Pizza baked in a pizza oven doesn’t always taste great. However, traditional pizza ovens are expensive and cumbersome to set up. The Bertello Pizza Oven is an affordable alternative that’s perfect for a backyard. Founders Andy and Eric Bert pitched the product on Shark Tank and landed a deal with Kevin O’Leary. As of 2024, Bertello is valued at $2.5 million.
Founder
Andy and Eric Burt are brothers from Woodbury, New York. They grew up together and shared a passion for pizza. Despite their many similarities, they initially took different career paths.
Eric became a licensed structural engineer and has been designing and inspecting bridges in the Manhattan area for 10 years, sometimes climbing to the top of New York’s largest bridges.
His brother is a financial professional who worked for many years on the open outcry trading floor. Andy married and moved to St. Paul, Minnesota, to work in financial services.
Start Bertello
Eric decided to use his engineering skills for something other than bridges. As a fan of authentic Italian pizza, he was tired of the taste of frozen pizza and pizza baked in traditional home ovens.
So he designed a portable backyard pizza oven that could run on propane, charcoal or wood. The multiple fuel options helped the pizza bake faster. After telling Andy about his invention, the two became business partners.
The Bert brothers invested $90,000 to start Bertello in 2017 and made $640,000 in less than two years. At the beginning of the second year, they borrowed $70,000 and paid it back soon.
Shark Tank Appearance
Andy and Eric needed to raise money to hold more inventory, and they showed up in Season 11, seeking $120,000 for a 10% stake. The Bertello duo gave an entertaining introduction and wowed the sharks with the quality of their pizza. This and their sales performance sparked the interest of several sharks.
After the opening, their energy started to wane. Barbara called out rudely and made them feel uncomfortable. A speech can last over an hour, and a TV episode is edited to about 10 minutes, so it’s understandable that someone would feel tired.
Barbara offered $120,000 for 25% and Chef Wonderful offered $120,000 for 30%. The founders asked him to match Barbara’s offer, and he agreed. Barbara was furious, but how can you expect to make a deal when you call someone boring? You can’t talk to people like that and expect them to accept your offer.
After Shark Tank
After the show aired, Bertello started making a ton of money! Before the show aired, they were making $1 million. According to an interview with twincities.com, as of November 2021, they have made $6.3 million in sales. The deal with Kevin was done, and with the help of QVC, their lifetime sales have surpassed $10 million.
You can now buy the pizza oven at Walmart, Amazon, and its official website, Bertello.com. In addition to the oven, the company now also sells skillets and other cooking accessories.
On Amazon, their original outdoor pizza oven has an average rating of 4.1 stars from 513 customers. This is a good sign that Bertello is still selling well today. Bertello’s annual profit is about $2 million to $3 million, and its valuation is $2.5 million.
Categories: Shark Tank
Source: svlsf.edu.vn