2nd fastest-growing premium frozen pizza in the US (Source: SPINS)
• Founded by 2-star Michelin-trained chef
• "The #1 Best Frozen Pizza to Buy," according to "Eat This, Not That!"
• 14K+ Instagram followers
• Sourdough crust delivers nutrition, digestion and taste advantages
• Launching gluten free line with nutrition, ingredient and taste advantages

Problem

Most pizzas use ingredients that are not gut-friendly and compromise taste

The combination of wheat flour and yeast that is used to proof pizza dough can be rough on your stomach. It's particularly bad for celiacs, but many people have different degrees of gluten intolerance.

Many premium pizzas use industrial fillers—such as xanthan gum, soy oil, and canola oil—to hold their crusts together.

Solution

We naturally ferment our dough, and use only natural ingredients

• Easier to digest—Sourdough's natural fermentation process has shown to increase fiber solubility and produce prebiotic compounds that can aid digestion.
• More nutrients—The natural sourdough fermentation process means more bioavailable nutrients. During fermentation, phytic acid is broken down which otherwise would inhibit the absorption of zinc, magnesium, and many other important vitamins and minerals.
• Lower glycemic response—Sourdough fermentation is shown to retard starch digestibility leading to a lower glycemic response.
• Awesomely delicious—Our thin crusts are made with artisanal care, providing the right chew with a distinctive sourdough taste.

Product

Our pizzas are made with gut-friendly sourdough and topped with organic ingredients

Feel-good ingredients

And now we have a gluten-free pizza offering ingredient and nutrition advantages while delivering Alex's Awesome taste

Our Gluten-Free pizza offers nutritional advantages over the leading Gluten-Free brands:

Our Gluten-Free offering uses cleaner and 50% less ingredients than Daiya, the leading Gluten-Free brand:

Our Gluten-Free packaging leverages our brand heritage and is high-impact:

While communicating our compelling nutritional advantages:

Traction

We are the 2nd-fastest-growing premium pizza

Source: SPINS May 15, 2022

We have almost 2,000 Natural-focused customers

Our 2022 plan is to expand our gluten-free offering to current and new accounts

• Our 12 month goal is to secure distribution with our new Gluten-Free line in at least 1,000 of our 2,000 current accounts.
• We hope to expand to new accounts and anticipate meetings with new accounts that represent over 3,000 stores over the next 12 months.
• We will continue to expand distribution of our traditional line into new accounts as well.

Customers

Consumers and the press love our pizza

The Konnect Agency is managing our social and press activities:

Social Media 2021 Organic Metrics:

• Followers: 14,197
• Net Followers Gained in 2021: 10,359
• Impressions: 1,898,927
• Engagements: 8,466

Food editors applaud our ingredients and love the taste of our pizzas

“With this California-based brand, we finally have frozen organic and non-GMO pizza we can all feel good about indulging in. The crust is baked with naturally-fermented sourdough—which results in a crispy texture and subtle tang—while the nut-free pesto and grass-fed mozzarella lends richness without weighing down even the most sensitive stomachs.”

“There’s a strong chance you got into sourdough this year, and one place where sourdough really shines is pizza crust.  Alex’s Awesome Sourdough pizzas are yeasty and tangy on the bottom and light, yet flavorful on the top!”

“Sourdough became a pandemic darling earlier this year, so it rightfully deserves a place in a frozen pizza lineup. “Naturally fermented” rather than relying on commercial yeast, the increase in bioavailable nutrients in the crust itself allows this pizza to declare itself gut healthy. (Even the cauliflower crusts can’t be that bold.)”

“Alex’s Awesome Sourdough is the first company  to put a frozen sourdough pizza crust on the market!...this Alex’s Awesome Sourdough Mushroom Pizza caught our eye.  Its great for your gut health and provides you with 20 grams of protein and a whopping 11 grams of fiber for  ½ a pizza!”

