Nora Hermann did not join MOTO Pizza to maintain one location. She joined to help build something that could scale.
MOTO started as a pandemic pivot. Founder Lee Kindell lost his hostel business during COVID and pulled forward a retirement dream. Open a small pizza shop. Make forty pizzas a day. Keep it simple.
That is not what happened. MOTO opened in January 2021 in Seattle. It sold out. Then it sold out again. And again. Today there are seven locations. Four more are opening within weeks. Growth was not accidental. It was operational.
At MOTO, busy is not chaos. Busy is planned. When the Seahawks made a playoff run, Nora cleared her calendar and rebuilt projections from scratch. She analyzed last year’s Super Bowl lift. Adjusted product mix. Rewrote schedules. Increased dough projections by store. She anticipated not just more sales, but different sales.
Pizza on Super Bowl Sunday is not the same as a random Sunday. “Busy on a good day means we planned to be busy,” Nora said. “We’re staffed for it. We have product for it. We’re ready for it.”
That mindset defines MOTO’s growth. Stadium locations. Tennis tournaments. T-Mobile Park doing 2,000 pizzas in three hours. Indian Wells pushing over $100,000 in a single day. Organized chaos only works if systems hold.
Labor as the Lever
Scale exposed a pressure point. Labor. Seven stores across traditional locations, stadiums, and major events means scheduling cannot rely on instinct. It has to be precise. It has to protect margin before the week even begins.
That is where rightwork comes in. Rightwork is not just a scheduling tool. It is a forecasting and labor optimization platform built to help managers make better decisions before publishing a schedule.
It connects sales data to labor targets. It flags overstaffing. It highlights understaffing. It shows managers how close they are to budget alignment in real time.
Instead of discovering problems mid shift, MOTO sees them while the schedule is still a draft. For Nora, that changes everything. “We want busy to be organized,” she said. “We want to be staffed for it.”
Rightwork also gives managers access to operational knowledge instantly. Proof times. Standards. Process documentation. Instead of digging through folders or texting corporate, they can search and get answers in seconds.
But what stands out most is the feedback loop. MOTO’s GMs can message the founder directly inside the app. Feature requests become updates. Timecard issues get resolved before the next shift begins.
“Technology is amazing,” Nora said, “but what makes it really work is the partnership.”
Culture at Scale
Seven stores is different than one. Ten will be different than seven. Nora hires for two traits. Grit and being a good human. MOTO’s turnover sits around 43 percent in an industry that often exceeds 100 percent. That does not happen by accident.
Clear labor targets reduce burnout. Predictable schedules build trust. Visibility into performance creates accountability. They move fast. They work hard. They operate in environments where 3,000 pizzas can move in a day.
It is not for everyone. But it is for people who want structure around the chaos.“We get paid to make people’s days,” Nora said. “That’s a pretty cool gift.”
The Leadership Layer
Nora uses AI in two places. Operationally, through rightwork, to forecast labor and protect margin before problems happen. Personally, through ChatGPT, to think better. When facing a team challenge, she feeds the situation into the tool and asks for better questions. Different perspectives. Adjustments in leadership style. She believes in what she calls the platinum rule. Treat people the way they want to be treated.
Scaling restaurants requires operational discipline. Scaling leadership requires self awareness. MOTO Pizza is doubling its footprint this year. But what stands out is not just expansion. It is preparation.
Forecast demand. Build the schedule. Communicate early. Hire for grit. Stay kind. In 2026, scaling is not about opening faster. It is about building foundations strong enough to grow without breaking. And sometimes the difference between one store and ten is not luck.
It is building the schedule before the chaos begins.
