OTTO Pizza founders on growth, rejected names and the reaction to mashed potatoes on pizza
Courtesy / OTTO Pizza
Founders of OTTO Pizza, Anthony Allen and Mike Keon, in their location at 225 Congree St. in Portland.
Anthony Allen and Mike Keon, founders of OTTO Pizza, were the keynote speakers at Tuesday’s Mainebiz Momentum Convention at the Augusta Civic Center. Since opening its first store on Congress Street in Portland in 2009, the business has grown to 10 restaurants and 325 employees. Here are some takeaways from the speech and an interview afterward with Mainebiz.
Two mantras for the company: “Try to get employees to think like owners,” and “It can always be done better.”
Sell more pizza: Although the company has grown significantly by opening new stores, the founders say they plan to focus next year on improving on what they’re already doing. If each of the stores sold 10 more pizzas every day, that would mean $850,000 more in revenue, Allen said. But it’s more than just saying they want to sell more; it’s being deliberate and finding ways to improve throughout the process. “Just doing what we’re doing, just more refined,” Allen said. “Have hostess meet somebody with a smile a little quicker, a little faster table turn, a little better engagement.”
On OTTO’s renowned mashed potato-bacon-scallion pizza: “When we explained what it was they almost got angry with us. ‘That doesn’t belong on a pizza,’” Allen said. To get customers past their initial reservations, the business cut it up into samples and offered to give customers another slice if they didn’t like it.
A rejected name: Earth’s Crust. “That didn’t make it past the board,” Allen said.
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