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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 offer the audience some information about your background and you can also tell them a little bit about Chop Store. And then I'll let you take it from there, Clinton.

My name is Jason Morgan, CEO of Original Chop Store. We bought the brand name in 2016three unitsand I've grown it to 26. After a quick stint of trying to be an accountant for about a year and a half, I transitioned into gambling establishment residential or commercial property and worked in business financing.

I was the very first staff member there after private equity bought the business. Assisted 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 truly good 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 element 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 a few of the walk-the-line concepts that are out there, but we think we have actually got something pretty special. We're going to include another shop this year and at least four stores next year. So we will be 31 or two shops by the end of next year.

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I've been in this role for about six years. 4th, as many of you know, is a leading service provider of software solutions to the dining establishment and hospitality industry. Our objective is to help our customers be effective in driving profitability and being efficientmanaging labor, managing inventory, and generally supplying them with tools they need to deliver their vision.

It's rare to have companies that are beloved and growing quickly, that can duplicate that success every year. Jason, one of the factors I was so fired up to have you join our session is the success at Zos was remarkable. I've only satisfied a handful of brand names where there was such a strong customer affinity for the brand name.

And now you're doing the very same thing at Chop Store. When you talk to customers about Chop Store, they like the location. They speak about its differentiation. And to be able to take what is a relatively complicated principle in terms of providing a fantastic experience for the customer, and have the ability to grow that from a couple of shops to now north of 30 stores next yearit's remarkable.

We're going to discuss how to scale a dining establishment company. Every restaurateur I ever speak to has imagine taking one shop, two shops, five shops, and turning it into something much biggerexpanding across the city, throughout the state, into several states, and eventually national, even worldwide reach. It's not simple, especially in today's environment.

Labor is difficult. Inventory costs remain high. It's not a simple time to drive success and development at the very same time. But we're glad to have you here today, Jason, because we're going to go into that subject. The questions are going to be actually around: how do you grow an organization? How do you scale it and make it successful? How do you reproduce early success? And from there, after we discuss your experience and the lessons you've discovered, we 'd like to then say: well, look, how could innovation help? How can you use innovation as a multiplier to reproduce early success to far-reaching success? Second, beyond innovation, how do you scale excellent groups? And last but not least, AI.

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The first concern I have for you, Jasonlook, you have actually done this two times now in the restaurant industry. What are some of the lessons you've learned? What has your experience remained in terms of what it takes to actually drive success in expanding restaurants? Inform me a little about your course, what you experienced along the way, and maybe a few of the harder lessons you learned.

We talked a bit before we started 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 a company. To me, among the key things, and I feel really lucky, is that both brands I've been involved with are special.

And there's nothing precisely like Chop Shop in terms of what we're making with a large, varied menu. The majority of brands today are very singularly focused in terms of what they're offering from a food. I feel like we started at a benefit with both brand names by having something distinct that filled a niche no one else was doing.

Since it's simply harder to stand out when there are 10, 20, 50 ideas within a 2- or three-mile radius trying to do the precise very same thing. So a great deal of it starts with the brand name. Does your brand have something special that nobody else is doing? That's uncommon.

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The 2nd thingI came from a financing background, so a great deal of my knowings are more financing and data-driven versus a great deal of early start-up restaurateurs who are innovative types. They love the food, they constructed the menu, they built the brand name. I probably couldn't do that from scratch. But if you provided me something that has all those elements in location, I can take it from there and put the playbook in location.

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

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If you don't have those two things, you should not be constructing stores. Yeah, perhaps both? Because as I hear your description, you've highlighted three things: execution, brand distinction, and financial practicality. You've got to begin with execution. If you don't have an operating model that works, broadening it simply increases issues.

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Second, you require a compelling brand or unique concept that resonates with customers. And another essential lesson is about going into brand-new markets.

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