Forty Under 40: Rolf Wilkin

Rolf Wilkin, 33, has been an entrepreneur since his senior year at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge.

That year, 1988, Wilkin visited his brother, who was a student at the University of Arkansas. Wilkin decided to begin selling Razorbucks coupon books in Fayetteville since similar coupon books were popular at LSU. He later branched out, selling the coupon books in other Arkansas college towns.

Wilkin received his bachelor’s degree in banking and finance the next year while commuting back and forth to Baton Rouge.

In 1992, Wilkin went to King Pizza in Fayetteville to sell space in the coupon book. After learning from the manager that the business was about to close, Wilkin scraped together $8,500 and bought the company, which consisted of four pizza ovens and a dough mixer.

His friends said he was crazy, but the purchase has been the foundation for Eureka Pizza, which now has five restaurants in Arkansas and four in Missouri. Another Eureka Pizza is scheduled to open in east Fayetteville in September.

Wilkin is on the board of the Hugh O’Brian Foundation and is a member of the Fayetteville Chamber of Commerce.

Although it’s an old phrase, Wilkin says his business philosophy is: “Early to bed, early to rise, work like hell and advertise.”