Modern Solutions for Modern Restaurants

Morning Sam, Morning Ralph (MSMR) is the new must-listen podcast for restaurant tech entrepreneurs and sales & marketing leaders, brought to you by Popcorn GTM. The restaurant tech space is booming, with an estimated 1,500 to 3,000 companies vying for attention. But in this red-hot market, competition is fierce but friendly. Paul Molinari cuts through the noise, bringing the audience actionable strategies and insights to help restaurant professionals mobilize a winning strategy.

Modern Solutions for Modern Restaurants is a business podcast hosted by Popcorn GTM, with 72 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 80. PitchCentric scores this show on Booking Probability, Listen Score, and live audience signals refreshed every 24 hours.

Popcorn GTM hosts Modern Solutions for Modern Restaurants, a business show with 72 episodes published.

Our AI reads these to draft pitches. Use them as grounding for a pitch that cites a real guest and a specific topic.

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  Episode #73

  Web3 and NFTs Didn't Die in Restaurants. It Went Underground

  Aug 14, 202626 min

  This episode revisits the 2021–2022 wave of restaurant Web3 experiments—Taco Bell, McDonald’s, Burger King, Applebee’s, Chipotle, Bored & Hungry, and Starbucks Odyssey—and explains why none are still running by 2026. Paul Molinari argues the failures stemmed from being marketing campaigns instead of products, offering ownership without useful utility, inviting speculation that undermined loyalty, and adding customer friction through wallets and other crypto steps. He then spotlights Blackbird , founded by Ben Leventhal (Eater, Resy), which quietly uses tokens and NFTs under the hood to power a shared cross-restaurant currency ($FLY) and a payments product (Blackbird Pay) charging a flat 2% transaction fee. The takeaway: focus on outcomes like fee savings and portable loyalty, not Web3 vocabulary or architecture. Visit: Popcorn GTM at https://popcorngtm.com 00:00 NFT Restaurant Mania 02:10 Early Brand Stunts 04:25 Bored Ape Burger Reality 05:39 Starbucks Odyssey Rise 08:40 Why Web3 Loyalty Died 09:16 Four Causes of Death 14:57 Two Ideas Survive 15:57 Blackbird Explained 17:58 Payments and Network Effects 21:51 Does Blockchain Matter 23:02 Operator Vetting Playbook 25:18 What to Watch Next 26:22 Final Takeaways

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  Episode #72

  The Delivery Tax Stack: How Third-Party Apps Crush Restaurant Profit (and What to Do)

  Jul 21, 202620 min

  Paul Molinari breaks down the true cost of third-party delivery by framing fees as a “delivery tax stack”: (1) commissions that can cut a restaurant’s profit dramatically (with mid-2026 tiers ranging roughly 15–30% across DoorDash, Uber Eats, and Grubhub, and effective costs often reaching 35–45% after packaging, processing, promos, and refunds), (2) “marketing reclassification,” highlighted by New York City’s post-2025 fee structure allowing up to 43% total with itemized buckets including a capped 5% marketing/visibility charge, and (3) the acquisition value apps can provide (e.g., 37% of consumers discover restaurants via apps and 55% of DoorDash first-time orders come from browsing). He argues most operators don’t measure CAC or contribution margin by channel, urges itemizing delivery costs internally, and recommends using marketplaces for discovery while converting customers to direct ordering to reduce ongoing channel costs.

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  Episode #72

  The Delivery Tax Stack: How Third-Party Apps Crush Restaurant Profit (and What to Do)

  Jul 21, 202620 minS0

  <p>Paul Molinari breaks down the true cost of third-party delivery by framing fees as a “delivery tax stack”: (1) commissions that can cut a restaurant’s profit dramatically (with mid-2026 tiers ranging roughly 15–30% across DoorDash, Uber Eats, and Grubhub, and effective costs often reaching 35–45% after packaging, processing, promos, and refunds), (2) “marketing reclassification,” highlighted by New York City’s post-2025 fee structure allowing up to 43% total with itemized buckets including a capped 5% marketing/visibility charge, and (3) the acquisition value apps can provide (e.g., 37% of consumers discover restaurants via apps and 55% of DoorDash first-time orders come from browsing). He argues most operators don’t...

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  Episode #71

  QR Menus Won. Your Guests Hate Them.

  Jul 8, 202622 minS0

  <p >The QR code menu won the adoption war and lost the popularity contest. Roughly 75% of restaurants use them. In a blind survey of 850 diners, exactly 1% called them their favorite way to view a menu.</p> <p >This week, Paul puts the sticker on trial. First, an honest steel-man for the code: $5K a year in printing savings, 30-second menu updates, first-party data at the moment of decision, and a 15% lift in table turnover from QR payments. Then the case for the human: the survey data showing half of guests say QR menus make the night worse, proof that even 86...

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  Episode #70

  Weed Drinks in Restaurants: The 5-Month Clock, the Money, and the Tech Gap

  Jun 22, 202618 min

  The National Restaurant Association just asked Congress for a two-year delay on a federal ban that could wipe out a $1.6B opportunity for restaurants. Paul Molinari breaks down the THC beverage story hiding in plain sight: a November 12, 2026 deadline, thin margins pushing operators toward low-dose THC drinks as alcohol alternatives, and a tech and insurance gap nobody's built for yet. The clock, the money, and the gap. Modern Solutions for Modern Restaurants.

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