This post originally appeared on Northeastern Global News. It was published by Beth Treffeisen.

Following graduation from Northeastern University in 1988, Sal Lupoli had dreams. Big ones. 

But standing in his way was one, a lack of capital, and two, no knowledge of how to make pizza. So, during his last year studying business management at Northeastern, he took up an apprenticeship at a small family-run pizza shop in the North End. 

Lupoli's classmate, Phil McCabe, now chief of staff of Lupoli Companies, says his dream started during the last few years of college. 

Lupoli went up to McCabe and their friends, saying that he was thinking about starting a pizza business and was talking to a few professors about it. He wanted his close friends to join him. 

“We said, ‘Yeah, you like to eat pizza. We all like to eat pizza,” and we laughed at Sal, McCabe says. 

But, in response, Lupoli told them, “No, I think I'm gonna make a run at this.”

When it came time to leave in the fall of ‘89, McCabe went to the North End to say goodbye to Lupoli before heading to the West Coast for a sales job. He was still trying to get him into the business with him. 

“I left him on the cobblestone streets,” says McCabe. “He had flour from his head to his toes. … He still had that dream.”

Read more at Northeastern Global News