Built by operators who lived the problem, and couldn't fix it with posters.
Natalia Micheletti and Tim Hylton didn't start out building software. They started out running restaurants, and watched cell-phone distraction quietly cost their stores six figures a year.
We try to stay human in what we do, because at the end of the day, this is a human problem. Almost everyone's walked into a business and seen an employee on their phone instead of working, instead of greeting you with a smile. Staying focused on that human side is what's shaped everything we've built.
They ran the shifts first.
Natalia Micheletti and Tim Hylton didn't start out building software. They started out running restaurants.
As franchisees, they lived the daily reality of managing hourly teams, and they saw firsthand what cell phone distraction actually costs a business. Burnt product. Missed customers. Timers ignored because someone was scrolling instead of watching the oven. By their own estimate, distracted employees were costing their stores close to $150,000 a year.
So they tried to fix it the old-fashioned way: break-room posters, one-on-one conversations, stricter policies. None of it stuck.
Telling people to put their phones away doesn't change behavior. Giving them a reason to want to is what works.
That realization became Pryze. Founded in 2019, it wasn't designed by a team guessing at what frontline employees might respond to. It was built by two people who'd run the shifts, made the schedules, and watched turnover eat into their margins year after year. Every feature, from real-time goal tracking to customizable rewards, comes from a founder team that has stood behind the counter, not just studied it.
Natalia and Tim aren't running Pryze from the outside looking in. They've felt the frustration of watching good people disengage, not because they didn't care, but because no one had given them a reason to stay focused and feel appreciated in the moment.
The mission hasn't changed since day one: help the people who keep businesses running feel seen, motivated, and rewarded for the work they already do, automatically, and at scale.
The people building Pryze.
