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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 give the audience some information about your background and you can also inform 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 short stint of attempting to be an accounting professional for about a year and a half, I transitioned into casino residential or commercial property and worked in corporate financing.

I was the first employee there after personal equity purchased business. 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 Store. My hope is that we can reproduce the success we had at Zos, and we're off to an actually good 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 drink element as well with fresh-squeezed juices and protein shakes. We do all stables, we do breakfast all the time.

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A little more complicated than some of the walk-the-line concepts that are out there, but we believe we have actually got something quite special. We're going to include another store this year and a minimum of 4 stores next year. We will be 31 or so shops by the end of next year.

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Hey, everyone. It's terrific to be with you once again. My name is Clinton Anderson. I'm the CEO here at Fourth. I've remained in this role for about six years. Fourth, as a number of you understand, is a leading service provider of software options to the restaurant and hospitality market. Our goal is to help our clients succeed in driving profitability and being efficientmanaging labor, handling stock, and generally supplying them with tools they need to provide their vision.

It's uncommon to have companies that are beloved and growing rapidly, that can repeat that success every year. Jason, among the reasons I was so thrilled to have you join our session is the success at Zos was remarkable. I have actually just fulfilled a handful of brand names where there was such a strong client affinity for the brand name.

And now you're doing the very same thing at Chop Shop. When you talk with consumers about Chop Store, they love the place. They discuss its differentiation. And to be able to take what is a fairly complicated 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 shops next yearit's amazing.

We're going to discuss how to scale a restaurant company. Every restaurateur I ever talk to has imagine taking one shop, 2 shops, five shops, and turning it into something much biggerexpanding throughout the city, across the state, into several states, and ultimately national, even global reach. But it's hard, specifically in today's environment.

Labor is difficult. Inventory costs stay high. It's not a simple time to drive profitability and development at the same time. But we're delighted to have you here today, Jason, due to the fact that we're going to go into that topic. The concerns are going to be actually around: how do you grow a business? How do you scale it and make it successful? How do you duplicate early success? And from there, after we talk about your experience and the lessons you've found out, we 'd like to then say: well, appearance, how could innovation help? How can you use innovation as a multiplier to reproduce early success to far-reaching success? Second, beyond innovation, how do you scale excellent teams? And finally, AI.

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The very first concern I have for you, Jasonlook, you've done this twice now in the dining establishment market. What are a few of the lessons you've learned? What has your experience remained in terms of what it takes to actually drive success in expanding restaurants? Tell me a little about your path, what you experienced along the way, and perhaps a few of the harder lessons you learned.

We talked a little bit before we began about LinkedIn, and I have actually got a post teed as much as follow this next week about what the playbook is likepoint by pointfor growing a business. To me, one of the essential things, and I feel really lucky, is that both brands I have actually been involved with are distinct.

And there's absolutely nothing exactly like Chop Shop in regards to what we're making with a big, diverse menu. Most brands today are extremely singularly focused in terms of what they're offering from a food. I seem like we began at an advantage with both brands by having something distinct that filled a specific niche nobody else was doing.

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

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The 2nd thingI originated from a financing background, so a lot of my knowings are more financing and data-driven versus a great deal of early start-up restaurateurs who are imaginative types. They enjoy the food, they developed the menu, they constructed the brand name. I most likely could not do that from scratch. If you provided me something that has all those components in place, I can take it from there and put the playbook in place.

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

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If you don't have those two things, you shouldn't be developing stores. Because as I hear your description, you have actually highlighted three things: execution, brand name distinction, and financial practicality.

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Second, you require an engaging brand or special idea that resonates with clients. And another key lesson is about going into new markets.

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