 When will you know you've made it? I've already made it. I'm here. Ilir Sela, founder of the Pizza App Slice. You ready to answer some questions? I am. Let's do it. Okay. You raised a Series B for $15 million. Can we hear your investor pitch? The pizza industry is $46 billion. Two thirds of that is small businesses, which represents about $28 billion in payments and transactions. 95 plus percent of that is offline. You look at Domino's and Pizza Hut and Papa John's, only a fraction of their businesses is offline. And so we're bridging that gap. What's one of the craziest data points that you could share with us that we'd be like, wow, that's interesting? 94 percent of Americans have pizza every single month. 68 percent have it every week. Blue states tend to be more independent. Red states are more chain pizzas. What part of the business surprised you the most? The part of the business that surprised me the most, just how many people misunderstand the massive nature of the pizza industry. A lot of people think of Slice as a niche category-focused business when, in fact, our TAM, our Total Adjustable Market, is much bigger than most companies out there. Who do you compete with? We compete with ourselves. What was the hardest thing you had to learn on the job? The hardest thing I had to learn was how to evolve from being a founder to a CEO. When did that happen? Still happening. Who's career do you model your own after? I don't. I just, I think it's important that we stay authentic. Important that I focus on our business and innovate around our industry. You know, maybe hopefully one day somebody models their career around me. You're wearing a Yankees hat in your LinkedIn profile. Why are you not playing up the whole New York thing more as a brand? It's a good question. We definitely are all about New York, but pizza is a national staple. And we're just trying to make sure that we're, you know, servicing to all the consumers in every single city. But New York is such a big market and I see the ads and I saw them on the subway and it's a great place for brands to really have fun. Yours are kind of safe. Are they working? They definitely are working, but I do agree with you and we're going to start being a little bit more provocative here in the coming months. How has being from Staten Island shaped you? Being from Staten Island has shaped me in two or three ways. One, it is definitely the pizza capital of the world. So I was born in a pizza industry. My family's third generation in the pizza industry, but Staten Island has 120 small business pizza locations in a very small island. Two, it gives me access to mainstream rather than, I think the bubbles that are in Manhattan and San Francisco. And I think three, it is very much an enclosed geographic location. And so to break out, you really have to hustle. And I think that's where I kind of got that from. If you had one marketing dollar to spend, we would just spend it. Building community. Community is critical. In fact, it is everything, especially in the way that we build our business. The reason why we're focused on one industry is because we believe that you can then create a community around that where people can share very like-minded challenges and opportunities and wins and losses. And all we talk about is really just how we can provide a platform that ultimately helps people be in business for themselves, not by themselves. What is one feature you've seen on another, completely app-based business that you went, that's awesome. We got to do something like that. Uber rideshare is a what I call marketplace selects model, where a lot of the decision making is removed from the consumer side. So they choose your price, your driver, the ETA, and you just simply give them a preference. That's magic. What's the most exciting thing that's coming to Slice? Most exciting thing that's coming to Slice are recommendations by Slice. The biggest question we always get asked is what is the pizza that I should be ordering from? And instead of us being more hands-off about that, we're going to make really the right recommendations. What have you learned from Seamless and Grubhub that's critical for your success? To be a lot more focused and servicing the merchant rather than just a consumer. I think balancing both sides is critical. What part of your brand still needs work? The part of our brand that still needs a lot of work is the consumer side. I think we've focused a lot into a lot of great work with our merchants, with our partners, but we really need to tell a better story and our brand needs to really connect more with our consumers. What is the best consumer feedback you've ever gotten? The best consumer feedback I have ever received is that when somebody uses Slice, then it is Slice's problem to solve. Very often, a pizzeria would mess up an order or the food quality wasn't good. And so when a customer complained or left a review on Slice, the natural reaction was, well, we don't make the food. And that is just the totally wrong approach. If they place an order on Slice, it is our problem. Does PR sell products? PR tells stories and stories and visions sell products. What specific element of marketing is your strength? I would say authenticity and telling a very personal story. Slice doesn't tell that story, though, does it? Slice does tell my story. I don't know that it's told to the consumer. It's more facing on the restaurant side. So I would say that my focus and specialty is how to speak to the restaurants, not necessarily to the consumer. Do the seamlesses of the world work with the local mom and pops? Some do. So some restaurants work with them, but it's a much different offering and proposition. We are very much about being a platform that empowers them and Seamless and Grubhub partner with them simply to serve the consumer. What part of the brand are you most proud of? I'm most proud of the part of our brand that champions the stories of local pizza restaurants, owners in their history. What media, marketing, PR, influencers thing has had the most impact on your business since the beginning? The biggest impact for me has been the value. I've learned that the value of storytelling, the power of storytelling is the only superpower humans have. And some people use it and some people don't. And so for me it's all about improving my own storytelling abilities, but also our brand should be able to do the same thing. Interesting you say that because I don't think your brand from what I can see tells much of a story at all, but you are loaded with them. Okay. So when you say our human superpower, is that another kind of term for great sales? The sales and storytelling are inextricably tied together. Oh, storytelling is for me, I define it as our vision and why we belong, why we're here, and what is the problem that Slice is solving in the marketplace. You know, that's our story and it's not necessarily telling someone a direct story, but it's about telling a vision and inspiring people with what we're trying to do. And that's ultimately what gets people to buy in is because people want to be a part of that vision and ultimately, you know, play a role in that movie. It's always be selling, always be storytelling essentially, correct? Always be storytelling. Always be storytelling. You should say that should be yours. Sounds good. I'll take it. Ilya Sela, founder of Slice. Thank you so much for coming on here and answering some questions. Thank you for having me. I'm Ian Wishengrad and we'll see you next time on I'm With The Brand.