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Thank you. And we likewise have Clinton Anderson, the CEO of Fourth, who will be moderating the conversation with Jason. Jason, how about I let you give the audience some details about your background and you can also tell them a little bit about Chop Shop. And after that 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 purchased the brand name in 2016three unitsand I have actually grown it to 26. Prior to this, I have actually spent the majority of my profession in hospitality in some shape or form. After a quick stint of attempting to be an accountant for about a year and a half, I transitioned into casino home and operated in corporate finance.

I was the first worker there after personal equity purchased business. Helped 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 good start.

We're at the counter, we bring the food to the table. The key to the program is we have a beverage element 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've got something quite special. We're going to include another shop this year and at least four shops next year. We will be 31 or so shops by the end of next year.

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I've been in this role for about six years. Fourth, as numerous of you understand, is a leading company of software application services to the restaurant and hospitality market. Our objective is to assist our consumers be effective in driving profitability and being efficientmanaging labor, handling inventory, and basically supplying them with tools they require to provide their vision.

It's unusual to have business that are precious and growing quickly, that can repeat that success year after year. Jason, among the factors I was so excited to have you join our session is the success at Zos was incredible. I have actually just fulfilled a handful of brand names where there was such a strong consumer affinity for the brand name.

When you talk to clients about Chop Shop, they enjoy the location. And to be able to take what is a fairly complex principle in terms of delivering a great experience for the client, and be able to grow that from a couple of shops to now north of 30 shops next yearit's remarkable.

We're going to talk about how to scale a restaurant service. Every restaurateur I ever speak to has dreams of taking one store, 2 stores, five shops, and turning it into something much biggerexpanding across the city, across the state, into several states, and ultimately national, even international reach. But it's difficult, especially in today's environment.

It's not an easy time to drive success and growth at the same time. How do you scale it and make it effective? Second, beyond innovation, how do you scale excellent teams?

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The very first question I have for you, Jasonlook, you have actually done this twice now in the restaurant market. What are a few of the lessons you've found out? What has your experience remained in terms of what it takes to truly drive success in expanding dining establishments? Tell me a little about your course, what you experienced along the method, and maybe some of the harder lessons you learned.

We talked a 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 service. To me, one of the essential things, and I feel very fortunate, is that both brands I have actually been involved with are unique.

And there's absolutely nothing precisely like Chop Shop in terms of what we're doing with a large, varied menu. The majority of brand names today are very singularly focused in terms of what they're offering from a food product. I seem like we began at an advantage with both brands by having something distinct that filled a specific niche nobody 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 two- or three-mile radius attempting to do the precise same thing. So a lot of it begins with the brand name. Does your brand have something special that no one else is doing? That's uncommon.

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

They do not understand their breakeven sales. They do not understand how margin improves as sales boost. They do not comprehend cash-on-cash returns. I have actually seen numerous business where the numbers simply don't work. And yet individuals state: let's open 10 more. And I'll say: why? It doesn't generate income. Stop. You require to find a principle that is unique.

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

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Second, you require a compelling brand name or special concept that resonates with customers. And 3rd, the mathematics has to work. If you don't understand your system economics, your repaired and variable costs, you may be broadening blind and losing cash. Exactly. And another key lesson has to do with going into new markets.

When we broadened to Dallas, I anticipated brand-new shops to do 5070% of Phoenix sales in the first year. Too many operators assume new markets will open at full volume the first day. That almost never occurs. And when the shops open slow, but you've signed leases and developed a monetary design based on higher volumes, you get overextended.