Mark Cuban Finalizes Investment In NAKEDPizza, Orders A Slice Of Expansion

No need to introduce Mark Cuban to you, dear readers. The outspoken tech billionaire and owner of the Dallas Mavericks has already made quite a name for himself as a savvy tech entrepreneur, angel investor and blogger. Cuban is today announcing that he has finalized an investment in New Orleans, Louisiana-based NAKEDpizza after 3 months of negotiations.

NAKEDpizza is an all-natural pizza delivery shop that has famously done most of its marketing efforts on and centered around its Twitter profile and Facebook presence. Two months ago, the healthy pizza store even erected a Twitter billboard above its first – and for now – only store.

The franchise’s got big plans for expansion, though. NAKEDpizza awarded Cuban with the Area Developer rights for the entire State of Texas, and while they haven’t disclosed how many stores the company plans to open in the state, NAKEDpizza co-founder Randy Crochet has indicated that “the market will support between 50 and 75 units.” The company is also actively seeking a group of Area Developers in the U.S. to open initial units as part of “founding cluster” of partners by year’s end.

Apart from the interesting concept behind NAKEDpizza and its bold expansion plans, the way the company got Cuban to back them is interesting. It’s the first company to attract funding from the man after his self-proclaimed Mark Cuban Stimulus Plan, which he refers to as an open source funding environment (click the link for the full explanation). Here’s what convinced him to invest in NAKEDpizza:

“Simply the Worlds Healthiest Pizza. Based in New Orleans, it tastes good. They work their asses off.”

Curious to see if that will prove enough to make it a success nation-wide, but gotta admire the passion on both sides of the table here. Although I think NAKEDpizza’s logo was clearly inspired by the TechCrunch brand. We’re considering a lawsuit, although we might settle for a free pizza coupon.