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Gozney
Spreading the joy of cooking
One Pizza Oven at a time
To find out more about how Gozney got its start and what’s in store for the future, Matt interviews Gozney founder, Tom Gozney
More about the episode
Matt sits down with Gozney founder Tom Gozney. Gozney makes extremely high-quality innovative ovens designed to not just make fantastic pizza but give you the opportunity to maximize your culinary efforts right in your backyard.
Tom’s path to starting Gozney was not at all linear and far from easy but, there’s a consistent theme that followed him through the ups and downs; determination. It all started when his passion for cooking led him to build a pizza oven. What started out as a fun project to keep his hands busy, quickly began to snowball and grow, leading him to build oven after oven. Home oven builds lead to restaurant builds and eventually to push beyond the limits and dream up a way to give everyone the opportunity to have access to a pizza oven and enjoy its versatility to make some truly incredible meals.
They’ve had some seriously notable partnerships with some well-known chefs and frequently put out recipes to help get you inspired. Tom’s vision for building Gozney isn’t solely to dream up and make innovative products; he aims to break down the barrier of cooking and baking and help people enjoy it as much as he does. Despite the rampantly growing success, building Gozney wasn’t exactly all sunshine and bubble gum. A lot of its success relied on Tom’s tenacity to keep getting up and moving forward, and his passion to see his vision through.
In this episode of Built On Passion Tom Gozney shares what led him to start Gozney and the lead up to it’s now global footprint, a better look at how he developed Gozney’s latest product, and his ‘how’ and ‘why’ behind starting Gozney
Have an opinion? We want to hear it! Join the conversation and leave a comment, check out show notes, and get all the links mentioned in this episode below
Key Points From This Episode:
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How Tom built his first pizza oven in his back garden on the South Coast of England.
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What his business looks like today, selling a breadth of products for homes and gardens, and a range of professional Neapolitan ovens for restaurants in the UK.
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How, at the age of 21, Tom spent a year in a rehab facility before leaning into cooking as a vehicle for a social life, enjoyment, and community with friends.
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The sense of meaning this has brought to the work that he does at Gozney.
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What his first pre-cast oven looked like after building brick ovens for a few friends.
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Jamie Oliver’s role in putting woodfired ovens on the map through television.
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How the innovation story started, and what Tom loves about building the business.
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His aim to harness the romance of woodfired cooking and make it easier with product design.
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The design intent behind the pizza oven: to be impressive and look cool in a restaurant.
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Engineering principles in the design, like cold smoking attachments and an in-built steamer.
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The challenges of not being able to bring it to consumers directly during the pandemic.
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How they underestimated the demand there would be for the product.
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Why he would never partner with someone who didn’t love their products.
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The 30 to 40 influencer partners they worked with to launch Gozney.
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How they are trying to solve problems as best they can, despite the past year’s challenges.
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Shipping and installing the dome; via UPS or FedEx with extra hands.
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The evolution of the oven through home cooking, trial and error, and testing.
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Why Gozney puts time into each feature to make sure they work.
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The journey they are on to turn the business into something even more meaningful.
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Community at the heart of the business model and the prospect of growing it into a global household brand that generates enjoyment and connection.
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The world-class team of passionate people behind the brand helping it to scale.
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Team, Traeger, and Kamado Joe as the brands they are modeling their journey against.
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Tom’s advice to those starting out in business: be fiercely driven about your goals, ignore the critics, lean into something you’re passionate about, and be creative.
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How priorities in the business have reflected Tom’s obsession with consumers.
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Look for people who complement your skillset and delegate where necessary.
Links/Resources:
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What do you think of Gozney? Leave a comment below to let us know!