Meet Cortlandt Minnich | Pizza Oven Entrepreneur

We had the good fortune of connecting with Cortlandt Minnich and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Cortlandt, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
I have always had romantic notions about being an inventor or entrepreneur. I have been a life-long tinkerer with cars and bicycles and woodworking. I also enjoyed being that guy in the neighborhood who could grill really great food using my Big Green Egg. Then, a friend bought a wood-fired pizza-oven for his backyard and completely upstaged me. I reasoned that since my grill was ceramic, could cook at temperatures over 700F degrees, and was even dome shaped – pizza would be a breeze. Unfortunately, I could not duplicate the wonderful pizza he created and certainly not with the ease he exhibited.

I was off to my workshop for a kind of “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang” session. What emerged was the start of a thrilling adventure. This idea did start as a way for me to keep up with a friend, but the more folks I met who were struggling with pizza, the more it became a passion for helping people make real pizza in their backyard. My company mission became: <help people> Have Fun Making Great Pizza.

Professionally I had launched numerous products and had become a disciple of Lean Startup. This was a chance to test those principles. I started attending events at ATDC to learn more about starting a company and finding resources. At the same time, I was learning how to do basic mechanical drawing in Sketchup to get steel cut for working MVP samples. Once I gathered evidence from interviewing Big Green Egg owners, it was time to move up to a higher-fidelity experiment. I picked an “Eggfest” event in Pensacola and set up a Lean Entrepreneurship experiment: If I could get 10 people interested enough in the Pizza-Porta to give their contact information, I would take the next step. The 20 responses (including one person saying “shut up and take my money”) confirmed that the product had merit for this audience.

At this point all I had was a positive signal and some comments about price point. I had avoided spending money on anything! I had not even purchased business cards, or t-shirts, hats, logos, or any other costs of getting started. I rushed home and learned how to build a website and tie up a URL and Facebook and Instagram handles. I also needed to figure out where and how to get the product manufactured. After being literally run out of 5 different sheet-metal fabricators, a casting shop and a stamping plant, I connected with METCAM, a local (made in the USA!) precision sheet-metal fabrication plant. They had an opening at this time in their business pilot program. The owner had attempted to cook pizza on his Big Green Egg in the past and understood the challenge completely.

The business then came together in a flurry of activity. METCAM had an amazing design team that took my concept and created a design that could be formed out of stainless steel. The first manufactured version of the Pizza-Porta was shown at an Eggfest five months after our first product demonstration. We cooked over 100 pizzas in that first prototype and made a number of upgrades before producing units for sale. The first retail sale happened in July – eight months after we proved the concept. Since the launch we have been improving the product and expanding the product line to fit more grills and more sizes. The Pizza-Porta is now sold in the US, Canada, Europe and we have even shipped to consumers in Japan and Australia. It is a thrill to see how my workshop tinkering is now bringing great pizza and entertainment experiences into people’s lives.

What should our readers know about your business?
Successful products solve a particular problem. In my product development career, it was always difficult to get a truly accurate understanding of the problem that a consumer faced. The challenge is balancing what the user says with what they demonstrate in their actions. Pizza-Porta is a case where I had real, first-hand empathy for the challenges facing a person trying to cook really great pizza for friends. This knowledge let me prioritize the product attributes on the right problems. This clear direction also helped guide where to compromise and where to hold the line. If you have an idea for a product that is based on your personal experience it is a great starting point.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
Atlanta has discovered the art of great pizza and there are really talented people opening new independent pizza places all the time. I would take a visitor on a pizza tour. Hitting just the places that I know in one day might be a challenge! I am not associated with any of these great restaurants, just a fan of their dedication to the craft. Antico (of course the one by Ga Tech) would be on the list as well as Varuni Napoli, Double Zero in Emory Village, Avellinos and Vero Pizza in Brookhaven, and Spina Pizza an up-and-coming team near Ponce City Market. The tour would also include some of the Atlanta staples that paved the way for great pizza in Atlanta. I spent a lot of time at Fellinis and Mo’s on Briarcliff back in the day. To top off the day we would have to go back in time and drink cheap beer and have Jaggers pizza (Detroit pizza before it was cool) at Emory Village.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I am thankful for three groups who encouraged the success of the Pizza-Porta.

First, a good friend purchased a wood-fired pizza oven for his backyard and demonstrated how much fun making pizza at home can be.

Second, I was a member of a monthly church men’s group. The instigator of the group encouraged us to come up with something that we wanted to be held accountable for, but not nagged about. I shared the idea of making a pizza oven accessory and they held me accoutable.

The third group is my wife and family. They supported all of my long nights tinkering in the garage and then helped demonstrate the great pizza made possible by the Pizza-Porta.

Website: www.pizza-porta.com

Instagram: @pizzadashporta

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cortlandtminnich

Twitter: @pizzadashporta

Facebook: @pizzadashporta

Image Credits
All photos by Pizza-Porta