How pizza businesses grow on Hotplate
Cover photo by Scrappies Pizzeria
Pizza is one of the most universally loved foods out there, and it’s a fast-growing category on Hotplate. Once chefs lock in their dough recipe and drop rhythm, the possibilities for toppings are endless. With a consistent schedule and rotating flavors, you can quickly turn first-time customers into fiercely loyal fans.
In short, here’s what we’ve learned works for pizza businesses:
Selling whole pies in a few different flavors (start with a flavor of the week)
Using section restrictions to make inventory easy
Adhering to a consistent drop and pickup schedule
Why the Hotplate drop model works for pizza businesses
Perfecting your at-home pizza methodology is no easy feat. It’s a relentless pursuit of tweaking and controlling variables like time, ingredients, temperature, and testing over and over again. It’s an art that’s inspired everyone from experienced bread nerds to novice cooks who just love pizza.
For people looking to turn their pizza obsession into a side hustle, the drop model is a great, low-cost approach to getting started. Pizzas need to be served hot, and that’s really hard to do when you don’t know who is going to show up when - even harder when you have limited oven capacity. Drops allow you to set inventory and pickup times in advance so that you can space orders out and not be overwhelmed with firing too many pizzas at once. And since all orders are pre-orders, you get the cash up front and only prep what’s paid for, saving time, money, and minimizing waste.
How pizza businesses scale with Hotplate
Many pizza-makers begin by experimenting from home and sharing pizza with friends and neighbors while in the R&D phase. While they’re at it, they’ll set up their Hotplate storefront and build a customer list, even if they’re not quite ready to start selling. (No matter what food you make, you’ll set yourself up for success by building your customer list before your first drop. Think of building your subscriber list as pre-heating your oven - things just won’t work quite right if you skip this step.)
Hotplate can be used to sell 1 pizza or 1,000. The best pizza droppers start small, offering only what they know they can produce while delivering the best pizza possible to every customer. They scale as demand increases, but not too aggressively, and keep their menu limited to streamline ordering and fulfillment.
How our pizza businesses typically operate
Most of our pizza droppers operate as popups. They often have their own mobile ovens that they bring to markets and events. Some are brick & mortars or operate as a permanent popup by renting the kitchen space of a local brewery or bakery.
The typical pizza dropper schedule
Because the dough requires a few days worth of prep, many pizza chefs open orders several days before their popup. We most often see orders open early or mid-week for weekend pickups.
Examples to inspire you
Scrappies Pizzeria
📍Boston, Massachusetts 🔗 hotplate.com/scrappiespizzeria
Andrew is turning bread waste into Boston’s hottest pizza
Over at Brick Street Bagels in Boston, Chief Bagel Officer Andrew had an idea to turn bread waste into pizza. Instead of throwing stale bread in the trash, he figured out how to grind it into a fine, flour-like powder. From there, Scrappies Pizzeria was born.
Andrew drops a limited number of pies, ~50 per week, every Monday at noon. He sells out in a flash and lets Hotplate do the work of controlling inventory and pickup times so that he’s always making 2 pizzas every 10 minutes, and not overselling. Pickups happen Wednesday and Thursday evenings.
Scrappies is the perfect example of turning a passion project into a sustainable and buzzing business. Drops let Andrew sell efficiently, manage fiery demand without worrying about overselling, and organize pickups so that every single pizza and customer get the attention they deserve.
Bussin’ Pizza slings pizza out of a garage
📍Frederick, Maryland 🔗 hotplate.com/bussinpizza
Alex Goldberg is a full-time engineer who turned his pizza obsession into a fast-growing side hustle. His love for the craft took him all the way to Italy to study authentic techniques before returning home to Maryland, where he transformed his garage into a full-blown pizza lab. He spent months experimenting with dough and flavor combinations, posting his progress on Instagram and even running semi-weekly pizza giveaways to gather feedback and build a loyal following.
At first, Alex managed everything through a homemade Google Voice-based preorder system he coded himself - over 7,000 lines of it.
But as demand grew, so did the headaches. After a recommendation from Andrew of Pizza Llama, Alex created a Hotplate account, where he now runs weekly drops that automatically handle inventory, time slots, customer communication, and payments. It’s freed him up to focus on what he does best: making delicious pizza. While he dreams of opening a brick-and-mortar one day, for now he’s staying true to his method: growing slow, staying consistent, and protecting quality above all else.
Secret Squares brings naturally-leavened, Detroit-style pizza to RVA
📍Richmond, Virginia 🔗 hotplate.com/secretsquares
When Willoughby Obenchain first tried Detroit-style pizza, he was instantly hooked. In 2018, he ordered a few Detroit pans and started messing around at home for fun. But after countless rounds of testing and sharing slices with friends, word started to spread. “It got more popular, and I got a couple more pans, and it kind of snowballed,” he says. What started as a hobby turned into Secret Squares, a Detroit-style pizza business with a cult following in Richmond, VA.
Willoughby does weekly drops on Hotplate, where orders open every Thursday at 5 PM for Friday–Sunday pickups. Willoughby’s pizzas are baked in 8×10" rectangular pans with 100% naturally leavened sourdough crusts and that signature “wall of cheese” - the crispy, caramelized edges that make Detroit-style pizza what it is. His menu features favorites like the Roni Pie (pepperoni, ricotta, hot honey) and Boozy Greenberg (sausage, mushrooms, pesto, vodka sauce, parmesan), plus rotating seasonal specials.
Using Hotplate’s section restriction feature, he can cap total pie output while keeping flavor choices flexible, letting him scale smart, stay creative, and keep that handmade, community-driven feel that started it all.
Thinking of starting a pizza business? Your first steps
Create a Hotplate storefront: hotplate.com/sign-up
Set your drop schedule (when do orders open, when do you prep, and when/where are pick ups?)
Pick a few flavors to start with - or, just 1 flavor of the week to keep it simple!
Understand your oven capacity (even if it’s just 1 at a time!)
With those key details figured out, you can schedule your first drop!
