First Romeo’s Pizza, now Pizzafire. Sean Brauser and Ryan Rose share their passion for bringing people a great product

It was about two years ago when Sean Brauser began to seriously think about launching a pizza shop in the fast-casual space.
He had already proven his talent when it comes to pizza, transforming Romeo’s Pizza from a small mom-and-pop shop in Medina to a company that now boasts 35 locations and more than 700 employees. But he’s not the kind of person who can simply lean on his accomplishments and coast through life.
“I was making pizza every day at home, playing with different sauces and doughs,” Brauser says. “And finally, it just came to me and it was time to do it. With Pizzafire, it’s an authentic Neapolitan tomato sauce. The company that does our tomatoes and our sauce picks the tomatoes in the field and within two hours, they’re in the can. That kind of fresh pack is something that most big chains don’t do.”
The first Pizzafire opened in Akron to rave reviews and the concept has grown to six locations in Northeast Ohio.
“People love fast-casual,” Brauser says. “They love the choices. We added fresh live Romaine lettuce and live basil. We’ve really gone toward marketing to millennials and giving them what they want — good food, fast and fresh with plenty of choices.”
As Brauser nurtures the growth of Pizzafire as its founder and CEO, he has been joined by Ryan Rose, who was named president and CEO at Romeo’s in January 2015. The duo is confident that great days are ahead for both companies.
“I think creating organization is important,” Brauser says. “Instead of making it a hobby, you make it a real venture. That’s the key for people who want to do something else and break into another segment.
“I’ve always been of the mindset that you need two feet in the boat. If you’ve got one foot in and one foot out, you’ll never make it. That’s why I brought Ryan on to be the CEO. I can focus all of my time and energy on Pizzafire and he can focus all his time and energy on Romeo’s and growing that brand, which is growing at the same time.”

Work the system

Rose spent 14 years in the private sector of banking and financial services, eventually becoming COO at an executive benefits firm. He was introduced to Brauser through a mutual friend and both men found that they had similar career aspirations.
“Much like Sean, I got to the point where I didn’t want to work for someone for the rest of my life,” Rose says. “He just happened to do it earlier than I did. I was a bit more calculated, not as much that intuitive risk-taker.
“I enjoyed my experience with the executive benefits firm, but in the pizza business, you have the best of both worlds. You have operational control, but you also have a dynamic business that is living and breathing every day with every phone call. I fell in love immediately.”
Rose says both he and Brauser are driven by a fear of failure.
“When we wake up every day, it’s about being better than everyone else and knowing that someone is out there trying to beat us — whether we’re in their vision or not,” Rose says. “They’re trying to beat us with what they’re doing. And we don’t like to lose.”
In order to avoid that fate in the world of franchising, Brauser says there is a lot of work that you must do as the leader to build the right infrastructure.
“In a franchise operation, you really want to have uniformity,” he says. “The system that you build has to be so perfect that all you want is for people to come in and run your system. We don’t want people to come in and create their own flare or do their own thing. We just want that person to come in and drive it. The people who follow the system best — they follow the marketing plan, the operations plan and the finance aspect — those are the people who are most successful.”
When a franchisee veers off the model that has been put in place, that’s when problems most commonly occur.
“We try to control franchisees through consultants and brand protectors to make sure they are following the systems and processes that we’ve created,” Brauser says. “It’s almost like we police them into being successful.”