👻 $1k A Week With Leftover Pizza

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If you’re new here, we turn $1 into thousands building these weird but simple side hustles. Welcome to Ghost Business 👻 Your (mostly) weekly email

TLDR;

• Cold pizza is everywhere and usually wasted, turn it into a quirky food club.

• MVP: collect leftovers from friends, repackage into $5 sampler boxes, sell locally.

• Scale: partner with pizza shops for nightly unsold pies, sell $10 boxes to students, offices, and late-night gamers.

• $1,000 per week = just 100 boxes, made easier with subscriptions at $30 per week.

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The Leftover Pizza Club takes the saddest food in the fridge and turns it into a social and business opportunity. You collect leftover pizzas, slice them into sampler boxes, and sell them as “mystery pizza packs.” Think subscription box meets potluck, but cheaper and way more fun. Each week customers get a mix of whatever pizza flavors survived the local pizzeria.

The MVP

Start small by partnering with three to five pizzerias who usually have leftover pizza. Ask them to give you their extras at the end of the night. Package them into $5 “Leftover Pizza Sampler” boxes and deliver them to neighbors or coworkers the next day. With just ten boxes you make $50, but more importantly you test whether people enjoy the surprise and novelty. The MVP proves two things quickly: are people willing to pay for mystery pizza, and are you able to get enough supply?

• Partner with one or two local pizzerias. Pitch it as: “I’ll take unsold pies off your hands, you get free PR + a small cut.”

• $100 budget goes to: $50 for branded pizza boxes + $50 for a simple landing page/Instagram with “Tonight’s Rescue Menu.”

• Process: Pick up leftovers at close, post on IG/TikTok, sell via DM, Venmo, or quick Squarespace page. Delivery optional pickup from a set spot works fine.

• Price point: $5–$8 per rescued pizza (or $2–$3 per slice).

Path to $1,000 a week

Once you prove demand, expand by partnering with local pizza shops that always end up with unsold pies at closing. Offer to take the leftovers off their hands for free or a small fee. Sell boxes for $10 and target groups like college dorms, office workers, or late-night gamers.

To reach $1,000 per week you only need to sell 100 boxes, which breaks down to about 15 boxes per day. With even two or three pizza shop partners, this becomes easily achievable. You can add a subscription tier where fans pay $30 per week for guaranteed boxes, turning pizza waste into a predictable revenue stream.

• Step 1: Lock in 3–4 shops = ~20 leftover pies per night.

• Step 2: Sell 20 pies × $7 average × 7 nights = ~$980/week.

• Step 3: Make it a membership club: $20/month gets you first dibs + discounts.

• Step 4: Content marketing = growth engine. TikTok clips of “Pizza Rescue Missions” will go viral. Every pie you save is free advertising.

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Viability:

1 [building spaceships] 🚀 to 5 [easy peasy] 😊 

The Leftover Pizza Club is about a 3 out of 5 on difficulty. It’s easy to test because the idea is viral, cheap, and people will buy for the novelty. The harder part is keeping a steady supply and making it feel sanitary enough for customers. Scaling past $1k a week brings real challenges like health codes and liability, so it’s great as a fast hustle but tricky as a long-term business.

(As usual each business will have it’s own setbacks, and it’s all about the execution and consistency rather than just having the idea)

It’s a great day to be great!

Love, Mike 👋