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

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 name in 2016three unitsand I've grown it to 26. Prior to this, I've spent many of my career in hospitality in some shape or kind. After a short stint of trying to be an accounting professional for about a year and a half, I transitioned into gambling establishment residential or commercial property and worked in business finance.

I was the very first worker there after personal equity bought the organization. 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 reproduce the success we had at Zos, and we're off to an actually great start.

We're at the counter, we bring the food to the table. It is mostly protein bowlsabout 40 percent of the mix. We likewise do salads, sandwiches. The key to the program is we have a beverage element 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 complex than a few of the walk-the-line principles that are out there, but we believe we've got something quite unique. We're going to add another store this year and at least 4 stores next year. We will be 31 or so stores by the end of next year.

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Hey, everybody. It's great to be with you once again. My name is Clinton Anderson. I'm the CEO here at Fourth. I've been in this function for about 6 years. 4th, as much of you understand, is a leading service provider of software application services to the restaurant and hospitality market. Our goal is to assist our consumers be effective in driving success and being efficientmanaging labor, handling inventory, and basically offering them with tools they require to provide their vision.

It's rare to have business that are cherished and growing quickly, that can repeat that success year after year. Jason, among the factors I was so ecstatic to have you join our session is the success at Zos was remarkable. I have actually only met a handful of brand names where there was such a strong consumer affinity for the brand.

And now you're doing the same thing at Chop Store. When you speak to consumers about Chop Shop, they like the place. They discuss its distinction. And to be able to take what is a fairly complicated idea in terms of providing an excellent experience for the consumer, and have the ability to grow that from a few 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, 2 stores, 5 shops, and turning it into something much biggerexpanding throughout the city, across the state, into numerous states, and eventually national, even worldwide reach. It's not easy, specifically in today's environment.

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

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The very first question I have for you, Jasonlook, you've done this two times now in the dining establishment market. What has your experience been in terms of what it takes to really drive success in expanding dining establishments?

We talked a 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 an organization. To me, among the essential things, and I feel really lucky, is that both brands I've 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. Many brand names today are extremely singularly focused in terms of what they're using from a foodstuff. I feel like we started at an advantage with both brand names by having something distinct that filled a specific niche no one else was doing.

Since it's simply harder to stand out when there are 10, 20, 50 ideas within a 2- or three-mile radius trying to do the specific very same thing. A lot of it starts with the brand. Does your brand name have something unique that no one else is doing? That's uncommon.

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The 2nd thingI originated from a finance background, so a great deal of my knowings are more financing and data-driven versus a lot 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. However if you provided me something that has all those components in location, I can take it from there and put the playbook in location.

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

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If you do not have those 2 things, you should not be developing shops. Due to the fact that as I hear your description, you've highlighted 3 things: execution, brand distinction, and financial viability.

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Second, you need a compelling brand name or special concept that resonates with clients. And third, the mathematics needs to work. If you do not comprehend your system economics, your fixed and variable costs, you might be expanding blind and losing cash. Precisely. And another crucial lesson has to do with getting in brand-new markets.

When we broadened to Dallas, I expected brand-new shops to do 5070% of Phoenix sales in the very first year. Too lots of operators presume brand-new markets will open at complete volume day one. That nearly never takes place. And when the shops open slow, but you've signed leases and built a financial model based upon higher volumes, you get overextended.