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And we also have Clinton Anderson, the CEO of Fourth, 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 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 short stint of trying to be an accounting professional for about a year and a half, I transitioned into gambling establishment home and worked in corporate financing.

I was the very first worker there after personal equity purchased business. Assisted 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 Store. My hope is that we can duplicate the success we had at Zos, and we're off to an actually excellent start.

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

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A little more complex than some of the walk-the-line concepts that are out there, however we believe we have actually got something pretty unique. We're going to add another shop this year and a minimum of four shops next year. So we will be 31 approximately stores by the end of next year.

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Hey, everyone. It's terrific to be with you again. My name is Clinton Anderson. I'm the CEO here at Fourth. I've been in this role for about 6 years. 4th, as much of you know, is a leading company of software application services to the dining establishment and hospitality industry. Our goal is to assist our customers be effective in driving success and being efficientmanaging labor, handling stock, and essentially providing them with tools they require to provide their vision.

It's uncommon to have companies that are beloved and growing quickly, that can repeat that success year after year. Jason, one of the reasons I was so ecstatic to have you join our session is the success at Zos was remarkable. I have actually only fulfilled a handful of brands where there was such a strong customer affinity for the brand.

And now you're doing the same thing at Chop Shop. When you talk to consumers about Chop Shop, they love the place. They speak about its differentiation. And to be able to take what is a reasonably complex concept in terms of providing a great experience for the consumer, and be able to grow that from a few shops to now north of 30 stores next yearit's fantastic.

We're going to talk about how to scale a restaurant service. Every restaurateur I ever talk to has imagine taking one shop, two shops, five stores, and turning it into something much biggerexpanding throughout the city, throughout the state, into numerous states, and ultimately national, even international reach. It's not easy, especially in today's environment.

It's not an easy time to drive success and growth at the exact same time. How do you scale it and make it successful? Second, beyond innovation, how do you scale excellent teams?

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The first question I have for you, Jasonlook, you've done this two times now in the restaurant 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 restaurants? Inform me a little about your course, what you experienced along the method, and maybe some of the harder lessons you learned.

We talked a bit before we began 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 crucial things, and I feel really fortunate, is that both brand names I have actually been included with are unique.

And there's nothing precisely like Chop Shop in regards to what we're doing with a big, diverse menu. A lot of brands today are extremely singularly focused in terms of what they're using from a foodstuff. I seem like we started at a benefit with both brands by having something unique that filled a niche nobody else was doing.

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

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The second thingI originated from a finance background, so a lot of my learnings are more financing and data-driven versus a lot of early startup restaurateurs who are innovative types. They enjoy the food, they developed the menu, they developed the brand. I probably couldn't do that from scratch. But if you gave 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 don't comprehend how margin improves as sales increase. I have actually seen so many business where the numbers just don't work.

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If you don't have those two things, you should not be building stores. Due to the fact that as I hear your description, you have actually highlighted 3 things: execution, brand differentiation, and monetary viability.

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Second, you require a compelling brand or special principle that resonates with consumers. And another key lesson is about going into brand-new markets.

When we expanded to Dallas, I anticipated new stores to do 5070% of Phoenix sales in the first year. A lot of operators assume brand-new markets will open at complete volume the first day. That almost never occurs. And when the stores open slow, but you have actually signed leases and constructed a financial model based upon higher volumes, you get overextended.