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Thank you. And we also have Clinton Anderson, the CEO of 4th, who will be moderating the discussion with Jason. So 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. And after that I'll let you take it from there, Clinton.

Thanks Christina. My name is Jason Morgan, CEO of Original Chop Shop. I have actually been doing this for about nine years now. We bought the brand in 2016three unitsand I have actually grown it to 26. Prior to this, I have actually spent the majority of my profession in hospitality in some shape or type. After a quick stint of attempting to be an accountant for about a year and a half, I transitioned into gambling establishment home and worked in business finance.

I was the very first employee there after personal equity purchased the organization. Helped grow that from 20 to 150 places, 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 truly excellent start.

We're at the counter, we bring the food to the table. The key to the program is we have a beverage 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 ideas that are out there, however we think we have actually got something quite unique. We're going to include 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, everyone. It's excellent to be with you once again. My name is Clinton Anderson. I'm the CEO here at 4th. I have actually remained in this function for about 6 years. Fourth, as a number of you understand, is a leading company of software services to the restaurant and hospitality industry. Our goal is to assist our customers succeed in driving success and being efficientmanaging labor, managing inventory, and basically offering them with tools they require to provide their vision.

It's unusual to have companies that are beloved and growing rapidly, that can repeat that success year after year. Jason, one of the factors I was so thrilled to have you join our session is the success at Zos was amazing. I've just met a handful of brand names where there was such a strong customer affinity for the brand.

When you talk to clients about Chop Shop, they love the place. And to be able to take what is a fairly complicated concept in terms of delivering a great experience for the client, and be able to grow that from a couple of shops to now north of 30 shops next yearit's remarkable.

We're going to speak about how to scale a restaurant company. Every restaurateur I ever speak to has imagine taking one shop, 2 shops, 5 shops, and turning it into something much biggerexpanding throughout the city, throughout the state, into numerous states, and ultimately nationwide, even worldwide reach. However it's hard, especially in today's environment.

Labor is tough. Inventory expenses stay high. It's not an easy time to drive success and development at the exact same time. However we're pleased to have you here today, Jason, since we're going to go into that subject. The concerns are going to be actually around: how do you grow a service? How do you scale it and make it effective? How do you replicate early success? And from there, after we speak about your experience and the lessons you've found out, we 'd enjoy to then say: well, look, how could technology help? How can you utilize innovation as a multiplier to reproduce early success to far-reaching success? Second, beyond technology, how do you scale terrific teams? And finally, AI.

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The very first question I have for you, Jasonlook, you have actually done this two times now in the dining establishment industry. What has your experience been in terms of what it takes to truly drive success in broadening restaurants?

We talked a bit before we started about LinkedIn, and I've 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 very lucky, is that both brands I've been involved with are special.

And there's absolutely nothing precisely like Chop Store in terms of what we're doing with a large, diverse menu. Most brands today are extremely singularly focused in terms of what they're offering from a food. I feel like we began at a benefit with both brand names by having something special that filled a niche no one else was doing.

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

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The 2nd thingI came from a financing background, so a great deal of my knowings are more financing and data-driven versus a lot of early start-up restaurateurs who are imaginative types. They like the food, they built the menu, they constructed the brand name. I most likely couldn't do that from scratch. If you gave me something that has all those parts in location, I can take it from there and put the playbook in place.

They don't know their breakeven sales. They do not comprehend how margin improves as sales increase. They don't comprehend cash-on-cash returns. I've seen numerous business where the numbers simply do not work. And yet individuals say: let's open 10 more. And I'll state: why? It does not make money. Stop. You need to discover an idea that is special.

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If you do not have those two things, you should not be constructing shops. Because as I hear your description, you have actually highlighted 3 things: execution, brand name differentiation, and monetary viability.

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Second, you require an engaging brand or special principle that resonates with clients. And third, the mathematics has to work. If you don't comprehend your unit economics, your fixed and variable costs, you might be broadening blind and losing cash. Precisely. And another key lesson has to do with going into brand-new markets.

But 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 assume new markets will open at complete volume day one. That almost never ever occurs. And when the shops open slow, but you've signed leases and built a financial model based upon greater volumes, you get overextended.