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And we likewise have Clinton Anderson, the CEO of Fourth, who will be moderating the discussion with Jason. Jason, how about I let you offer the audience some info about your background and you can likewise inform them a little bit about Chop Store.

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 brief stint of attempting to be an accountant for about a year and a half, I transitioned into casino property and worked in corporate financing.

I was the very first worker there after private equity purchased business. Helped grow that from 20 to 150 locations, took it public in 2014, and then 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. It is primarily protein bowlsabout 40 percent of the mix. We also do salads, sandwiches. The key to the program is we have a drink component also with fresh-squeezed juices and protein shakes. We do all stables, we do breakfast throughout the day.

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A little more complicated than some of the walk-the-line principles that are out there, however we think we have actually got something pretty special. We're going to include another shop this year and at least four shops next year. We will be 31 or so shops by the end of next year.

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I have actually been in this function for about six years. 4th, as numerous of you understand, is a leading service provider of software solutions to the dining establishment and hospitality industry. Our objective is to help our consumers be effective in driving profitability and being efficientmanaging labor, managing inventory, and essentially offering them with tools they require to provide their vision.

It's rare to have companies that are precious and growing rapidly, that can duplicate that success year after year. Jason, among the reasons I was so ecstatic to have you join our session is the success at Zos was amazing. I have actually just met a handful of brand names where there was such a strong consumer affinity for the brand.

And now you're doing the exact same thing at Chop Store. When you talk to clients about Chop Shop, they enjoy the place. They speak about its distinction. And to be able to take what is a fairly complex principle in regards to delivering an excellent experience for the consumer, and be able to grow that from a couple of shops to now north of 30 shops next yearit's amazing.

We're going to speak about how to scale a dining establishment business. Every restaurateur I ever speak with has imagine taking one shop, two stores, 5 stores, and turning it into something much biggerexpanding throughout the city, across the state, into multiple states, and ultimately nationwide, even international reach. However it's hard, particularly in today's environment.

It's not a simple time to drive success and growth at the very same time. How do you scale it and make it effective? Second, beyond technology, how do you scale great groups?

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

We talked a little bit before we began about LinkedIn, and I have actually got a post teed up to follow this next week about what the playbook is likepoint by pointfor growing a company. To me, one of the key things, and I feel really fortunate, is that both brand names I have actually been included with are unique.

And there's nothing precisely like Chop Shop in regards to what we're doing with a large, diverse menu. Many brand names today are very singularly focused in regards to what they're providing from a food item. I seem like we began at a benefit with both brand names by having something distinct that filled a specific niche nobody else was doing.

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

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The second thingI originated from a financing 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 like the food, they developed the menu, they developed the brand. I probably could not do that from scratch. However 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 understand their breakeven sales. They don't understand how margin enhances as sales increase. I have actually seen so lots of business where the numbers simply do not work.

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If you do not have those two things, you should not be developing stores. Since as I hear your description, you have actually highlighted three things: execution, brand name distinction, and monetary viability.

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Second, you require a compelling brand name or distinct concept that resonates with consumers. And third, the math needs to work. If you do not comprehend your system economics, your repaired and variable expenses, you may be expanding blind and losing money. Exactly. And another key lesson has to do with getting in brand-new markets.

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