How an Iranian immigrant figured out the pizza business

Shahpour Nejad came to the U.S. to get his college degree. Instead he became a pizza guy.

This week’s episode of the Restaurant Business podcast A Deeper Dive features Nejad, the CEO and cofounder of the Sacramento-based Pizza Guys, who discusses his personal history, the formation of his chain and its growth strategies.

Nejad’s parents sent him to the U.S. in the late 1970s when he was just 16, so he could go to school. The Iranian Revolution kept him here, and he ended up working with a pizza concept. We’ll let him tell you the rest of the story on the podcast, but it ultimately led him to create Pizza Guys out of Sacramento.

Today, the west coast chain has more than 70 locations and after years of slow and deliberate growth it is planning to get much bigger.

Nejad talks about the company’s story and his reasons for that slow and deliberate growth, and what his plans are going forward. But his personal story is fascinating.