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Nosh Simple Review: Payment Issues, Red Flags, and What to Watch For
- Joseph Mandracchia
- 2 days ago
- 8 min read
Recently I was contracted to make short form content and manage the social media of a company called Nosh Simple while they begin to franchise in Texas, and during the course of me working with Aaron Du, the founder and CEO, as well as other people I worked with have refused to pay for completed work that is currently in use on their social media platforms.
They’ve displayed patterns I’ve seen not just in companies I’ve worked with, but also through interviews and research I’ve done — and that’s exactly why I’m making this video, so you understand what you’re getting into before you invest your time and money into this business.
So in this video, We are talking about:
EVERYTHING You MUST Know about Nosh Simple and their franchising opportunity
What they tell you vs How it ACTUALLY is
Everything in between!
Disclaimer: The content of this video does not contain and is never intended to be legal, business, financial, tax, or health advice of any kind. This video is for entertainment, educational, and informational purposes only. It is advised that you conduct your own research and consult with qualified professionals before applying anything you find online.
I also want to be clear I am speaking from my own experience, and what my experience may be, may not reflect yours and what applies to me, may not apply to you.
My Story
So in November/December 2025, Aaron Du reached out to me from one of my shorts. They needed some organic social media marketing and management services and asked me to help.
They wanted marketing that targeted the difference with ordering on Doordash and UberEats as opposed to buying from their Kiosks, and was hoping I can help. Which made no sense in the long run but I’ll talk more about that later.
We talked for a bit, he told me his goals with the company, shared some information about himself, how his wife left him, and how he started going to church lately. Kind of an overshare, but I get trying to create a personal connection after a traumatic experience can lead to challenges with reconnecting with people.
Early in the conversation, he emphasized his background — including Harvard Business School and prior experience — which appeared to be positioned as a credibility signal.
However, throughout the working relationship, the way he chose to handle his business obligations, that did not align with the level of professionalism those credentials would typically imply and really is a poor reflection on Harvard Business School.
If you’re going to lead with credentials like Harvard Business School—a school known for its prestige and reputation—people are going to expect a certain level of professionalism.
And when that standard isn’t met, the disconnect becomes obvious.
I gave them my prices, he explained to me how they seemed high to him and that managing social media isn’t “work to him” and he shouldn’t have to pay for it. Which directly conflicted with the agreed scope of work and industry standards for those services.
I explained to him the difference and he just chose not to understand but eventually agreed to some of my prices.
I thought it was just going to be a short contract, I will show him the difference between the two and just move on. But that didn’t go well at all.
During the process of working with him, Aaron made it clear that he didn’t understand how organic social media marketing worked and compared it to paid advertising multiple times.
He asked me to work with Z and told me to make it sound like his contributions were not that hard on him and manipulated him outside work hours and during his vacation time.
He tried getting me to make a logo for him for the franchise page for free, and after I sent him some rates, he tried to make it sound like he never asked.
There were repeated contradictions between stated expectations and prior admissions about unfamiliarity with organic social media.
Despite agreeing to the contract terms, the conversation shifted when it came time to fulfill those obligations.
When I followed up on payment, the response was not focused on resolving the issue — it was reframed as unprofessional behavior.
At that point, the situation moved away from a business discussion and into something much more adversarial.
At one point, he instructed others on the project to mark my emails as spam.
Think about that for a second.
Not resolve the invoice.
Not clarify the terms.
But actively suppress communication about payment.
And now I am out $1220 because Aaron Du refused to pay me and has yet to fulfill his contractual obligations, while the work was completed, delivered, and is currently in use on their platforms — despite payment not being made.
Under the agreement, usage rights are contingent on payment — meaning continued use without payment is unauthorized.
Which means this may give rise to claims including breach of contract, unauthorized use of intellectual property, misuse of likeness, and reputational harm.
Nosh Simple Kiosks
Their business model is very similar to a vending machine model, you call up businesses to see if it is okay to put their machine in their building, you get paid per meal sold and that is the overall jist of it.
They have/had a delivery model as well but that isn’t part of the franchise. They also have a 30% waste rate on food in the Kiosk, but they “claimed to be fixing it”.
That’s a fundamental risk indicator.
Because if a company won’t fulfill a $1,220 obligation for completed work, it raises serious questions about how larger financial obligations are handled.
Now in order to enter the franchise they expect you to pay $45,000 as a franchise fee and $5000 per machine.
