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And we also have Clinton Anderson, the CEO of 4th, 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 Store.

Thanks Christina. My name is Jason Morgan, CEO of Original Chop Shop. I've been doing this for about 9 years now. We bought the brand name in 2016three unitsand I've grown it to 26. Prior to this, I have actually invested most of my profession in hospitality in some shape or type. After a brief stint of trying to be an accountant for about a year and a half, I transitioned into gambling establishment property and operated in corporate finance.

I was the very first employee there after private equity bought business. Assisted 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 replicate 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 secret to the program is we have a drink part as well with fresh-squeezed juices and protein shakes.

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A little more complex than some of the walk-the-line principles that are out there, but we think we've got something pretty unique. We're going to include another store this year and at least four stores next year. So we will be 31 or two shops by the end of next year.

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I've been in this function for about 6 years. 4th, as many of you know, is a leading company of software application solutions to the dining establishment and hospitality market. Our objective is to help our consumers be successful in driving profitability and being efficientmanaging labor, handling stock, and essentially offering them with tools they require to deliver their vision.

It's rare to have business that are cherished and growing rapidly, that can repeat 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've just met a handful of brand names where there was such a strong customer affinity for the brand name.

When you talk to customers about Chop Store, they love the location. And to be able to take what is a reasonably complex principle in terms of delivering an excellent experience for the consumer, and be able to grow that from a few stores 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 with has imagine taking one store, two stores, 5 shops, and turning it into something much biggerexpanding across the city, across the state, into several states, and ultimately nationwide, even worldwide reach. But it's hard, especially in today's environment.

Labor is difficult. Inventory costs remain high. It's not a simple time to drive success and growth at the very same time. We're delighted to have you here today, Jason, because we're going to dig into that subject. The concerns are going to be really around: how do you grow a business? How do you scale it and make it effective? How do you duplicate early success? And from there, after we discuss your experience and the lessons you've discovered, we 'd like to then say: well, appearance, how could technology help? How can you utilize innovation as a multiplier to replicate early success to far-reaching success? Second, beyond technology, how do you scale fantastic groups? And lastly, AI.

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The very first question I have for you, Jasonlook, you've done this two times now in the dining establishment industry. What has your experience been in terms of what it takes to truly drive success in expanding dining establishments?

We talked a bit before we began about LinkedIn, and I've got a post teed as much as follow this next week about what the playbook is likepoint by pointfor growing a company. To me, one of the essential things, and I feel really lucky, is that both brand names I've been included with are distinct.

And there's absolutely nothing precisely like Chop Shop in terms of what we're doing with a big, diverse menu. The majority of brand names today are extremely singularly focused in terms of what they're using from a food. I seem like we started at a benefit with both brand names by having something special that filled a specific niche no one else was doing.

Because it's simply harder to stand apart when there are 10, 20, 50 principles within a two- or three-mile radius trying to do the exact same thing. A lot of it begins with the brand name. Does your brand have something distinct that nobody else is doing? That's unusual.

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The second thingI came from a financing 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 like the food, they developed the menu, they built the brand name. I probably could not do that from scratch. But if you gave me something that has all those components in location, I can take it from there and put the playbook in location.

They don't understand their breakeven sales. They don't comprehend how margin enhances as sales boost. They don't understand cash-on-cash returns. I've 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 doesn't generate income. Stop. You require to discover a principle that is unique.

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If you don't have those 2 things, you shouldn't be building shops. Yeah, perhaps both? Due to the fact that as I hear your description, you have actually highlighted three things: execution, brand name distinction, and monetary viability. You have actually got to start with execution. If you don't have an operating design that works, expanding it just multiplies problems.

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Second, you need an engaging brand name or special idea that resonates with clients. And another key lesson is about entering brand-new markets.

But when we expanded to Dallas, I expected brand-new stores to do 5070% of Phoenix sales in the very first year. Too many operators presume new markets will open at complete volume the first day. That practically never occurs. And when the shops open sluggish, however you have actually signed leases and constructed a financial design based upon higher volumes, you get overextended.