Jordan Buckner (00:00)
Pizza is one of those food categories that is really popular and is probably one of the highest awareness and consume categories, especially in the US, but around the world. But there's been this also craze in the intersection of having high protein in foods and better for you healthier options. And my guest today sits at the intersection of both of those. So I'm talking with Damiano.

Messineo who is the founder of Loopini which is a protein packed pizza. It contains 50 grams of protein and just 560 calories, 20 grams of fiber for some of their products and amazing quality. I'm talking with Damiano today as well because he has recently run the Whole Foods Pitch Competition as a naturally networked pitch finalist and had a lot of momentum behind growing the brand.

Damiano, welcome to the podcast today.

Damiano Messineo (00:54)
Hi, thank you Jordan. It's an honor to be here today.

Jordan Buckner (00:57)
So as we're recording this, are preparing for the Naturally Networked Pitch Competition that's happening at Newtopia. You have a lot of things going on. But I'd like to kind of start at the beginning. Tell me about what led you to start Loopini and how the brand got started.

Damiano Messineo (01:15)
Yeah. So, I like to say that I got a PhD in pizza, because I'm Italian and I moved to New York city. So I guess that's good enough to, to, give you the title for any person that is living in New York city or born in New York city and moved to Italy. so I was living here in New York, I was studying and I was eating pizza almost every day because I love pizza is my favorite food. And I was looking to do something in food.

But I was looking obviously for something scalable, something, you know, that I could innovate. And I realized that pizza was invented long time ago, but it was never, never improved, never innovate except for toppings. The crust has been always all the same. And so I started thinking about it, and how to innovate the pizza. So let's bring down the calories. Let's, let's get pizza more functional. So more protein, more fiber.

Let's make pizza healthy, the same feeling as you're eating a salad, but you're eating a pizza. And so I start looking at tons of different flowers from all over the world. Even the okara flower from Japan, everything, until I stumble into the lupini beans, which is something that, especially in Southern Italy, we consume. And I was like, astonishing. Lupini beans are amazing. And so I decided to make the first pizza out of it.

and it didn't taste good. It was horrible. But the macros were amazing. The benefits for you and for the planet were there. So I was like, let's try to make it work. It took me 13 months, but we made pizza great with Lupini beans.

Jordan Buckner (02:47)
That's amazing. I'm kind of curious, what was the hardest part about getting the crust right? Was it the texture or the taste or all of it?

Damiano Messineo (02:55)
All of it, exactly. Yeah, the texture. I remember that the first experiment that I did, it wasn't an elastic roll. I had to use a piece of wood to roll it. mean, consistency wasn't there, taste wasn't there, because lupini beans has a very nutty flavor. And so we wanted to almost get rid of the flavor. And we wanted to have an authentic

taste of pizza something. So you cannot even tell that it's made with the pinny beans. And yeah, it was very difficult. I mean, we tried everything and it took us, as I said, 13 months. And I worked with even the best chefs in the world for pizza chefs. worked with a guy that was number one in Neapolitan pizza. I worked with a guy that was number 15 in the world, his restaurant. And they couldn't even figure it out.

And this was at the beginning. And so I was like, well, better doing myself. I wasn't a pizza chef, but I started studying the chemistry behind it. and yeah, we made it. launched in January. This is January, 2025. The first store was Pop-Up Grocer. And it's been amazing for us there because we've been, they have a ranking and we've been number one in the freezing space since then. So it's more than eight months now. You know, they do a couple of rotations.

And we're expanding about 100, 150 stores in the Northeast. And we have huge velocity, ⁓ three times faster than any other frozen pizza out there.

Jordan Buckner (04:22)
That's amazing. What do you think is leading the velocity out there? it the protein claim? Is it kind of a new style of pizza in the freezer aisle? What have you been hearing from your retail partners and customers on why people are buying?

Damiano Messineo (04:36)
Yeah, definitely. I think it's a combination of everything. I would say protein grabs the attention right now. It's a number one. The protein grabbed attention, but now consumers are we are having connoisseurs of protein. So people don't want, they want the protein, but then they go deeper. They want a clean label. They don't want isolate. They don't want whey protein. And so they're pretty good at understanding if the protein comes naturally.

For example, our comes naturally from the beans. And so this is what people are looking right now. I think we are leaning more into the natural protein rather than the performance chemical stuff. that's all that those are the main two things, protein and clean label. That's what they're and obviously fiber. think we're seeing the rising of fiber.

