How a crowdfunding site is adding extra cheddar to Buffalo State Pizza’s relocation plans 

Confidence is already in the box for Buffalo State Pizza Co.’s owners as they look to everyday investors to help their business complete and grow into a new space near downtown Overland Park, they said. 

Pizza at Buffalo State Pizza Co.; photo by Haines Eason

The duo — Philippe Lechevin and Steve Robson — launched a campaign this fall on the crowdfunding site Honeycomb Credit in the hopes of financing an additional $100,000 to $400,000 toward a project that would transition the hometown pizza hotspot to a 3,000-square-foot former car dealership.

The move allows supporters to get in on the action, said Lechevin, noting the pizza shop’s innovative new menu option to invest initially left some customers confused.

“When we first sent an email announcement out about the campaign, one person replied, ‘You should be ashamed to ask for money,’” Lechevin recalled. “I was like, ‘We don’t ask for money. You invest with us; you get a 10 percent return.’’” 

Such micro investors and Honeycomb benefit from the deal in a pretty straightforward way, he detailed. Honeycomb takes a cut of between 6 and 8 percent of the total of the loan. On the investor side, this particular loan is for 84 months and, as Lechevin noted, offers a 10 percent return.

Lechevin and Robson plan to use the funding — along with other capital — to transform the barrel-roofed, former Ford dealership space at 7932 Santa Fe Drive into a venue with a mezzanine, private party room, full bar, stage for live music and separate entrance for carryout, they said. 

Click here to check out the Buffalo State Pizza campaign through Honeycomb Credit.

Honeycomb was selected to assist with finding smaller-dollar backers because it “was the only one with great reviews, and we were able to talk to other businesses who utilized them,” said Lechevin. “Every single one was very satisfied with how Honeycomb handled the whole process.”

Unexpected piece of the pie

Buffalo State Pizza originally launched in its longtime Overland Park location — 7901 Santa Fe Drive — in 1995 as Papa Keno’s. Lechevin and Robson became the owners in 2013 via parent company Icebox LLC, later rebranding the downtown pizza shop as Buffalo State Pizza in 2020.

They also operate a popular location in the Crossroads Arts District.

“If someone 11 years ago would’ve told me, ‘You’re going to run a pizza place’ … ” Lechevin said with a laugh. “I’m a French trained chef, and I mean, we were doing pizza, but this was not what I was trained for, and that actually gets me a lot of grief from other chefs. Like, ‘What are you doing chef?’ ‘We’re doing pizza.’”

He met business partner Robson when the two were both working as chefs through an Aramark contract at the Kauffman Center for the Performing arts in the Crossroads. When the center began exploring new food service providers, Lechevin and Robson eyed a switch up of their own, Lechevin said.

“There was a business for sale in downtown Overland Park,” he said, noting the high traffic spot on the corner of 79th and Santa Fe near the local farmers market. “Chef Steve and I were like, ‘You know what? Let’s do a restaurant there.’ But the guy who was selling would not lease the space if we didn’t go into it as the business, which was a Papa Keno’s pizza shop.”

Ultimately, the pricing — and opportunity — were too enticing to pass up, he said.

Philippe Lechevin slices a pizza at Buffalo State Pizza's location in the Crossroads; photo by Haines Eason

Philippe Lechevin works alongside the team at Buffalo State Pizza's location in the Crossroads; photo by Haines Eason

Twice the toppings

Today, the timer is buzzing on the space, Lechevin said, noting they plan to ride out the current lease through October 2025.

“We’ve been there for over 11 years, and the building is not in good shape and we wanted to fix it,” he said, noting the combination of rising rent costs and need for upgrades made the existing lease agreement a poor fit for the long term. “We couldn’t agree with the number.”

The vacant car dealership nearby — plus solid credit scores and enough cash on hand to make a traditional bank-financing deal work — provided the foundation for their expansion plans, Lechevin said, adding the extra time on the lease will prove valuable.

Food service is a notoriously tough business where any difficulty can cramp operations. It’s a challenge to nail down exactly how many restaurants fail in a given year, but estimates range from about 17 percent to 30 percent.

A well-documented capital shortfall in Kansas City shows the challenges are real, with Lechevin adding to this mix that the mortgage for the new Overland Park location is 25 percent more than the rent on its current space.

Still, he said, the new location is twice the size, so Icebox LLC might be coming out ahead depending on the success of the new venue. 

Funding that requires a following

Impact investor Anthony Williams sings Honeycomb’s praises as it works with businesses like Buffalo State Pizza to make such projects possible.

Anthony Williams, equity2

Through his firm equity2, Williams used Honeycomb to “provide capital for targeted communities … across the entire state of Missouri (and) Kansas.”

Full disclosure: Williams’ company also is a Honeycomb investor, but that stake came after the platform proved itself as a reliable partner, he said. 

“We wanted to set up something that could help capitalize businesses that were led by Black and Brown owners, or person-of-color-owned-and-operated businesses, woman-owned as well, or in a lower-to-moderate income community,” Williams added.

He had been searching for a platform like Honeycomb — previously considering Mainvest, which unexpectedly shut down in June — ultimately choosing the lender, Williams said, because it is “one of the few platforms that I felt like was relationship-driven.”

Honeycomb “personable” nature melds well with impressive social vetting, he said, noting businesses can’t just post any random offering on the platform.

“You must have a certain number of followers, some type of community that can support you and would be interested in investing,” Williams said.

The platform also creates a low-stress experience for entrepreneurs, he added, detailing, “They do the video, they do the copy, they make it pretty much no touch.”

Sparking interest, avoiding exploitation

The strategy is to “spark investment,” Williams said.

In other words, equity2 will invest significantly at the beginning of a campaign or at the closing so as to show potential investors that there is notable interest in a business’s campaign or to ensure the campaign completes and the business can receive its loan.

When it works best, Williams sees a good return that he can roll into new investments — and minority-owned and otherwise sidelined business owners get the funding they need at rates that are difficult to come by in the business loan realm.

For example, A QuickBooks term loan typically starts at 10 percent and can run as high as 34 percent. Honeycomb rates are typically 6 to 14 percent.

And Williams and his company are operating in a space that most lenders, even traditional ones, shun, he added.

“Whether it’s VC or equity investors, they don’t want to operate in this space,” Williams said. “And then you have angel investors who are like, ‘Oh, that’s too small of a deal,’ or they’re looking for something else.”

“So what options does that leave the common business owner who says, ‘Hey, we may not be able to get a loan. If we get a loan, it’s going to be online. It’s going to be at an interest rate above a credit card?’” he asked.

In short, searching for non-traditional funding to help fill gaps at businesses like Buffalo State Pizza keeps entrepreneurs from being exploited, Williams added.

Click here to invest in the Buffalo State Pizza campaign.

[divide]

Haines Eason is the owner of startup media agency Freelance Kansas. He went into business for himself after a stint as a managing editor on the content marketing team at A Place for Mom. Among many other roles, he has worked as a communications professional at KU and as a journalist with work in places like The Guardian, Eater and KANSAS! Magazine. Learn about him and Freelance Kansas on LinkedIn and Facebook.