This Gas Station Pizza Business Makes $540M/Yr?!

TL;DR

Hunt Brothers Pizza generates ~$540M/yr by placing 50–100sqft pizza operations inside gas stations with no franchise fees—only ingredient revenue from 9,000 locations. GeoGuessr grew from ~$467K revenue in 2019 to $21M in 2023 by adding a paywall after Google raised API costs 14×. A Brown sophomore made $70K in a year flipping high-end restaurant reservations.

Key insights

• Hunt Brothers Pizza succeeded by changing the form factor (50–100sqft mini shops inside gas stations) and becoming a category of one, analogous to Five Hour Energy putting a shot-size drink at the reg
• The business model eliminates royalties and licensing fees; Hunt Brothers only profits from ingredient sales at ~50% gross margin, yielding ~$5K/month per location × 9,000 locations = $45M/month.
• GeoGuessr’s decision to impose a paywall was heavily criticized on Reddit (“worst idea ever”), but it forced revenue growth from $467K (2019) to $21M (2023) with $11M EBITDA.