Being a Senior BDR and Community Lead at Nory

Abbi Simms is the Senior BDR and Community Lead on Nory’s Marketing & Growth team. Her work focuses on building strong relationships with hospitality operators and making sure Nory stays closely connected to the realities of running a restaurant. At its core, her role is about understanding what operators actually need and helping Nory grow in a way that genuinely supports them.

In an industry where time and margins are always under pressure, that connection to the front line matters.

Finding her way to Nory

Abbi joined Nory four months ago, bringing with her a broad mix of experience across hospitality. Before joining, she was part of the team at Tech on Toast, and prior to that she worked across sales, recruitment, and operational roles within the industry. That combination gave her a well-rounded view of hospitality from both the frontline and the commercial side.

What attracted her to Nory was not just one thing.

When I move roles, I need to know three things: that I’m joining a growing team, a growing business, and a place where I’ll never stop learning.

From the start, the people stood out as driven, passionate, and genuinely aligned in what they were building. The product did too. Nory was clearly designed around real operator pain points, shaped by listening rather than assumptions.

The pace, ambition, and opportunity to keep developing made it feel like the right move at the right time.

The role and responsibilities

As a Senior BDR and Community Lead, Abbi works within Nory’s Marketing & Growth team. Her day-to-day focuses on operator lead generation and running community events that bring hospitality operators together.

A big part of the role is relationship-driven. That means spending time with operators, understanding what is happening in their businesses, and creating meaningful ways for them to engage with Nory. Those conversations are not just commercial. They help shape how the wider business thinks about product, growth, and the problems worth solving next.

Staying close to operators is essential to Nory’s mission.

We have to evolve constantly, because if we don’t, both we and the hospitality industry risk standing still.

That feedback loop between operators and the business is what keeps the product relevant and grounded in reality.

The work she enjoys most

The most rewarding part of Abbi’s role is getting out and meeting people. Travelling to events and speaking with customers, partners, and operators face to face is where she feels most at home.

Hospitality is full of interesting, passionate people, and building relationships with them is what makes the work meaningful. She especially enjoys speaking to operators who may not have heard of Nory, or even of technology that could genuinely improve how they run their business.

Too often in tech, people lead with features instead of listening. We take the time to really understand what operators need first.

Seeing someone’s mindset shift, and watching them adopt tools that can save time, reduce costs, and ease pressure, is a problem worth solving.

The challenge comes from the pace. Nory moves quickly, and there is always a lot happening across teams. Staying focused can be difficult when everything feels interesting. But that same pace is also what keeps the work energising and varied.

Looking ahead at Nory

What excites Abbi most about next is Nory’s continued growth, particularly across the US and into new territories. As the business scales, so does the opportunity to shape both the product and the culture.

The team is growing with people who care deeply about hospitality and about building something that has real impact.

We’re hiring people who are genuinely shaping an incredible product and culture, and now really is the time to join.

Being part of that journey, and helping bring the right people into the business, is something she is proud of.

Advice for joining the team

For anyone considering joining her team, Abbi’s advice is straightforward.

Be resilient, be a grafter, and be yourself. Everything else, we can help with.

Her favourite part of Nory’s culture is the strong sense of shared ownership. It shows up in how people talk and work together. You hear “we” far more often than “I”, and that mindset shapes how problems are approached across the business.

Beyond work

Outside of Nory, Abbi has recently qualified as a spin instructor! When she is not on the bike, she is usually thinking about food. Cooking at home, eating out, and discovering hospitality’s best hidden spots all feature heavily.

Very on brand.