the Mod squad

Scott Svenson, the cofounder of MOD Pizza, explains how impact hiring and a people-first philosophy has propelled the 12-year-old startup to phenomenal success.

BY RICK HYNUM

For founders Scott and Ally Svenson, Seattle-based MOD Pizza started out as “a crazy social experiment,” aimed at creating positive social impact as well as making a profit. Today, it’s the fastest-growing pizza chain in the country. How did they do it? Scott Svenson says it all comes down to one thing: believing in, trus ting and rewarding his employees. It’s a mantra he has repeated in every media interview since the first MOD location opened in Seattle in 2008. And the results, he believes, speak for themselves.

That first MOD store’s doors swung open during the Great Recession—hardly an auspicious time for launching a new business. Not to mention that he and his wife had already built—and eventually sold—two highly successful U.K. brands, Seattle Coffee Company and Carluccio’s, an Italianstyle deli concept. So it’s not like they needed the money. But they had different plans for MOD, prioritizing purpose over profits and creating jobs that offered a living wage, health insurance and other benefits.

According to Nation’s Restaurant News, MOD Pizza reigned as the fastest-growing restaurant chain in the country in 2018 and 2019 and moved to No. 3 in 2020, with 467 stores, sales growth of 26.21% and system-wide sales of $493.1 million. It’s still outpacing other pizza chains in terms of growth, as we reported in last month’s Pizza Power Report. Impressed both by MOD’s phenomenal growth as well as its genuine peoplefirst philosophy, we talked with Scott Svenson about how— and why—the two go hand-in-hand.

PMQ: MOD Pizza’s business model sounds a lot like a social enterprise—a for-profit business that also seeks to address social problems and make a positive difference. Do you think of MOD as a social enterprise?

Svenson: I guess the answer would be yes. When we started MOD, we referred to it as a crazy social experiment that would combine the best of a for-profit business with the heart of a nonprofit, whereby the more successful we were, the better and bigger social impact we would make.

PMQ: So why did you decide to carry out that experiment in the fast-casual pizza sector?

Svenson: This goes back to 2006, 2007. We had moved our family back from the U.K., where we’d had a wonderful experience that included starting and building Seattle Coffee Company and Carluccio’s. When we got back to Seattle, we had every intention of not getting back into the restaurant space. We’d started two concepts, both successful, so the thought of starting a third just felt like we were setting ourselves up for failure. Instead, we were searching for a way to give back and make a positive impact on the community and society at large. We were doing two things at the time: exploring other business opportunities outside of restaurants and retail while getting involved with nonprofits, writing checks and doing the things you do when you want to give back.

We had been asked to look at various restaurant and retail concepts and inevitably said no. Then someone suggested we take a look at the pizza industry. My wife and I have had