Kickstarter

Hello all you amazing Pizza Hippo financiers from tranquil Windham, Vermont.  The sun is just rising over the hills, birds are chirping, it's about 50 degrees.  Life is good.

You'll be happy to know we've spend all your money!  Wait, what?  Yes, it's true.  We spent your cash.  On what you ask?  Plenty.  Read on.

Pizza Hippo is now a fully licensed and insured catering company doing weekly gigs at 4 farmers markets, as well as a six day week at our NEW PIZZA STAND.  Built from trees grown, logged and milled on the Kindle Farm, the Hippo Shack, while not entirely complete, opened for business a week ago.  Business has picked up since then (people are afraid of a restaurant running under a tent apparently) and we're not looking back.

Pizza Hippo has been an instant favorite at local music festivals (we've hosted one, our opening day, vended two others, with at least four to six more slated for the season, maybe more).  Long lines at midnight are the regular for us.  Cashing in on the pizza munchies.  Yeah.

We've also started booking large Vermont catering events (two 100 person pre-wedding parties and an entire school staff day) with several more bids out there.  Our website is really starting to produce results. SEO? I do that.  Thanks Zerve.

Last, but not least, Svetlana, our '88 Volvo wagon with 300K+ miles on it has new shoes, a new trannie, and a slew of other upgrades necessary for the daily towing of the Hippo Wagon.

Most importantly, as your money has been gone since roughly June 3, Pizza Hippo has sustained it's own operations and growth strictly from cash flow.  No credit cards, no small loans, no cash infusions from investors.  It's been tough, but it's been a blast at the same time. 

And our August schedule is jam packed with special events.

Thanks again to all of you...we'll keep you posted.

Best,

The Hippo

www.pizzahippo.com

Our Townshend Pizza  concept is really starting to shape up.

Amber (my wife), our son Miles, and I have been working very hard to get our home gardens in shape and the Kindle Farm School greenhouse going full steam.   

Farm-to-Table is a lot of hard work when you're also the farmer, but I've got to say it's totally rewarding.  We've been watching the over 10,000 seeds we've planted pop out of the soil and then burst upwards in various shades of green and purple for a few weeks now.  Tomatoes, broccoli, chard, kale, onions, eggplant, peppers, and more. Miles and I planted 200 new herbs seeds yesterday as well, and will continue to plant more several times a week.

150 feet of spinach is already in the ground in the garden, and the recipe ideas are bubbling in my brain.  Saag paneer, creamed spinach and artichoke; spinach tomato and feta, yum yum yum.

You may be asking yourself, what do we do to help this project now?  The best thing y'all can do is head over to the Pizza Hippo Facebook page and give us a LIKE if you haven't already.

Also, for those of you who really love us, post this link: Townshend Pizza with a few kind words in your own blog or on your FB page.  

VT State Health Dept Inspection is on Tuesday.  More updates to come then. 

Pizza Hippo thanks everyone who generously gave both financial and emotional support to this now funded project.  Especially the financial supporters.

All joking aside, the overwhelming support of my friends is nothing short of an extraordinary vote of confidence to me, to the Pizza Hippo concept, and to the philosophy of sustainable agriculture.

While the uncertainties of opening a business often ravage my psyche and rape my confidence, your belief in me never allows me to fall too far.  I laugh at my self doubt and walk fearless into the unknown, knowing I will not fail.  Knowing failure is a possibility, but that I will somehow evade it.

Now that I can completely turn my attention away from fundraising, the real work and the real fun can now begin.

In the next four weeks, we will pass health inspection, mill trees into boards and then build a building, work several mobile events, start the farmer's market season, and kick off the grand opening of our Townshend Pizza Stand at the Kindle Farm School. 

Of course we won't get a dime of the Kickstarter money for about three weeks, so this list is slightly more challenging than it may seem at first :)

Never fear friends.  I have a plan.  More updates to come.  

Thank you all again for your phenomenal support.

Much love,

The Hippo