From Wall Street to pizza: The making of a social entrepreneur

MASON WARTMAN, 27, of Center City, owns Rosa's Fresh Pizza, on 11th Street near Chestnut in Center City. Rosa's sells its pizza for $1 a slice, $8 for a pie. Wartman, a former Wall Street stock researcher, is also a social entrepreneur. He developed a program to give free slices of pizza to the homeless, and now sells Rosa's T-shirts and sweatshirts to clothe the homeless. Tuesday on "The Ellen DeGeneres Show," the host presented Wartman with a $10,000 check from Shutterfly.

Q: How'd you decide to get into the pizza-making biz?

A: I saw the success and proliferation of dollar-pizza stores in Manhattan and figured it would work here. I always wanted to have my own business. I plateaued at the Wall Street job and left in March 2013. Rosa's opened in December 2013.

Q: Startup money?

A: It was from personal investments, about $200,000.

Q: A biz model with a social component?

A: We do two social things. A customer came in one day last year and said, "Here's a dollar to buy a slice for a homeless person," and now it's mushroomed into where we've given away 8,500 slices since then, and we've fed 30 to 40 homeless people every day. Last summer, business was kind of slow. I thought I could sell T-shirts and sweatshirts and work it into the social model. I sell T-shirts for $14, the buyer gets a T-shirt and I give away seven slices of pizza. I guess I've sold about 50 T-shirts. The sweatshirt was a logical winter step. You buy a sweatshirt from me for $35, and I give another away to the homeless. On the inside of the sweatshirt, a tag has a schedule of meals and times for computer classes. I hope this will help the homeless structure their day around meals and classes. We've sold 15 sweatshirts.

Q: Your customers?

A: We get people who don't have a lot of money. We also get business owners and tourists who just like our pizza. I get schoolkids after 3 p.m.

Q: How big a biz is this?

A: Four people, including myself, but I don't take a salary. Two are full-time and one is part-time. We did more than $120,000 in revenue in 2014.

Q: Biggest challenge?

A: I must get better in managing inventory.

Q: How'd you get on "The Ellen DeGeneres Show"?

A: She saw something online and her people called and asked about my business, and a camera crew filmed Rosa's and they flew me out to L.A. on Jan. 11.

Q: What are you going to do with the $10,000?

A: At the very least, it will feed and/or clothe a lot more homeless people.

Q: What's next?

A: I'd love to get one or two more true partners to invest and help me run the business and build more Rosa's here.

Online: ph.ly/YourBusiness