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Thank you. 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 also tell them a little bit about Chop Shop. And after that I'll let you take it from there, Clinton.

My name is Jason Morgan, CEO of Original Chop Store. We purchased the brand in 2016three unitsand I have actually grown it to 26. After a short stint of trying to be an accountant for about a year and a half, I transitioned into gambling establishment home and worked in corporate financing.

I was the first employee there after private equity purchased the organization. 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 Shop. My hope is that we can duplicate the success we had at Zos, and we're off to a truly 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 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 principles that are out there, however we think we've got something pretty special. We're going to add another shop this year and a minimum of 4 stores next year. So we will be 31 approximately shops by the end of next year.

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I have actually been in this role for about 6 years. Fourth, as many of you know, is a leading company of software solutions to the dining establishment and hospitality market. Our objective is to assist our consumers be successful in driving profitability and being efficientmanaging labor, managing inventory, and generally providing them with tools they need to deliver their vision.

It's uncommon to have companies that are beloved and growing quickly, that can duplicate that success every year. Jason, one of the factors I was so ecstatic to have you join our session is the success at Zos was remarkable. I've only met a handful of brand names where there was such a strong client affinity for the brand.

And now you're doing the same thing at Chop Shop. When you talk to customers about Chop Store, they enjoy the location. They discuss its distinction. And to be able to take what is a fairly complicated idea in regards to delivering a great experience for the consumer, and have the ability to grow that from a couple of shops to now north of 30 shops next yearit's fantastic.

We're going to speak about how to scale a restaurant company. Every restaurateur I ever talk with has dreams of taking one shop, two stores, five shops, and turning it into something much biggerexpanding across the city, across the state, into multiple states, and ultimately nationwide, even global reach. It's not simple, 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 successful? Second, beyond innovation, how do you scale great groups?

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The first question I have for you, Jasonlook, you've done this twice now in the restaurant industry. What are some of the lessons you've learned? What has your experience been in terms of what it takes to truly drive success in expanding dining establishments? Tell me a little about your course, what you experienced along the method, and perhaps some of the harder lessons you learned.

We talked a little bit before we started 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, among the essential things, and I feel very fortunate, is that both brand names I have actually been involved with are special.

And there's absolutely nothing precisely like Chop Store in terms of what we're finishing with a large, varied menu. The majority of brands today are very singularly focused in regards to what they're using from a food item. I seem like we started at a benefit with both brands by having something distinct that filled a niche nobody else was doing.

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

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

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

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If you don't have those two things, you should not be building stores. Yeah, perhaps both? Since as I hear your description, you have actually highlighted three things: execution, brand differentiation, and financial viability. You've got to start with execution. If you don't have an operating design that works, expanding it just increases issues.

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Second, you require a compelling brand or unique principle that resonates with clients. And another key lesson is about entering new markets.

When we expanded to Dallas, I anticipated brand-new shops to do 5070% of Phoenix sales in the first year. Too many operators presume brand-new markets will open at full volume day one. That nearly never occurs. And when the stores open sluggish, but you've signed leases and developed a monetary model based on greater volumes, you get overextended.