Which isn’t that bad, and financing is available, but that also assumes that people are fulfilling their end of the agreement. Like if they won’t pay me for $1220 worth of work, what makes you think they will pay someone else for theirs.
Who do you think that is going to trickle down towards? Who is going to accept the brunt of the customer service challenges? If they can’t bear their own responsibilities towards themselves, what makes you think they will make it happen for you?
My Mistakes
To be honest, I saw a lot of potential in this business model and had considered investing in them myself and allowed for somethings that I shouldn’t have, or more appropriately, I made some mistakes that looking back were just rookie mistakes.
“Locking in the Relationship”
One of the mindsets I had with this deal was the idea of “locking in the relationship” and lowering my own prices for a pilot program I specially designed for them. If you have to lower your prices for them, you should probably walk away.
First of all, they might not be able to afford your services, and remember, freelancers are not free, even if they try to make it free.
Credit Cards
One of the questions he had was if he can use his credit card, and while I did allow it and can just charge his card myself, what is stopping him from conducting a charge back?
I think at this point, I have to work on retainer or something because I can’t accept this kind of abuse, or set up a credit card authorization form so when we have to make these kinds of transactions, I can actually accept them.
Just because someone is willing to ignore contractual obligations and make himself legally liable, doesn’t mean I will.
Ignoring the Red Flags
Honestly, in an effort to just get the work done and get moving, I ended up ignoring some red flags that made me pretty uncomfortable working with them.
If someone refers to you as a “friend” within a business relationship in the first few minutes of knowing them, or few meetings, that is a problem.
If they try to scope creep within the first few weeks of knowing them, that’s a red flag. It’s okay to set boundaries, but don’t let abusive people get you to work for free.
If they immediately penny pinching after signing the contract and working with you for a bit complaining about timing and being more high maintenance than your ex-lover, that is a red flag.
There are more, but I want to make a separate video on this specifically in the future and help people accordingly.
One Fat Frog
This raised concerns for me because I’ve seen similar patterns in other situations. Yes, you can talk about Doordash and UberEats, but at least in MOST cases they don’t withhold pay. The company I wanted to highlight is called One Fat Frog.
One Fat Frog chose to operate and stole a bunch of peoples money, and got sued multiple times until they eventually filed for bankruptcy, making a bunch of people homeless in the process.
We had an interview with Mico the Entrepreneur talking about that specifically, and how devastated she was about it and how she successfully sued them.
Regardless, they played their stupid games and won stupid prizes, but there are people who ended up in HUGE financial devastation and some of them are even homeless because of their actions.
Some of them didn’t even have a real opportunity to get a lawsuit together because they would have to go to Florida to file.
How Nosh Simple Solves Their Problems
I recently took a look at other ratings in preparation for a potential lawsuit, and one of the things I found out was how Aaron has been responding to criticism on the vending machine he has been working on.
I found out that I am not the only person he threatens when he gets a bit of negative feedback. A customer left a bad review ONE TIME, and Aaron threatened the business for leaving it and said “there may be consequences for the location”.
Which is just immature, and if that’s how disputes are handled publicly, it raises serious concerns about leadership judgment.
Because how someone handles one problem is usually how they handle all of them. This isn’t an isolated issue.
When you see the same patterns show up across vendor disputes, customer interactions, and internal communication, it stops being a one-off situation and starts becoming a pattern of how problems are handled.
Also, as a CEO, you are expected to provide guidance to your team on how best to move forward and how many decisions you have to make because of it.
The guidance provided appeared to rely heavily on generic AI-generated responses without meaningful review or refinement.
Using AI to expedite processes and make things easier is fine, but you have to fine tune it and sometimes even challenge what they wrote just to make sure the answers made sense, he didn’t even really read them.
Which then begs the question, does Aaron Du have the leadership capacity to really succeed long term, or is this just another business that is doomed to fail.
Final Thoughts
As a reminder, this review is based on my experience with working with Aaron, and while I do not have any desire to work with him to any capacity, I am not telling anyone to not work with him.
As I said, I thought this was an interesting concept and I can imagine multiple people feeling the same way. If it works out for you and it is worth $50k, go for it.
I know that I have seen many people financially devastated by people like this, from One Fat Frog, from other dealerships, and I have had first hand experiences of myself, but I would be genuinely careful of people like this.
If you plan on working with Aaron Du or Nosh Simple, please tread with caution.
If you would like to add some other perspective to Nosh Simple as a company, feel free to email me: drivenwyld@gmail.com and who knows? Maybe your email or perspective and be featured in a post as well!
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