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Thank you. And we likewise have Clinton Anderson, the CEO of Fourth, who will be moderating the conversation 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. And then I'll let you take it from there, Clinton.

My name is Jason Morgan, CEO of Original Chop Store. We purchased the brand in 2016three unitsand I've grown it to 26. After a brief stint of attempting to be an accountant for about a year and a half, I transitioned into casino property and worked in corporate finance.

I was the first employee there after personal equity bought the business. Helped grow that from 20 to 150 areas, 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 duplicate the success we had at Zos, and we're off to an actually good start.

We're at the counter, we bring the food to the table. The secret to the program is we have a beverage 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, but we think we've got something pretty unique. We're going to include another store this year and a minimum of 4 stores next year. So we will be 31 approximately stores by the end of next year.

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I've been in this function for about six years. 4th, as many of you understand, is a leading service provider of software services to the restaurant and hospitality market. Our objective is to help our customers be effective in driving success and being efficientmanaging labor, handling inventory, and generally offering them with tools they require to provide their vision.

It's uncommon to have companies that are cherished and growing quickly, that can repeat that success year after 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 brands where there was such a strong client affinity for the brand name.

When you talk to customers about Chop Shop, they enjoy the place. And to be able to take what is a relatively complex idea in terms of delivering an excellent experience for the consumer, and be able to grow that from a couple of shops to now north of 30 stores next yearit's incredible.

We're going to speak about how to scale a dining establishment organization. Every restaurateur I ever speak to has imagine taking one shop, two shops, five stores, and turning it into something much biggerexpanding across the city, across the state, into several states, and ultimately nationwide, even global reach. It's not simple, particularly in today's environment.

Labor is difficult. Stock costs remain high. It's not an easy time to drive success and growth at the very same time. We're happy to have you here today, Jason, since we're going to dig into that subject. The concerns are going to be really around: how do you grow a service? How do you scale it and make it effective? How do you reproduce early success? And from there, after we discuss your experience and the lessons you've discovered, we 'd love to then state: well, look, how could technology help? How can you utilize innovation as a multiplier to duplicate early success to significant success? Second, beyond innovation, how do you scale fantastic groups? And finally, AI.

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The first concern I have for you, Jasonlook, you've done this two times now in the restaurant industry. What are some of the lessons you've learned? What has your experience been in terms of what it requires to actually drive success in expanding restaurants? Inform me a little about your course, what you experienced along the way, and perhaps some of the harder lessons you found out.

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 company. To me, one of the essential things, and I feel really lucky, is that both brand names I have actually been included with are distinct.

And there's absolutely nothing exactly like Chop Shop in regards to what we're making with a big, diverse menu. A lot of brands today are very singularly focused in terms of what they're using from a food. I seem like we started at an advantage with both brands by having something unique that filled a niche nobody else was doing.

Since it's simply more difficult to stand out when there are 10, 20, 50 concepts within a two- or three-mile radius attempting to do the precise very same thing. So a great deal of it starts with the brand. Does your brand name have something special that no one else is doing? That's rare.

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The 2nd thingI came from a finance background, so a lot of my knowings are more finance and data-driven versus a lot of early startup restaurateurs who are creative types. They love the food, they developed the menu, they developed the brand. I probably couldn't do that from scratch. If you gave me something that has all those parts in place, I can take it from there and put the playbook in place.

They do not understand their breakeven sales. They don't 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 don't have those two things, you should not be constructing shops. Yeah, possibly both, right? Due to the fact that as I hear your description, you've highlighted 3 things: execution, brand distinction, and monetary viability. You have actually got to start with execution. If you do not have an operating design that works, expanding it simply increases problems.

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Second, you need a compelling brand name or unique concept that resonates with customers. And another key lesson is about going into brand-new markets.

When we expanded 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 the first day. That almost never ever takes place. And when the stores open slow, however you have actually signed leases and developed a monetary design based on greater volumes, you get overextended.