Dave Portnoy with One Bite helping small businesses

Dave Portnoy has turned something as simple as taking one bite of pizza on camera into a movement that actually helps people. His One Bite pizza reviews started as a running bit, but they ended up shining a spotlight on mom and pop shops all over the country. When he walks into a small pizzeria with a camera and a scorecard, that place can go from quiet to packed overnight. For a lot of owners, his visit is the break they never thought they would get.

What makes it so unique is the community that has grown around it. Fans follow along, argue over scores, and then go out and try the spots for themselves. The One Bite app lets people log their own reviews and hunt down great local pizza wherever they travel. Suddenly, tiny neighborhood shops are on the radar of people who live hundreds of miles away. It is fun content, but it also creates real customers for real businesses.

Out of all that energy came the One Bite Pizza Fest, a huge in person event that pulls together top pizzerias and thousands of fans in one place every year. The same videos that built his audience now help fill a festival where people can meet their favorite pizza makers, hang out with other fans, and taste slices they have only seen on their screens. It is a giant pizza party that gives small shops a shared stage with some of the biggest names in the game.

You could really see the redemptive side of all this during Covid when Portnoy launched The Barstool Fund. While restaurants and small businesses were getting crushed by shutdowns, he used his platform to raise money and send direct support to owners who were on the edge of losing everything. He put 500k of his own money in it to start the barstool fund and raised over 35 million dollars for small business and saved over 600 small business from closing. Between the One Bite brand, the pizza fest, and The Barstool Fund, he has shown how digital influence can do more than entertain. It can rally a community to show up, give generously, and keep small businesses alive.