We recently connected with Anthony Mangieri and have shared our conversation below.

Anthony, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Coming up with the idea is so exciting, but then comes the hard part – executing. Too often the media ignores the execution part and goes from idea to success, skipping over the nitty, gritty details of executing in the early days. We think that’s a disservice both to the entrepreneurs who built something amazing as well as the public who isn’t getting a realistic picture of what it takes to succeed. So, we’d really appreciate if you could open up about your execution story – how did you go from idea to execution?

For nearly 30 years, I’ve made pizza in my restaurant Una Pizza Napoletana and to this day, I’m still always fine tuning and tweaking the recipe to make each pizza incrementally better than the last. I’ve spent my whole life in pursuit of the perfect pizza, and I wanted to bring that same level of care and consideration I take at Una to the frozen foods category. It took three years of research and development to source our Italian ingredients, to find the right production and retail partners and to develop the recipes. We launched Genio Della Pizza in 2023, and I still frequently travel to Italy to train the artisans who make our pizza and fine tune the product. Just a few days after we launched, we were voted #1 in a blind taste test of premium frozen pizza brands by the New York Times, and I think that’s a testament to the thoroughness of our R&D prior to launching as well as our commitment to pushing the boundaries and never compromising.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

Since I was a kid growing up in New Jersey, I’ve been obsessed with eating and making pizza. In my early twenties in 1996, I opened Una Pizza Napoletana in Point Pleasant, NJ and then moved (myself and the restaurant) to New York in 2004. I’ve brought Una to San Francisco and back again — our current location is on the Lower East Side of Manhattan — and since day one, I have made every piece of dough we’ve served.

About four years ago I started working on Genio Della Pizza with the goal of reaching more people than could visit Una. Genio is rooted in my 30+ years of experience making pizza. There aren’t many CPG brands made by real makers — people who practice their craft day in and day out — and I’m proud that ours is. More than anything, though, I’m proud to put a beautiful, truly artisan frozen pizza on shelves.

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

As the chef and owner of Una Pizza Napoletana, I’ve become known for an attention to detail that some call obsessive. I hope that if someone recognizes my name on the Genio Della Pizza box, they’ll associate it with a commitment to quality that is, yes, obsessive and trust that what’s inside to be a delicious and nourishing meal for their family. Beyond my own reputation, Genio Della Pizza stands on its own as an undeniably, consistently excellent product, which can only happen when you prioritize quality above all else.

Okay – so how did you figure out the manufacturing part? Did you have prior experience?

I had made hundreds of thousands of pizzas before, but never at this scale. I met with countless production partners before finding the right one, in a region of northern Italy known for producing some of the world’s finest foods under strict regulations for quality and authenticity. I then trained their staff in the art of pizza making, from hydration to natural leavening to topping to wood-fire baking. I still go there for every production run and am constantly working with the team to keep pushing the boundaries of what is possible, making what we think is the best pizza you could possibly find in the freezer aisle.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://unapizza.com/
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/anthony_w_mangieri
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anthony-mangieri-451887252/
• Other: The website for my frozen pizza business: www.geniodellapizza.com

Image Credits
Mark Weinberg