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And we also 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 details about your background and you can also tell them a little bit about Chop Store.

My name is Jason Morgan, CEO of Original Chop Shop. We bought the brand name in 2016three unitsand I have actually grown it to 26. After a quick stint of trying to be an accounting professional for about a year and a half, I transitioned into gambling establishment home and worked in corporate finance.

I was the first staff member there after personal equity purchased 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 Shop. My hope is that we can reproduce the success we had at Zos, and we're off to an actually excellent start.

We're at the counter, we bring the food to the table. It is mainly protein bowlsabout 40 percent of the mix. We likewise do salads, sandwiches. The key to the program is we have a drink element as well with fresh-squeezed juices and protein shakes. We do all stables, we do breakfast all day.

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A little more complicated than some of the walk-the-line ideas that are out there, however we believe we have actually got something quite special. We're going to include another shop this year and at least four shops next year. So we will be 31 approximately shops 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 Fourth. I've remained in this role for about 6 years. Fourth, as much of you know, is a leading service provider of software solutions to the restaurant and hospitality market. Our objective is to help our clients succeed in driving profitability and being efficientmanaging labor, managing stock, and essentially providing them with tools they require to provide their vision.

It's rare to have business that are precious and growing rapidly, that can repeat 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 incredible. I have actually only 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 talk to consumers about Chop Store, they love the place. They discuss its distinction. And to be able to take what is a fairly complex concept in terms of providing a terrific experience for the consumer, and be able to grow that from a few shops to now north of 30 stores next yearit's amazing.

We're going to speak about how to scale a dining establishment business. Every restaurateur I ever speak to has dreams of taking one shop, 2 shops, 5 shops, and turning it into something much biggerexpanding across the city, across the state, into numerous states, and eventually national, even global reach. However it's difficult, particularly 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 innovation, how do you scale terrific teams?

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The very first question I have for you, Jasonlook, you've done this twice now in the dining establishment 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 broadening restaurants? Tell me a little about your path, what you experienced along the way, and perhaps a few of the more difficult lessons you found out.

We talked a little bit before we began about LinkedIn, and I have actually got a post teed up to follow this next week about what the playbook is likepoint by pointfor growing an organization. To me, among the key things, and I feel extremely lucky, is that both brands I've been involved with are special.

And there's absolutely nothing exactly like Chop Shop in regards to what we're making with a large, diverse menu. Most brands today are really singularly focused in regards to what they're providing from a food item. I seem like we started at a benefit with both brand names by having something distinct that filled a specific niche nobody else was doing.

A lot of it starts 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 start-up restaurateurs who are innovative types. They love the food, they constructed the menu, they built the brand name.

They do not know their breakeven sales. They don't comprehend how margin improves as sales increase. They don't understand cash-on-cash returns. I have actually seen so lots of companies where the numbers simply do not work. And yet individuals say: let's open 10 more. And I'll say: why? It does not earn money. Stop. You need to find a principle that is distinct.

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If you don't have those two things, you should not be developing shops. Since as I hear your description, you've highlighted 3 things: execution, brand distinction, and monetary viability.

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Second, you require an engaging brand or distinct idea that resonates with clients. And another crucial lesson is about entering brand-new markets.

When we expanded to Dallas, I expected brand-new stores to do 5070% of Phoenix sales in the very first year. Too many operators assume new markets will open at complete volume day one.