logo
episode-header-image
Jul 2023
1h 27m

MOD Pizza & Seattle Coffee Company: Scot...

Guy Raz | Wondery
About this episode

A relentless hunt for their favorite foods and drinks led Scott and Ally Svenson into launching not one but two multi-million dollar businesses. The first came about in 1990s London when they discovered that British coffee meant instant coffee. So, the Washington natives decided to start the Seattle Coffee Company in the U.K, inspired by their love of Starbucks—which was still only in the U.S. But, once Starbucks started to go global, Scott and Ally decided to sell and move back to Seattle. They soon found themselves looking for quick, affordable, crowd-pleasers to feed their growing boys on busy nights; pizza is a good solution, but it can also be slow and expensive. So Scott and Ally wondered if they could figure out how to make individual, fast-casual pizza work; and they started MOD pizza as a one-store experiment. 15 years and more than 500 locations later, Scott and Ally have their answer: they can make it work.


This episode was produced by J.C. Howard, with music by Ramtin Arablouei

Edited by Andrea Bruce, with research help from Casey Herman.


You can follow HIBT on Twitter & Instagram, and email us at hibt@id.wondery.com.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Up next
Today
Advice Line with Norma Kamali of Norma Kamali (2024)
Iconic fashion designer Norma Kamali joins Guy on the Advice Line, where they answer questions from three early stage founders. Plus, Norma shares her take on balancing a strong creative vision with the financial realities of building a worldwide brand. First we meet Ahmed in the ... Show More
50m 34s
Jul 7
Rick Steves' Europe: Rick Steves (2021)
Rick Steves spent the summer after high school backpacking through Europe on two dollars a day—sleeping on the floor, sneaking into museums, and subsisting on a diet of bread and jam. When he came home, he found people were hungry for tips on how to visit Europe on the cheap, so ... Show More
1h 17m
Jul 3
Advice Line with Jim Koch of Boston Beer Company (August 2024)
Boston Beer Company founder Jim Koch joins Guy on the Advice Line, where they answer questions from three founders about finding product-market fit.Today, we meet Kim, whose tropical-inspired apparel company in Florida is venturing into the rum market. Then Llance from Washington ... Show More
51m 11s
Recommended Episodes
Mar 2020
Starbucks vs Dunkin - Mission Espresso | 2
While Dunkin Donuts expands and flourishes, Howard Schultz is bored. But then the 28-year-old New Yorker gets wind of a Seattle company with just four stores that’s selling more coffee makers than Macy’s. He’s got to know why. So he heads to Seattle to check out this company that ... Show More
24m 59s
Oct 2021
Howard Schultz: Saving Starbucks | The Third Place | 1
Howard Schultz bought a small Seattle coffee company called Starbucks in 1987. By the time he stepped down as Starbucks’ CEO in 2000, Howard had transformed the six-store operation into the largest coffee brand in the world. But in the late 2000s, Starbucks descended into a finan ... Show More
39m 39s
Mar 2020
Starbucks vs Dunkin - A Steamy Culture Clash | 1
A former high school dropout named Bill Rosenberg has big dreams and a passion for coffee. In 1950, in the small town of Quincy, Massachusetts he’s got a thriving coffee and donut shop called Dunkin Donuts. In front of the store he proudly puts up a huge sign that reads, World’s ... Show More
25m 28s
Jun 2024
Starbucks (with Howard Schultz)
Starbucks. You’d be hard pressed to name any brand that’s more ubiquitous in the world today. With nearly half a billion global customer purchases per week across its stores and 3rd party retail channels, a significant portion of the human population gets their daily fix in the g ... Show More
3h 13m
Mar 2020
Starbucks vs Dunkin - Luckin: China’s Coffee Dark Horse | 7
There’s no doubt that Starbucks and Dunkin Donuts have created empires throughout the U.S. and internationally. Starbucks has more than 15,000 locations in the U.S. alone, and Dunkin Donuts is now in 43 countries. But there could be yet ANOTHER brewing business that’s raring to m ... Show More
24m 27s
Mar 2020
Starbucks vs Dunkin - Schultz vs The Bean Counters | 3
Howard Schultz has found his mission. He’s burning to turn Starbucks into an espresso bar business, but he can’t convince Starbucks owners to get onboard. Back in the Northeast, Bill Rosenberg is frustrated too. His son, who’s now Dunkin Donut’s CEO, has ideas that seem sure to w ... Show More
27m 44s
Jul 2023
Why Google and Facebook Buy This Product for Their Employees
Verve Coffee was founded with the goal of sourcing the finest coffees in the world and sharing them with their community in Northern California. Discover the brand’s sourcing guidelines and how it became the go-to coffee for Silicon Valley tech giants like Google and Facebook. Fo ... Show More
26m 37s
Mar 2020
Starbucks vs Dunkin - Trouble is Brewing | 4
Howard Schultz can hardly believe the mess his company is in, with sales in free fall. To pull out of it, he’ll need to make a radical move. Yet no matter what he does, Starbucks’ problems only get worse. And Dunkin Donuts is in expansion mode, looking to capitalize on the coffee ... Show More
24 m
Dec 2021
521: The Business of Coffee: What You Didn’t Know About This Industry
Coffee and entrepreneurship seem to go hand in hand. I bet you can’t scroll the Instagram accounts of your favorite creators and business owners without a photo of a latte or a caffeine-inspired meme popping up, right? This guest made coffee the center of her business, and with i ... Show More
41m 37s