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making pizzas for his friends at home—and showing them off on Instagram under the @squarepizzaguy (singular) handle. “At the same time, my fiancé broke up with me, which left this big hole in my life,” Schechter says. “I also wasn’t super-happy with my software sales career. But making pizza for people truly made me happy. I poured my heart and soul into it.”

Schechter often made more pizza than he needed, so he donated the extra slices to the Homeless Action Center next door. Still working his day job, he also took a weekend gig at Pizza Hacker in San Francisco. Before long, he started running their pop-up at Vinyl Wine Bar and further honing his skills.

Stoller, meanwhile, had worked at several fine-dining restaurants in Seattle after quitting college at 18. He eventually landed at The Culinary Edge agency in San Francisco. “We developed recipes and menus for some of the largest restaurant groups in the country,” he says. “One of my projects was overhauling and developing a whole new pizza concept, from dough recipes to operations materials to financial plans. So, in a twist of fate, I basically got paid to learn the craft, a craft that would quickly become my own.”