How Meal Delivery Apps are Killing Your Favorite Restaurants featuring Chris Webb, CEO of ChowNow

April 10, 2019 — 2 Comments

Food delivery apps like UberEats are putting mom and pop restaurants out of business. In final episode of Season 1 of the Innovation For All podcast, Chris Webb, CEO of ChowNow, shows the actual cost of meal delivery and how ChowNow is trying to mitigate those risks through an alternative business model.

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You’ll learn:

  • How much food marketplaces charge the host restaurant, on top of the fees they charge the customer
  • How his experience at Lehman Brothers in 2008 shapes his current skepticism
  • Why ordering direct from the retailer should always be the consumer’s first option
  • Does the restaurant know who is buying their food when ordered through a delivery app?
  • Why are restaurants willing to use delivery apps even when they are unprofitable?
  • What does a model that puts the restaurant first look like?

Chris has always had an affinity for small and independently owned restaurants. His love of these small businesses and his own family’s small step into the food retail space revealed a passion at the intersection of food and technology.

ChowNow is the leading online ordering and marketing platform for local restaurants. Founded in 2011, ChowNow currently works with 11,000 restaurants nationwide – making it easy for customers to order directly from their websites, ChowNow-built branded mobile apps and third-party websites including Google, Yelp, and Instagram.

Prior to ChowNow, Chris was a founding investor in healthy, fast-casual chain Tender Greens. Chris’ involvement in Tender Greens fueled his mission to put smaller independent restaurants on a level playing field with the national chains when it came to technology solutions, tools, and apps.

Connect with Chris Webb & ChowNow:

  • Learn more about why third-party food delivery apps are unsustainable for independent restaurants at orderbetter.com.
  • ChowNow is available nationwide and can be found online at https://get.chownow.com.
  • You can find Chris on Twitter, and on his .

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Stay Tuned for Season 2!

Innovation For All will be returning for Season 2 in May 2019. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts or your favorite podcasting platform to listen to great episodes in Season 1 and get alerted as soon as Season 2 begins.

2 Comments

  1. Hey, my name is Jon Sewell and I own a calzone restaurant in Iowa City, IA. I’ve created co-ops of between 20-40 restaurant owners in Iowa City (CHOMP.delivery) and Fort Collins CO (noconosh.com), to address the very issues you guys have been fighting against. I wonder if there might be some interest in talking to us about how we might work together to advance our interests. Thanks

    • Jon, Awesome idea! I’m always excited to hear about creative business models like this. I suggest reaching out to ChowNow directly to see if there’s room for collaboration with them.

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