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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 provide the audience some info about your background and you can also inform them a little bit about Chop Store.

Thanks Christina. My name is Jason Morgan, CEO of Original Chop Store. I've been doing this for about 9 years now. We purchased the brand name in 2016three unitsand I've grown it to 26. Prior to this, I've invested most of my career 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 casino property and worked in corporate finance.

I was the first staff member there after personal equity bought business. Helped grow that from 20 to 150 locations, 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 a really great start.

We're at the counter, we bring the food to the table. It is mainly protein bowlsabout 40 percent of the mix. We also do salads, sandwiches. The key to the program is we have a beverage component also 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 some of the walk-the-line concepts that are out there, however we think we have actually got something quite special. We're going to include another store this year and at least 4 stores next year. We will be 31 or so stores by the end of next year.

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Hey, everybody. It's fantastic to be with you again. My name is Clinton Anderson. I'm the CEO here at 4th. I've remained in this role for about six years. 4th, as numerous of you know, is a leading company of software application services to the dining establishment and hospitality industry. Our objective is to assist our clients be effective in driving profitability and being efficientmanaging labor, managing stock, and generally providing them with tools they need to provide their vision.

It's rare to have business that are beloved and growing rapidly, that can repeat that success every year. Jason, among the factors I was so ecstatic to have you join our session is the success at Zos was amazing. I have actually just fulfilled a handful of brand names where there was such a strong client affinity for the brand.

When you talk to clients about Chop Store, they love the place. And to be able to take what is a fairly complex concept in terms of providing an excellent experience for the consumer, and be able to grow that from a few shops to now north of 30 shops next yearit's amazing.

We're going to speak about how to scale a dining establishment organization. Every restaurateur I ever speak to has dreams of taking one shop, 2 stores, 5 stores, and turning it into something much biggerexpanding across the city, throughout the state, into numerous states, and eventually national, even worldwide reach. It's not simple, especially in today's environment.

Labor is difficult. Stock expenses remain high. It's not a simple time to drive profitability and growth at the exact same time. We're pleased to have you here today, Jason, since we're going to dig into that topic. The questions are going to be actually around: how do you grow a service? How do you scale it and make it effective? How do you reproduce early success? And from there, after we speak about your experience and the lessons you've discovered, we 'd enjoy to then state: well, look, how could innovation assist? How can you use innovation as a multiplier to reproduce early success to far-reaching success? Second, beyond technology, how do you scale great teams? 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 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, one of the key things, and I feel really lucky, is that both brand names I've been included with are special.

And there's nothing exactly like Chop Shop in regards to what we're finishing with a big, varied menu. A lot of brands today are really singularly focused in regards to what they're providing from a foodstuff. I seem like we started at an advantage with both brand names by having something unique that filled a specific niche no one 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 came from a financing background, so a lot of my knowings are more finance and data-driven versus a lot of early startup restaurateurs who are innovative types. They enjoy the food, they constructed the menu, they built the brand name.

They don't understand their breakeven sales. They do not comprehend how margin enhances as sales increase. I've seen so many business where the numbers simply do not work.

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If you do not have those 2 things, you shouldn't be building stores. Since as I hear your description, you have actually highlighted 3 things: execution, brand differentiation, and financial viability.

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Second, you need a compelling brand name or unique principle that resonates with customers. And another crucial lesson is about going into new markets.

When we expanded to Dallas, I anticipated new shops to do 5070% of Phoenix sales in the first year. Too lots of operators presume new markets will open at complete volume day one.