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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 information about your background and you can also inform them a little bit about Chop Store.

Thanks Christina. My name is Jason Morgan, CEO of Original Chop Store. I've been doing this for about 9 years now. We bought the brand in 2016three unitsand I have actually grown it to 26. Prior to this, I've spent most of my profession in hospitality in some shape or form. After a short 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 finance.

I was the very first staff member there after private equity purchased the service. Helped grow that from 20 to 150 areas, 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 really good 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 complex than some of the walk-the-line ideas that are out there, however we think we've got something quite special. We're going to add another store this year and a minimum of 4 shops next year. We will be 31 or so stores by the end of next year.

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Hey, everyone. It's great to be with you again. My name is Clinton Anderson. I'm the CEO here at 4th. I have actually remained in this function for about six years. 4th, as a number of you know, is a leading service provider of software options to the dining establishment and hospitality industry. Our objective is to assist our consumers succeed in driving success and being efficientmanaging labor, handling inventory, and essentially supplying them with tools they need to deliver their vision.

It's unusual to have business that are precious and growing quickly, that can repeat that success year after year. Jason, one of the reasons I was so excited to have you join our session is the success at Zos was remarkable. I've just satisfied a handful of brands where there was such a strong client affinity for the brand name.

When you talk to consumers about Chop Store, they love the place. And to be able to take what is a fairly complex concept in terms of providing a terrific experience for the customer, and be able to grow that from a couple of shops to now north of 30 stores next yearit's amazing.

We're going to discuss how to scale a restaurant organization. Every restaurateur I ever speak to has dreams of taking one shop, two shops, 5 shops, and turning it into something much biggerexpanding throughout the city, throughout the state, into numerous states, and eventually national, even international reach. However it's hard, particularly in today's environment.

Labor is difficult. Inventory costs stay high. It's not an easy time to drive profitability and development at the same time. We're pleased to have you here today, Jason, since we're going to dig into that subject. The questions are going to be truly around: how do you grow an organization? How do you scale it and make it successful? How do you duplicate early success? And from there, after we discuss your experience and the lessons you've discovered, we 'd like to then state: well, look, how could technology assist? How can you use innovation as a multiplier to reproduce early success to far-reaching success? Second, beyond innovation, how do you scale terrific teams? And last but not least, AI.

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The first question I have for you, Jasonlook, you have actually done this two times now in the dining establishment industry. What are a few of the lessons you've learned? What has your experience been in terms of what it requires to truly drive success in expanding dining establishments? Inform me a little about your course, what you experienced along the method, and possibly a few of the harder lessons you found out.

We talked a bit before we started about LinkedIn, and I've got a post teed as much as follow this next week about what the playbook is likepoint by pointfor growing a company. To me, among the essential things, and I feel really fortunate, is that both brands I've been involved with are unique.

And there's absolutely nothing exactly like Chop Store in regards to what we're doing with a big, varied menu. The majority of brand names today are really singularly focused in regards to what they're using from a foodstuff. I feel like we began at an advantage with both brands by having something distinct that filled a niche no one else was doing.

Because it's just harder to stand out when there are 10, 20, 50 concepts within a 2- or three-mile radius attempting to do the specific very same thing. So a great deal of it begins with the brand name. Does your brand name have something distinct that no one else is doing? That's rare.

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The 2nd thingI came from a financing background, so a lot of my knowings are more financing and data-driven versus a lot of early startup restaurateurs who are creative types. They love the food, they developed the menu, they constructed the brand.

They do not understand their breakeven sales. They don't comprehend how margin enhances as sales boost. I have actually seen so many companies where the numbers just do not work.

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If you don't have those two things, you should not be developing stores. Since as I hear your description, you have actually highlighted 3 things: execution, brand differentiation, and financial viability.

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Second, you need an engaging brand or distinct principle that resonates with clients. And another crucial lesson is about getting in brand-new markets.

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