We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Philip Brynildsen. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Philip below.

Philip, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us 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?

I came from the music world and I had no experience with food whatsoever but I knew there was a niche for good pizza in San Diego. So this business started with a simple idea….get good pizza to the people. I went back east and started researching. I went to pizzerias in New York and New Jersey and tried to find out any information I could. What’s behind the counter? What types of tomatoes, flour, cheese, are they using? One day I jumped into the dumpster of my favorite local pizzeria..it was like winning the lottery for me haha. ..like finding some ancient scrolls while digging a ditch.

Then after about 6 months of trial and error, and a lot of frustration, I thought I had a really good pizza. I bought equipment on a credit card, started filing my paperwork, and I was in business. The whole process took about a year.

Philip, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

Over the years, we started focusing on private catering..lots of weddings, corporate events, birthdays, etc.

Our main goal is to create a unique and memorable experience for our clients. From the pizza to the decor to the service, we want our clients to be really happy. We always felt If we focused on client satisfaction and built our catering business organically, we could build a business with longevity. We’ve been in business 8 years now and our our goal for the future is the same…no cutting corners..creat an amazing experience for the guests.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

In the beginning we would sell pizza at breweries. Sometimes we’d sell 10 pizzas in a nigh. We’d work all day to lost money…that’s pretty hard to stomach. But we knew we really had something by the reaction of our very small number of existing clients. During the first two years there wasn’t a week that went by that quitting didn’t cross my mind. But we kept at it and slowly our resilience started to pay off.

Where do you think you get most of your clients from?

Word of mouth. Plain and simple. We knew If we had really happy clients, they’d tell their friends, business associates, etc.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.criscitopizza.com
• Instagram: @criscitopizza
• Yelp: Criscito Pizza