Super Fast Pizza not just about a quick buck

Enough are needed to keep cooking on the road, but “you don’t want to stack too many on top of each other that they mush,” she said.

At 5:42 p.m., Volkenant bolted out of the truck and up the steps to the home of Kathy Elliott, 39, with five hot pizzas — two cheese, a pepperoni, a sausage, and a pepperoni and sausage — in a carrying case.

“It’s at least 15 minutes faster” than Domino’s Pizza, said Elliott, shelling out $31.45. “Within five or six minutes, we usually see them right around our house and they’re cooking the food. Maximum 15 minutes, they’re at the door with the pizza.”

“The pizzas taste great and the service is excellent,” said repeat customer Matt Zitlow, whose wife and three children started to bustle when Super Fast showed up. “Where else can you get hot pizzas 15 minutes after you call?”

But Super Fast hasn’t hurt business at Mancino’s Pizza & Grinders, said Barbara Weaver, owner of the Fond du Lac eatery. Customers like her pizza crust, made from scratch every day, she said.

“That’s not just freezer bread somebody sent in and you raised it and put it in the oven,” Weaver said.

She doesn’t think much of Super Fast: “Who’s saying their pizza is any good?” she said.

Since starting in September, Matthew said sales have been on a roll while the company smoothed out some bumps.

Rooftop antennas helped alleviate the trucks’ frequent loss of their Internet connection and latches on the oven doors stopped the pies from sliding out when the driver turns a corner.

The computer server, which farms out orders based on each truck’s location and stage in the cooking process, still makes mistakes sometimes. Plans are in the works to update the software.

“By the time we’ve done it in two or three cities like Fond du Lac, we’ll have learned most of the tricks,” Matthew said.

Super Fast has been contacted by interested businesspeople from as far away as Britain, Botswana and the Philippines who saw the idea on an online magazine for entrepreneurs, Matthew said.

British businessman David Roberts, who’s been in the pizza business for 12 years, said he sent Matthew an e-mail, and is kicking himself for not thinking of the idea first. The mobile kitchen could be a big hit at outdoor fairs and exhibitions, Roberts said.

“I think a lot of people will be jumping on the bandwagon,” he said.

Matthew said franchising is one possibility for expanding the business. He could also take on other investors to expand it himself or look into a licensing arrangement.

“We’ve had lots and lots of nibbles,” Matthew said. “At some point we’ll be bringing more people on board.”

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