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Thank you. And we also have Clinton Anderson, the CEO of Fourth, who will be moderating the conversation with Jason. So Jason, how about I let you provide the audience some details about your background and you can also tell them a little bit about Chop Store. And after that 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 9 years now. We bought the brand name in 2016three unitsand I have actually grown it to 26. Prior to this, I've spent the majority of my profession in hospitality in some shape or kind. After a short stint of attempting to be an accountant for about a year and a half, I transitioned into gambling establishment home and operated in business financing.

I was the very first staff member there after private equity purchased the company. Helped grow that from 20 to 150 places, took it public in 2014, and then 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 great start.

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

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A little more complicated than a few of the walk-the-line concepts that are out there, however we believe we have actually got something pretty special. We're going to add another store this year and a minimum of 4 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've been in this function for about six years. 4th, as much of you understand, is a leading company of software solutions to the dining establishment and hospitality industry. Our objective is to help our consumers succeed in driving success and being efficientmanaging labor, handling inventory, and generally supplying them with tools they require to deliver their vision.

It's rare to have business that are cherished and growing rapidly, that can duplicate that success every year. Jason, one of the factors I was so excited to have you join our session is the success at Zos was incredible. I have actually only fulfilled a handful of brands where there was such a strong customer affinity for the brand name.

When you talk to consumers about Chop Store, they like the location. And to be able to take what is a relatively complicated principle in terms of providing a terrific experience for the client, and be able to grow that from a couple of stores to now north of 30 shops next yearit's incredible.

We're going to discuss how to scale a restaurant business. Every restaurateur I ever talk with has dreams of taking one shop, 2 shops, five stores, and turning it into something much biggerexpanding throughout the city, across the state, into numerous states, and eventually national, even worldwide reach. It's not easy, specifically in today's environment.

It's not a simple time to drive profitability and development at the exact same time. How do you scale it and make it effective? Second, beyond innovation, how do you scale terrific groups?

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The very first question I have for you, Jasonlook, you've done this twice now in the restaurant industry. What are a few of the lessons you've learned? What has your experience been in terms of what it takes to really drive success in expanding restaurants? Inform me a little about your course, what you experienced along the way, and possibly some of the harder lessons you found out.

We talked a little bit before we started about LinkedIn, and I have actually got a post teed approximately follow this next week about what the playbook is likepoint by pointfor growing a company. To me, among the key things, and I feel very fortunate, is that both brand names I have actually been included with are unique.

And there's nothing precisely like Chop Store in regards to what we're doing with a large, diverse menu. Many brands today are really singularly focused in regards to what they're providing from a food item. I feel like we began 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 name. Does your brand name have something distinct that no one else is doing?

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The 2nd thingI originated from a financing background, so a great deal of my knowings are more financing and data-driven versus a lot of early startup restaurateurs who are creative types. They like the food, they developed the menu, they built the brand name. I most likely couldn't do that from scratch. However if you gave me something that has all those components in place, 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 improves as sales increase. They do not comprehend cash-on-cash returns. I've seen a lot of business where the numbers just don't work. And yet individuals state: let's open 10 more. And I'll say: 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 2 things, you should not be developing stores. Since as I hear your description, you've highlighted 3 things: execution, brand differentiation, and monetary practicality.

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Second, you require a compelling brand or distinct concept that resonates with clients. And 3rd, the math needs to work. If you do not understand your unit economics, your repaired and variable costs, you might be expanding blind and losing money. Exactly. And another key lesson has to do with getting in brand-new markets.

When we broadened to Dallas, I anticipated brand-new stores to do 5070% of Phoenix sales in the very first year. Too lots of operators presume brand-new markets will open at full volume the first day. That practically never ever happens. And when the shops open sluggish, but you have actually signed leases and developed a monetary design based on higher volumes, you get overextended.