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And we also have Clinton Anderson, the CEO of 4th, who will be moderating the discussion with Jason. Jason, how about I let you give the audience some details about your background and you can also inform them a little bit about Chop Shop.

Thanks Christina. My name is Jason Morgan, CEO of Original Chop Store. I have actually been doing this for about nine years now. We purchased the brand name in 2016three unitsand I've grown it to 26. Prior to this, I have actually spent the majority of my career in hospitality in some shape or kind. After a brief stint of attempting to be an accountant for about a year and a half, I transitioned into gambling establishment property and operated in corporate finance.

I was the very first employee there after personal equity bought the business. Helped grow that from 20 to 150 places, took it public in 2014, and then left about a year and a half after going public to do this at Chop Store. My hope is that we can replicate the success we had at Zos, and we're off to an actually excellent start.

We're at the counter, we bring the food to the table. The key to the program is we have a drink part as well with fresh-squeezed juices and protein shakes.

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A little more complex than a few of the walk-the-line ideas that are out there, but we believe we've got something pretty unique. We're going to add another shop this year and at least four stores next year. We will be 31 or so shops by the end of next year.

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Hey, everybody. It's fantastic to be with you again. My name is Clinton Anderson. I'm the CEO here at Fourth. I've remained in this function for about 6 years. Fourth, as numerous of you understand, is a leading provider of software options to the restaurant and hospitality market. Our goal is to assist our clients succeed in driving profitability and being efficientmanaging labor, managing stock, and basically providing them with tools they need to provide their vision.

It's rare to have companies that are beloved and growing quickly, that can duplicate that success year after year. Jason, one of the reasons I was so ecstatic to have you join our session is the success at Zos was incredible. I've only satisfied a handful of brand names where there was such a strong consumer affinity for the brand name.

And now you're doing the same thing at Chop Store. When you talk to consumers about Chop Store, they enjoy the location. They discuss its distinction. And to be able to take what is a fairly complicated concept in regards to providing an excellent experience for the consumer, and be able to grow that from a couple of stores to now north of 30 shops next yearit's amazing.

We're going to talk about how to scale a dining establishment service. Every restaurateur I ever speak to has imagine taking one shop, 2 stores, five stores, and turning it into something much biggerexpanding throughout the city, across the state, into numerous states, and ultimately national, even worldwide reach. It's not simple, particularly in today's environment.

Labor is difficult. Inventory expenses stay high. It's not an easy time to drive profitability and growth at the exact same time. We're happy to have you here today, Jason, since we're going to dig into that subject. The questions are going to be actually around: how do you grow a business? How do you scale it and make it effective? How do you duplicate early success? And from there, after we speak about your experience and the lessons you've learned, we 'd love to then say: well, appearance, how could innovation help? How can you utilize technology as a multiplier to duplicate early success to far-reaching success? Second, beyond technology, how do you scale terrific groups? And finally, AI.

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The first concern I have for you, Jasonlook, you have actually done this two times now in the restaurant industry. What has your experience been in terms of what it takes to truly drive success in expanding dining establishments?

We talked a bit before we began about LinkedIn, and I have actually got a post teed approximately follow this next week about what the playbook is likepoint by pointfor growing a business. To me, one of the key things, and I feel extremely fortunate, is that both brands I have actually been included with are distinct.

And there's nothing precisely like Chop Shop in regards to what we're doing with a large, diverse menu. The majority of brand names today are extremely singularly focused in regards to what they're providing from a food product. I feel like we started at a benefit with both brand names by having something unique that filled a niche nobody else was doing.

A lot of it begins with the brand. Does your brand have something special that no one else is doing?

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The 2nd thingI came from a financing background, so a lot of my learnings are more financing and data-driven versus a lot of early start-up restaurateurs who are innovative types. They enjoy the food, they constructed the menu, they constructed the brand.

They don't know their breakeven sales. They do not understand how margin enhances as sales increase. I have actually seen so numerous business where the numbers just don't work.

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If you do not have those 2 things, you should not be building shops. Because as I hear your description, you've highlighted 3 things: execution, brand differentiation, and financial practicality.

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Second, you need an engaging brand name or distinct principle that resonates with clients. And third, the mathematics has to work. If you don't understand your unit economics, your fixed and variable costs, you may be expanding blind and losing money. Exactly. And another key lesson has to do with getting in new markets.

When we expanded to Dallas, I anticipated brand-new shops to do 5070% of Phoenix sales in the very first year. Too many operators presume new markets will open at complete volume day one.