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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 information about your background and you can also tell them a little bit about Chop Shop.

My name is Jason Morgan, CEO of Original Chop Shop. We bought the brand name in 2016three unitsand I've grown it to 26. After a brief stint of attempting to be an accounting professional for about a year and a half, I transitioned into casino home and worked in business finance.

I was the first worker 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 Shop. My hope is that we can duplicate the success we had at Zos, and we're off to a truly excellent start.

We're at the counter, we bring the food to the table. It is primarily protein bowlsabout 40 percent of the mix. We likewise do salads, sandwiches. The secret to the program is we have a beverage component as well 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 ideas that are out there, however we believe we have actually got something quite special. We're going to include another store this year and a minimum of four stores next year. So 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 once again. My name is Clinton Anderson. I'm the CEO here at Fourth. I've remained in this role for about 6 years. 4th, as a lot of you understand, is a leading provider of software options to the restaurant and hospitality industry. Our objective is to help our consumers succeed in driving profitability and being efficientmanaging labor, handling stock, and generally providing them with tools they need to provide their vision.

It's rare to have companies that are cherished and growing rapidly, that can duplicate that success every year. Jason, one of the factors I was so thrilled to have you join our session is the success at Zos was amazing. I've just met a handful of brand names where there was such a strong consumer affinity for the brand name.

When you talk to clients about Chop Store, they love the location. And to be able to take what is a relatively complicated concept in terms of providing an excellent experience for the customer, and be able to grow that from a couple of stores to now north of 30 stores next yearit's incredible.

We're going to speak about how to scale a dining establishment organization. Every restaurateur I ever talk to has imagine taking one shop, 2 stores, 5 stores, and turning it into something much biggerexpanding across the city, across the state, into multiple states, and ultimately national, even global reach. It's not easy, especially in today's environment.

It's not an easy time to drive success and development at the exact same time. How do you scale it and make it successful? 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 market. What has your experience been in terms of what it takes to truly drive success in broadening restaurants?

We talked a bit before we began about LinkedIn, and I've 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 included with are unique.

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

A lot of it starts with the brand. Does your brand name have something unique 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 financing and data-driven versus a lot of early startup restaurateurs who are imaginative types. They like the food, they developed the menu, they developed the brand name.

They don't know their breakeven sales. They don't comprehend how margin improves as sales increase. I've seen so lots of companies where the numbers simply don't work.

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If you don't have those 2 things, you shouldn't be developing shops. Because as I hear your description, you have actually highlighted three things: execution, brand name distinction, and financial viability.

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Second, you require an engaging brand name or special idea that resonates with clients. And third, the mathematics needs to work. If you do not comprehend your unit economics, your fixed and variable costs, you might be broadening blind and losing cash. Exactly. And another essential lesson is about entering new markets.

But when we broadened to Dallas, I expected brand-new stores to do 5070% of Phoenix sales in the first year. Too many operators assume brand-new markets will open at complete volume the first day. That nearly never takes place. And when the stores open slow, but you've signed leases and developed a monetary design based upon higher volumes, you get overextended.