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Thank you. And we likewise have Clinton Anderson, the CEO of Fourth, who will be moderating the discussion with Jason. Jason, how about I let you give the audience some info about your background and you can also tell them a little bit about Chop Shop. And then I'll let you take it from there, Clinton.

Thanks Christina. My name is Jason Morgan, CEO of Original Chop Store. I've been doing this for about nine years now. We purchased the brand name in 2016three unitsand I have actually grown it to 26. Prior to this, I've invested the majority of my profession in hospitality in some shape or form. After a quick stint of trying to be an accountant for about a year and a half, I transitioned into gambling establishment residential or commercial property and operated in corporate finance.

I was the first worker there after personal equity purchased business. Assisted 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 duplicate the success we had at Zos, and we're off to a really 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 too with fresh-squeezed juices and protein shakes. We do all stables, we do breakfast all the time.

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A little more complex than a few of the walk-the-line principles that are out there, however we believe we have actually got something quite unique. We're going to add another store this year and at least four shops next year. So we will be 31 or so stores by the end of next year.

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I have actually been in this function for about 6 years. Fourth, as numerous of you know, is a leading service provider of software solutions to the restaurant and hospitality market. Our objective is to help our clients be effective in driving success and being efficientmanaging labor, managing inventory, and basically supplying them with tools they need to provide their vision.

It's uncommon to have business that are precious and growing rapidly, that can repeat that success year after year. Jason, one of the reasons I was so fired up to have you join our session is the success at Zos was incredible. I've only met a handful of brand names where there was such a strong client affinity for the brand name.

And now you're doing the exact same thing at Chop Shop. When you speak with customers about Chop Shop, they enjoy the place. They discuss its distinction. And to be able to take what is a reasonably complicated principle in terms of providing a terrific experience for the consumer, and have the ability to grow that from a couple of stores to now north of 30 shops next yearit's fantastic.

We're going to talk about how to scale a restaurant organization. Every restaurateur I ever talk to has dreams of taking one shop, 2 shops, five shops, and turning it into something much biggerexpanding throughout the city, throughout the state, into multiple states, and eventually nationwide, even worldwide reach. It's not simple, especially in today's environment.

Labor is hard. Stock costs remain high. It's not an easy time to drive profitability and development at the exact same time. But we're delighted to have you here today, Jason, since we're going to dig into that topic. The questions are going to be really around: how do you grow an organization? How do you scale it and make it successful? How do you duplicate early success? And from there, after we discuss your experience and the lessons you've found out, we 'd enjoy to then say: well, appearance, how could innovation help? How can you utilize innovation as a multiplier to duplicate early success to significant success? Second, beyond technology, how do you scale terrific teams? And last but not least, AI.

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

We talked a little bit before we started about LinkedIn, and I've got a post teed approximately follow this next week about what the playbook is likepoint by pointfor growing a company. To me, among the essential things, and I feel extremely fortunate, is that both brands I've been involved with are distinct.

And there's nothing exactly like Chop Store in terms of what we're finishing with a big, varied menu. Many brand names today are extremely singularly focused in regards to what they're providing from a food product. I feel like we started at an advantage with both brand names by having something unique that filled a specific niche nobody else was doing.

Since it's simply more difficult to stand apart when there are 10, 20, 50 principles within a 2- or three-mile radius attempting to do the specific very same thing. A lot of it begins with the brand name. Does your brand have something special that no one else is doing? That's unusual.

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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 great deal of early startup restaurateurs who are creative types. They like the food, they developed the menu, they built the brand. I probably could not do that from scratch. However if you provided me something that has all those components in location, I can take it from there and put the playbook in place.

They don't know their breakeven sales. They do not understand how margin enhances as sales boost. I have actually seen so many business where the numbers simply don't work.

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If you don't have those 2 things, you shouldn't be constructing shops. Due to the fact that as I hear your description, you have actually highlighted 3 things: execution, brand differentiation, and monetary practicality.

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Second, you need a compelling brand name or distinct idea that resonates with consumers. And another key lesson is about going into brand-new markets.

When we broadened to Dallas, I expected new stores to do 5070% of Phoenix sales in the very first year. A lot of operators assume brand-new markets will open at full volume the first day. That nearly never occurs. And when the shops open slow, but you've signed leases and built a financial model based upon greater volumes, you get overextended.