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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 offer the audience some information about your background and you can likewise tell them a little bit about Chop Store.

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

I was the first employee there after private equity purchased business. 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 an actually great start.

We're at the counter, we bring the food to the table. The key to the program is we have a drink part as well with fresh-squeezed juices and protein shakes.

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A little more complicated than some of the walk-the-line concepts that are out there, but we think we've got something pretty unique. We're going to add another shop this year and a minimum of four shops next year. We will be 31 or so shops by the end of next year.

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Hey, everybody. It's excellent to be with you once again. My name is Clinton Anderson. I'm the CEO here at 4th. I've been in this function for about 6 years. Fourth, as many of you know, is a leading supplier of software application solutions to the restaurant and hospitality market. Our objective is to help our customers be successful in driving profitability and being efficientmanaging labor, handling stock, and basically offering them with tools they need to provide their vision.

It's uncommon to have companies that are beloved and growing quickly, that can duplicate 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 incredible. I have actually only met a handful of brand names where there was such a strong customer affinity for the brand.

And now you're doing the same thing at Chop Store. When you talk to consumers about Chop Shop, they like the location. They speak about its differentiation. And to be able to take what is a fairly complex concept in regards to providing a great experience for the customer, and be able to grow that from a few shops to now north of 30 shops next yearit's remarkable.

We're going to speak about how to scale a restaurant business. Every restaurateur I ever speak with has imagine taking one shop, two shops, five shops, and turning it into something much biggerexpanding across the city, across the state, into multiple states, and eventually nationwide, even worldwide reach. But it's challenging, particularly in today's environment.

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

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The first question I have for you, Jasonlook, you have actually done this twice now in the dining establishment market. What are some of the lessons you've found out? What has your experience remained in regards to what it takes to actually drive success in broadening dining establishments? Inform me a little about your path, what you experienced along the method, and maybe a few of the more difficult lessons you discovered.

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 a service. To me, one of the key things, and I feel extremely lucky, is that both brands I have actually been involved with are distinct.

And there's nothing precisely like Chop Shop in regards to what we're doing with a big, varied menu. Many brand names today are really singularly focused in terms of what they're using from a food. I feel like we started at a benefit with both brands by having something unique that filled a niche nobody else was doing.

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

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The 2nd thingI came from a financing background, so a great deal of my learnings are more finance and data-driven versus a lot of early startup restaurateurs who are creative types. They like the food, they constructed the menu, they built the brand name. I probably could not do that from scratch. If you offered me something that has all those parts in place, I can take it from there and put the playbook in location.

They do not understand their breakeven sales. They do not comprehend how margin enhances as sales increase. I have actually seen so lots of companies where the numbers just do not work.

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If you do not have those 2 things, you should not be building shops. Since as I hear your description, you have actually highlighted three things: execution, brand differentiation, and financial viability.

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Second, you need a compelling brand or distinct principle that resonates with consumers. And 3rd, the mathematics has to work. If you do not comprehend your system economics, your repaired and variable costs, you may be broadening blind and losing cash. Exactly. And another essential lesson has to do with getting in new markets.

When we broadened to Dallas, I expected new stores to do 5070% of Phoenix sales in the first year. A lot of operators presume brand-new markets will open at complete volume the first day. That nearly never ever occurs. And when the stores open sluggish, but you've signed leases and constructed a financial design based upon greater volumes, you get overextended.