“Guys, the mozzarella pizza will blow you away. I’m not even joking. This is the best cheese pizza I have ever had. Coming out of the oven, it doesn’t even taste or look like it was frozen, which I can’t say about any other frozen pizza brand.”

Business model

Making a profitable pizza

A strategic imperative is delivering manufacturing margins of over 40% and Net Margins (after cost of goods, retailer promotions and cash discounts freight and storage) of 30%.  

This was a long process that started in Alex's kitchen. Now, our pizzas are made in one of the best facilities in the United States that provides outstanding quality, can meet our capacity needs for the next 5 years while delivering our margin targets:

• Manufacturing Margins are 42% with upside
• Net Gross Margins are 27% with upside

With these margins, we need to reach 3,500 stores to reach breakeven. With current accounts commitments, we are 60% there.

Market

The premium pizza market generated retail sales of $428 million in 2021

Frozen Pizza generated revenue of  $6.1 billion in grocery stores, mass outlets such as Target and Walmart and club stores in 2021. According to SPINS, the premium segment, where Alex's Awesome competes, generated revenue of $428 million.

Source: Spins

Gluten-Free Pizza generates more sales than Traditional Pizza in the Premium Segment:

Competition

Our market share is growing while the leading brands are declining

And now we are introducing a gluten-free pizza that provides an offering for 56% of the market that purchases gluten free pizza.

Our distinct differences from the competition will continue to fuel our growth

1. The only top brand with a naturally fermented sourdough crust
2. Breakthrough gluten free offering
3. 12 hour versus 1 hour for proofing
4. No industrial yeast
5. Organic ingredients
6. No added sugar, fillers, soy or canola oil

Vision and strategy

Our goal is to reach revenue of $21 million and EBITDA of $2.6 million in 2026*

• Alex's Awesome is a brand platform based upon the distinct nutritional and taste benefits of sourdough.
• There are many other product categories which provide potential entry points—chips and crackers are two examples.
• However, the financial plan below is just for pizza.
• The proceeds of this raise will be used to help us expand our retail distribution and fund new product development.

Funding

Our investors are industry insiders

• Presence Marketing, the premier broker in the natural foods space; the Presence Executive team are also investors

• Scott Killips, our Chairman, has several significant exits including Wild Planet Foods

• Several high profile family offices and industry insiders round out the investor base

Founders

Alex Corsini

Founder and CEO

• Former Tech Sales @ Twilio & Whil
• 2 Star Michelin Trained Chef
• Obsessed with everything sourdough
• Loves riding his mountain bike on Mt Tam (that's why its in our logo)
• BA, University of Southern California

A little background on Alex's journey

• 2016: Alex develops autoimmune symptoms and learns that modern bread, which is high in gluten and industrial ingredients, aggravates his symptoms.
• 2017: Alex discovers that he feels great eating naturally fermented sourdough. He begins baking sourdough.  
• 2018: Alex quits his tech job, moves to Copenhagen to works at Michelin star restaurants and sourdough bakeries to perfect his craft. Alex launches his concept for better-for-you product, sourdough pizza, at Drivers Market (Sausalito) in September and sells out the first day.
• 2019: Alex raises seed capital and achieves distribution in 70 Bay Area stores. Presence Marketing joins the team in the Fall and begins aggressive distribution expansion.
• 2020: The business reaches 1,200+ stores and $3.0 million ARR despite Covid-19 sales and distribution challenges imposed on a new brand.

Scott Killips

Chairman & CFO

• Successful angel investor and operator
• Co-Founder Accenture Technology Ventures
• Former partner Booz-Allen & Hamilton
• Loves going fast whether on the race track or in the mountains
• BS, University of Denver; MBA, Cornell University

Michel Venghiattis

VP Sales

• Founder and Former CEO of Horizon Specialties Food Brokerage
• The "go to sales guy" everyone dream about but never has
• Loves food, wine and explaining to people how to pronounce his name