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Thank you. And we likewise 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 info about your background and you can also inform them a little bit about Chop Shop. And after that I'll let you take it from there, Clinton.

My name is Jason Morgan, CEO of Original Chop Store. We bought the brand name in 2016three unitsand I have actually grown it to 26. After a quick stint of attempting to be an accounting professional for about a year and a half, I transitioned into gambling establishment property and worked in business financing.

I was the first staff member there after private equity purchased business. Assisted grow that from 20 to 150 locations, took it public in 2014, and after that left about a year and a half after going public to do this at Chop Shop. My hope is that we can reproduce the success we had at Zos, and we're off to a truly excellent start.

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

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A little more complicated than some of the walk-the-line ideas that are out there, however we believe we have actually got something quite unique. We're going to add another store this year and a minimum of four shops next year. We will be 31 or so shops by the end of next year.

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Hey, everyone. It's excellent to be with you again. My name is Clinton Anderson. I'm the CEO here at Fourth. I've remained in this role for about 6 years. 4th, as many of you know, is a leading supplier of software application services to the restaurant and hospitality industry. Our goal is to assist our consumers achieve success in driving profitability and being efficientmanaging labor, handling inventory, and essentially providing them with tools they need to deliver their vision.

It's rare to have companies that are precious and growing quickly, that can duplicate that success every year. Jason, among the factors I was so fired up to have you join our session is the success at Zos was fantastic. I have actually just fulfilled a handful of brand names where there was such a strong customer affinity for the brand name.

When you talk to consumers about Chop Shop, they enjoy the place. And to be able to take what is a fairly complicated concept in terms of delivering a terrific experience for the consumer, and be able to grow that from a few shops to now north of 30 shops next yearit's incredible.

We're going to speak about how to scale a dining establishment organization. Every restaurateur I ever speak to has dreams of taking one store, two shops, five stores, and turning it into something much biggerexpanding across the city, across the state, into multiple states, and eventually national, even worldwide reach. But it's hard, especially in today's environment.

Labor is difficult. Inventory expenses remain high. It's not a simple time to drive profitability and growth at the very same time. We're delighted to have you here today, Jason, since we're going to dig into that topic. The concerns are going to be really around: how do you grow a business? How do you scale it and make it successful? How do you duplicate early success? And from there, after we talk about your experience and the lessons you've found out, we 'd enjoy to then state: well, look, how could innovation assist? How can you use innovation as a multiplier to replicate early success to far-reaching success? Second, beyond technology, how do you scale fantastic teams? And lastly, AI.

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The very first concern I have for you, Jasonlook, you've done this two times now in the restaurant market. What has your experience been in terms of what it takes to really drive success in broadening restaurants?

We talked a little bit before we began about LinkedIn, and I've got a post teed approximately follow this next week about what the playbook is likepoint by pointfor growing an organization. To me, one of the key things, and I feel really fortunate, is that both brands I have actually been involved with are special.

And there's absolutely nothing exactly like Chop Shop in terms of what we're making with a big, diverse menu. Most brand names today are extremely singularly focused in regards to what they're offering from a food item. I seem like we started at a benefit with both brand names by having something distinct that filled a specific niche no one else was doing.

Because it's just more difficult to stand out when there are 10, 20, 50 principles within a 2- or three-mile radius trying to do the specific same thing. So a lot of it starts with the brand name. Does your brand name have something special that nobody else is doing? That's rare.

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The second thingI originated from a finance background, so a great deal of my learnings are more finance and data-driven versus a great deal of early startup restaurateurs who are imaginative types. They love the food, they developed the menu, they constructed the brand. I probably couldn't do that from scratch. If you gave me something that has all those elements in location, I can take it from there and put the playbook in place.

They don't know their breakeven sales. They do not understand how margin improves as sales increase. They do not comprehend cash-on-cash returns. I have actually seen many companies where the numbers just do not work. And yet individuals say: let's open 10 more. And I'll say: why? It does not generate income. Stop. You require to find a principle that is distinct.

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If you do not have those two things, you should not be constructing stores. Yeah, perhaps both, right? Because as I hear your description, you've highlighted three things: execution, brand name distinction, and monetary viability. You've got to begin with execution. If you don't have an operating design that works, broadening it just increases problems.

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Second, you need an engaging brand name or distinct principle that resonates with consumers. And another essential lesson is about entering brand-new markets.

When we broadened to Dallas, I expected new shops to do 5070% of Phoenix sales in the first year. Too lots of operators presume new markets will open at complete volume day one.