And I think it's going to be the next protein and protein is here to stay. I think protein, calories, sorry, protein fiber, and obviously the fewer calories, the better. And so those are the three combinations that are, winning. And that is why we put it on the, on the package on the top, right? We have the number of protein, the number of calories and the number of fiber.

Jordan Buckner (05:45)
I think that's really exciting. It really stands out. And it's like one of the first things you notice in addition to the great looking Neapolitan style pizza, manufacturing frozen products are notoriously difficult along with just like the right, the new ingredients in finding manufacturers who want to make something with Lupini beans. And so tell me about how and where you're manufacturing the pizzas.

Damiano Messineo (06:07)
Yeah. So we manufacture the pizza in Italy, just because the ingredients are better there. we have our manufacturing facility is within five kilometers of where we source our toppings, the toppings being tomato sauce and mozzarella cheese. And consider that we are right in the middle between the San Martino area, which is, you know, it's world famous tomatoes, the best in the world.

But on the other side, is another story that no one knows about it. I mean, it's less common. It's that we have the Milky Mountains, which is the mountain overlooking the Malfi Coast. And it's called Milky Mountains because the Romans start crafting mozzarella cheese 2000 years ago. So we are exactly in the middle within five kilometers of radius between the best tomatoes in the world and the best mozzarella cheese in the world. And obviously we make pizza. So we couldn't

go anywhere else to make our pizza. And so there it's make, we make those in Italy, but it's extremely difficult to, know, for the supply chain. But, you know, we do it. We do it. It's just a little bit more difficult for us. But for me as an Italian, it was a non-negotiable thing that our pizza must be made there.

Jordan Buckner (07:18)
That's definitely amazing to hear and just looking at the reviews, a lot of people are very complimentary and love the fact that it has that handcrafted quality and texture and actually tastes good and tastes like pizza. I remember when, you know, cauliflower pizza crust first came out, you know, was more like a flatbread type.

but like it definitely didn't taste like pizza. It was more like toppings on top of a cauliflower flatbread kind of thing. And so it's exciting to see this being more of an actual pizza. And so with it being manufactured, it sounds like you were at the perfect combination of like why you're so perfect for starting a pizza company. I'm curious, did you have a like family history in food or in the food industry at all?

Damiano Messineo (08:05)
Very interesting enough, yes, but I never met him because he was my great-grandfather and he had a tomato sauce manufacturer company. But obviously I never met him. My grandma sold the company like in the 60s. He founded the company after the World War II.

But I mean, from what I saw from the picture, he started exporting from Sicily to Argentina and London. So I always grow up with the dream of doing something like my great grandfather. But I never experienced directly because I just saw very, very old pictures. But it's crazy to think about it that my great grandfather was in the CPG industry and now...

I'm again in the CPG industry. I'm very sorry that my grandma didn't live long enough to witness this, but I she will love it. Actually, when I was a kid, I always told her, I promise you, I'm going to bring your father's company back. I mean, doesn't have the same name.

Jordan Buckner (09:05)
And maybe proud that you made it your own too, right? So a lot of, know like my parents and grandparents are like, you don't do the exact same thing that we did, like do something better, do something your own, do something different. So it's exciting to see this. And I love that it has that family connection to it. My family was in the food industry. And so I know how just like exciting and important that is in terms of like continuing on that legacy in your own way and doing that yourself.

Yeah, I am really curious around the supply chain for your business because it's made in Italy. You have to have it imported here in the US and it's all frozen, right? The entire chain and get it frozen to your retail partners. What is that process like? And whether the complexities there and how have you or are you learning how to manage that whole process?

Damiano Messineo (09:51)
Yeah, I mean, the most important thing is that our lead time obviously is slightly longer because our pizza spent 20 days in the ocean. And so we always want to be stocked for supermarket and stuff like this. So what we do is like we calculate in advance and we have our warehouse in Brooklyn. And so our warehouse is always stocked. And so we distribute from there.

But definitely, we just need to plan ahead. But it's definitely manageable. It's way more difficult, but I guess I never worked in the food industry before, so I don't know how I've experienced how easier it is to do frozen. So I guess if in the future we have plan another product that is not frozen, it's just downhill, I guess.

Jordan Buckner (10:43)
Yeah, I know, the, guess it's good, like frozen, you'll have that longer shelf life, but I've never had to or thought about ordering a frozen product from another country and having to import it. Like, do you have to do like a whole, container of frozen product? Like, how does that even ship? I'm just curious.

