How Fair Pricing Can Rescue Local Restaurants

The Playbook With David Meltzer

David Meltzer, Entrepreneur.com

Careers, Entrepreneurship, Business

4.9 • 1.9K Ratings

🗓️ 16 December 2025

⏱️ 15 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In today’s episode, I sit down with entrepreneur Troy Smith, CEO and co-founder of Chop Chop, to talk about a delivery model built to actually support restaurants, drivers, and customers. I walk through why so many restaurants lose money using traditional platforms, and Troy breaks down how his flat-fee, no-commission system restores control to the people doing the work. We get into the razor-thin margins he experienced as a young McDonald’s franchisee, the broken incentives that push fees higher, and why communities benefit when restaurants can serve their own customers again. It’s a straightforward approach focused on fairness, transparency, and long-term sustainability.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to Entrepreneurs the Playbook. I'm David Meltzer. Have I got a treat for you, especially if
0:05.5	you like to eat? My man, Troy Smith, may be a common name, but not a common company, CEO and
0:12.7	co-founder at Chop Chop. Welcome to Entrepreneurs the Playbook. Thank you very much for having me on board.
0:19.6	Oh, I'm super excited.
0:21.2	When being a titan on GoFund yourself and having two-minute drill and entrepreneurs elevator pitch
0:28.8	and been a guest on so many other of these type of shows where we either fund companies,
0:35.5	contest of pitches or crowdfunding as in GoFund yourself, I get to see
0:41.4	all types of businesses. And a lot of them are the same or they're not ready. But when I found out
0:49.8	about Chop Chop, which is, you know, to me, the ultimate delivery platform that empowers everybody
0:56.9	in this amazing model that was, you know, really accelerated during COVID.
1:03.4	I just couldn't get it out of my mind.
1:05.6	I wanted to have you on the playbook to illuminate the business itself and all the different values that it has for everyone
1:13.5	involved. It is the gig economy of delivery of food. Chop Chop really gets rid of what's stopping us
1:21.8	from the ubiquitous value that should be driven by restaurants, drivers, and customers.
1:29.1	For you,
1:30.3	how did you figure this out?
1:32.3	Because it seemed to be very clear the pain points that have been involved with the
1:37.2	bigger players and the delivery platform businesses.
1:41.5	Right.
1:41.6	So when I was 28,
1:43.3	I opened my first McDonald's restaurant in Cape Town, South Africa.
1:47.8	And so I've been in the industry.
	...

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