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Thank you. 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 likewise inform them a little bit about Chop Shop. And then I'll let you take it from there, Clinton.

Thanks Christina. My name is Jason Morgan, CEO of Original Chop Shop. I've been doing this for about nine years now. We bought the brand name in 2016three unitsand I've grown it to 26. Prior to this, I've invested the majority of my career 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 residential or commercial property and operated in corporate financing.

I was the first staff member there after personal equity purchased 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 Store. My hope is that we can reproduce 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 drink part as well with fresh-squeezed juices and protein shakes.

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A little more complicated than some of the walk-the-line ideas that are out there, but we believe we have actually got something quite unique. We're going to add another shop this year and at least 4 shops next year. So we will be 31 or so shops by the end of next year.

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Hey, everybody. It's great to be with you again. My name is Clinton Anderson. I'm the CEO here at 4th. I've been in this function for about six years. Fourth, as a number of you know, is a leading company of software application solutions to the restaurant and hospitality industry. Our goal is to help our consumers be effective in driving profitability and being efficientmanaging labor, managing inventory, and generally supplying them with tools they need to provide their vision.

It's uncommon to have business that are precious and growing quickly, that can duplicate that success every year. Jason, among the factors I was so thrilled to have you join our session is the success at Zos was fantastic. I've just fulfilled a handful of brands where there was such a strong consumer affinity for the brand name.

When you talk to clients about Chop Shop, they love the location. And to be able to take what is a reasonably complicated principle in terms of providing a great experience for the consumer, and be able to grow that from a few shops to now north of 30 stores next yearit's remarkable.

We're going to speak about how to scale a restaurant service. Every restaurateur I ever speak with has imagine taking one store, 2 stores, 5 stores, and turning it into something much biggerexpanding across the city, across the state, into several states, and eventually nationwide, even worldwide reach. It's not simple, particularly in today's environment.

Labor is difficult. Inventory expenses stay high. It's not a simple time to drive profitability and growth at the exact same time. However we're grateful 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 successful? How do you replicate early success? And from there, after we discuss your experience and the lessons you've discovered, we 'd like to then state: well, appearance, how could innovation assist? How can you utilize technology as a multiplier to reproduce early success to significant success? Second, beyond innovation, how do you scale fantastic groups? And lastly, AI.

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The first question I have for you, Jasonlook, you've done this two times now in the restaurant industry. What are a few of the lessons you've learned? What has your experience remained in terms of what it takes to really drive success in expanding restaurants? Tell me a little about your path, what you experienced along the way, and perhaps some of the more difficult lessons you learned.

We talked a little bit before we began 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 business. To me, among the crucial things, and I feel very lucky, is that both brands I have actually been involved with are special.

And there's nothing exactly like Chop Shop in regards to what we're finishing with a big, varied menu. The majority of brands today are really singularly focused in regards to what they're using from a food product. I seem like we began at an advantage with both brand names by having something special that filled a specific niche no one else was doing.

Due to the fact that it's just more difficult to stand out when there are 10, 20, 50 ideas within a 2- or three-mile radius attempting to do the precise same thing. A lot of it begins with the brand name. Does your brand name have something distinct that nobody else is doing? That's unusual.

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The second thingI originated from a finance 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 enjoy the food, they built the menu, they constructed the brand name. I most likely could not do that from scratch. However if you offered me something that has all those components in place, I can take it from there and put the playbook in location.

They do not know their breakeven sales. They do not understand how margin enhances as sales boost. They do not understand cash-on-cash returns. I've seen many business where the numbers simply don't work. And yet individuals state: let's open 10 more. And I'll state: why? It does not generate income. Stop. You require to find a concept that is distinct.

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If you do not have those 2 things, you shouldn't be developing shops. Yeah, possibly both, right? Because as I hear your description, you have actually highlighted 3 things: execution, brand distinction, and monetary viability. You have actually got to begin with execution. If you don't have an operating design that works, expanding it just increases issues.

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Second, you require an engaging brand name or special principle that resonates with customers. And 3rd, the math needs to work. If you don't comprehend your unit economics, your fixed and variable expenses, you might be broadening blind and losing money. Exactly. And another key lesson is about going into brand-new markets.

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