Damiano Messineo (10:59)
Yeah, it's I mean from our factory then comes a truck, a refrigerated truck. We put everything in there and then it goes to the ship and the container is itself refrigerated. And so for the whole process is refrigerated. And we have some chips that we like a little chip that we put in some sample to monitor the

the temperature all the course if you know it was always under minus 18 Celsius and then once arrive at the at the new work port and then another truck go collect it and bring it to the to the to our Raleigh house, which is also frozen and yeah, but definitely for shipping is crazy because right now we're doing a nationwide shipping online and the dry ice and it's super hot outside

It's definitely a challenge. think we're gonna move away from D2C and just focus on retail, but it was always the plan. It's just because with D2C you get to know the names and the email of the people. So I like to speak with those customers at the beginning just to know what they think about the product, to build that family.

Jordan Buckner (12:10)
That

makes a lot of sense. And I know a lot of brands do that as well, you just need, at the beginning, you want to reach as many people as possible. Otherwise, you're very constrained to a small geography, which can be good. But also, there's challenges. I guess it's great that you're in New York City as well, because then there's a very large market in a very small geography. And so.

That's probably a good combination. So tell me about your growth in New York City and how you're thinking about managing that and building these partnerships.

Damiano Messineo (12:39)
Yeah. So, I mean, I, I got the first supermarkets just knocking on the door, so, ⁓ having my sell sheets printed and talk with the buyers. And this will enable us to get us in around undone stores in the city. And I think we, I mean, the velocity is great. So we are graduating from that. Now we have, we have two distributors.

And we actually, we will start in September with them. So this will definitely, you know, fuel our growth to having distributors. And ⁓ we are about to close the deal with a couple of big chains that we will announce in the fall. And so it's going to be an exciting second part of the business where we no more with

I mean, we're still within the independent one, but we are going to grow with some important chains and definitely step up our marketing. Cause right now we have done very little marketing. We're being very scrappy, but we have a nice marketing plan that we will start in the fall. So definitely super excited to do, you know, to grow the business and to entering the second phase.

Jordan Buckner (13:50)
I like that. That's really exciting. You know, I'm curious around thinking through the branding for the company. I think one thing and like growing awareness because Loopini beans has a very low have a very low awareness in the US. And I've talked to other founders, Hunter Brumme, who also is pioneering Loopini beans in the US. And I think it's a pro and a con, right? Because on one hand,

There's little competition, but on the other hand, it takes a lot to educate people on what it is. But maybe they do or don't want to know because because you're selling pizza, everyone understands pizza. They understand high protein. They want to know that's a natural source, but you're they don't. And so you have this weird thing where like it's lupini of the name, like lupini bean, but it might not be as directly a correlation. So, okay, just curious on like how you're thinking about that whole.

branding, name, relation to the product. Can you only have Loopini beans in every product from now on or does Loopini just become the name and it might not have, can stray away from the bean.

Damiano Messineo (14:55)
Yeah, I mean, I don't have the reply or the response yet if we're going to do all the products Loopini related or not, but definitely on purpose, I didn't put an image of Loopini beans or made with Loopini beans on the package, at least in the front in the back. We explicit that is made with Loopini beans just because people don't know about it and they just want to eat great pizza.

with benefits. And so that's what we put. Then if they are more curious, because there are customers that say, okay, as long as you have protein and fiber and lower calories, I don't care what you put in there. But there are people like as long as it's clean. But there are people that are more curious and say, okay, how do you get the protein? Where do you get the protein? Where do you get the fiber? And then, you know, it's a lupini beans. Behind the package, we explain something. But it's not the main focus.

just because people don't know about it, the beans. On the other side, I think it's great that our companies like Brami, because we, I mean, we help each other to, you know, to make the culture of Loopini beans in the U.S. And on the other side, it's great because we're first in the market. It was first in the market making pasta, I'm first in the market making pizza. And...

Looking where we are heading with food, natural fiber, protein, I lupini beans have phyrosterols, which is something that lower your cholesterol, low glycemic index, I think is the perfect ingredient for the future. It's super sustainable. So I think it's going to be the next edamame or soy. And definitely with more company using lupini beans is it's going to have, we're going to have more chance that lupini can go viral, let's say.

and everyone is gonna go looping in nuts.

Jordan Buckner (16:34)
I think it's definitely a strong chance of that as well. And really focusing on that, you know, made in Italy as well and for pizza. So I think it's the right combination. Damiano, thanks so much for being on the podcast today. This is extremely inspirational and helpful and a lot of great tips for brands and founders listening. And so if you haven't already, if you can check out Loopini try out their pizza and you'll be disappointed. Thanks, Damiano.

Damiano Messineo (17:00)
Thank you, Jordan. Thank you so much. And I'll see you in a week in Newtopia.