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And we likewise have Clinton Anderson, the CEO of 4th, who will be moderating the discussion with Jason. Jason, how about I let you provide the audience some details about your background and you can also inform them a little bit about Chop Shop.

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

I was the very first staff member there after private equity bought the service. Helped 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 really excellent start.

We're at the counter, we bring the food to the table. It is mainly protein bowlsabout 40 percent of the mix. We likewise do salads, sandwiches. The secret to the program is we have a beverage element too 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 ideas that are out there, however we think we have actually got something quite special. We're going to include 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 fantastic to be with you once again. My name is Clinton Anderson. I'm the CEO here at Fourth. I've been in this role for about six years. Fourth, as a number of you understand, is a leading provider of software options to the dining establishment and hospitality industry. Our objective is to assist our customers achieve success in driving success and being efficientmanaging labor, managing stock, and basically providing them with tools they need to deliver their vision.

It's unusual to have business that are precious and growing quickly, that can duplicate that success year after year. Jason, among the reasons I was so thrilled to have you join our session is the success at Zos was fantastic. I've only met a handful of brand names where there was such a strong customer affinity for the brand name.

And now you're doing the same thing at Chop Store. When you talk with clients about Chop Shop, they love the place. They discuss its differentiation. And to be able to take what is a fairly complex concept in terms of delivering a fantastic experience for the customer, and be able to grow that from a couple of shops to now north of 30 stores next yearit's remarkable.

We're going to talk about how to scale a dining establishment service. Every restaurateur I ever talk with has dreams of taking one store, 2 shops, five stores, and turning it into something much biggerexpanding across the city, across the state, into multiple states, and ultimately nationwide, even worldwide reach. But it's hard, particularly in today's environment.

It's not a simple time to drive success and development at the exact same time. How do you scale it and make it effective? Second, beyond innovation, how do you scale fantastic 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 industry. What are a few of the lessons you've discovered? What has your experience been in terms of what it takes to really drive success in broadening restaurants? Tell me a little about your course, what you experienced along the way, and maybe a few of the more difficult lessons you discovered.

We talked a little bit before we began 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 an organization. To me, one of the key things, and I feel extremely fortunate, is that both brands I have actually been included with are unique.

And there's absolutely nothing exactly like Chop Store in regards to what we're finishing with a big, varied menu. The majority of brands today are extremely singularly focused in terms of what they're providing from a foodstuff. I seem like we began at an advantage with both brand names by having something unique that filled a specific niche nobody else was doing.

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

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

They don't understand their breakeven sales. They don't understand how margin improves as sales boost. They don't understand cash-on-cash returns. I have actually seen a lot of business where the numbers just don't work. And yet individuals say: let's open 10 more. And I'll state: why? It doesn't earn money. Stop. You need to find a concept that is special.

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If you do not have those two things, you should not be constructing stores. Due to the fact that as I hear your description, you have actually highlighted 3 things: execution, brand name differentiation, and financial practicality.

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Second, you require an engaging brand name or special idea that resonates with customers. And another essential lesson is about getting in new markets.

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