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And we likewise have Clinton Anderson, the CEO of Fourth, who will be moderating the discussion with Jason. Jason, how about I let you provide 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 Shop. We bought the brand in 2016three unitsand I have actually grown it to 26. After a brief stint of trying 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 private equity purchased the company. 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 Store. My hope is that we can reproduce the success we had at Zos, and we're off to a truly good start.

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

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A little more complex than a few of the walk-the-line ideas that are out there, but we believe we have actually got something pretty unique. We're going to add another store this year and a minimum of four shops next year. So we will be 31 or two stores 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 have actually remained in this function for about 6 years. 4th, as much of you understand, is a leading supplier of software solutions to the restaurant and hospitality industry. Our goal is to help our consumers achieve success in driving success and being efficientmanaging labor, handling inventory, and essentially supplying them with tools they need to provide their vision.

It's rare to have companies that are precious and growing rapidly, that can duplicate that success year after year. Jason, among the reasons I was so fired up to have you join our session is the success at Zos was amazing. I have actually just satisfied a handful of brands where there was such a strong customer affinity for the brand name.

And now you're doing the very same thing at Chop Shop. When you speak to consumers about Chop Store, they love the location. They discuss its distinction. And to be able to take what is a relatively complicated idea in regards to delivering a terrific experience for the client, and have the ability to grow that from a couple of stores to now north of 30 shops next yearit's incredible.

We're going to talk about how to scale a restaurant organization. Every restaurateur I ever talk with has dreams of taking one store, two stores, five shops, and turning it into something much biggerexpanding across the city, across the state, into numerous states, and ultimately national, even worldwide reach. It's not simple, specifically in today's environment.

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

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The very first question I have for you, Jasonlook, you've done this two times now in the restaurant market. What are a few of the lessons you've learned? What has your experience been in terms of 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 perhaps some of the more difficult lessons you discovered.

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 a service. To me, among the crucial things, and I feel extremely lucky, is that both brand names I've been involved with are distinct.

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

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

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The 2nd thingI came from a finance background, so a lot of my learnings are more finance and data-driven versus a lot of early start-up restaurateurs who are innovative types. They like the food, they constructed the menu, they developed the brand.

They don't understand their breakeven sales. They do not comprehend how margin improves as sales boost. They do not comprehend cash-on-cash returns. I have actually seen so lots of 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 earn money. Stop. You require to find a principle that is special.

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If you do not have those two things, you should not be building shops. Since as I hear your description, you have actually highlighted 3 things: execution, brand name distinction, and financial practicality.

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Second, you require a compelling brand name or special principle that resonates with customers. And another essential lesson is about getting in brand-new markets.

When we expanded to Dallas, I anticipated new stores to do 5070% of Phoenix sales in the very first year. Too numerous operators assume new markets will open at full volume day one.