National Success in Corporate Scaling

And we also have Clinton Anderson, the CEO of 4th, who will be moderating the conversation with Jason. Jason, how about I let you provide the audience some info about your background and you can also inform them a little bit about Chop Shop.

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 in 2016three unitsand I have actually grown it to 26. Prior to this, I have actually invested most of my profession in hospitality in some shape or kind. After a quick stint of attempting to be an accounting professional for about a year and a half, I transitioned into gambling establishment residential or commercial property and operated in business finance.

I was the first staff member there after personal equity purchased 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 Shop. My hope is that we can duplicate 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. It is mainly protein bowlsabout 40 percent of the mix. We also do salads, sandwiches. The key to the program is we have a beverage component too 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 a few of the walk-the-line ideas that are out there, but we believe we have actually got something pretty unique. We're going to add another store this year and at least 4 shops next year. We will be 31 or so stores by the end of next year.

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I have actually been in this role for about six years. 4th, as many of you understand, is a leading service provider of software application services to the restaurant and hospitality market. Our goal is to help our consumers be successful in driving profitability and being efficientmanaging labor, handling stock, and generally 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, one of the reasons I was so ecstatic to have you join our session is the success at Zos was incredible. I've just fulfilled a handful of brand names where there was such a strong consumer affinity for the brand name.

And now you're doing the same thing at Chop Store. When you speak to customers about Chop Store, they enjoy the place. They speak about its distinction. And to be able to take what is a relatively complicated idea in terms of delivering a great 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 fantastic.

We're going to discuss how to scale a dining establishment company. Every restaurateur I ever talk with has imagine taking one store, 2 stores, five shops, and turning it into something much biggerexpanding across the city, throughout the state, into several states, and eventually nationwide, even worldwide reach. But it's difficult, specifically in today's environment.

Labor is difficult. Stock costs remain high. It's not an easy time to drive success and growth at the same time. We're delighted to have you here today, Jason, because we're going to dig into that subject. The concerns are going to be actually around: how do you grow an organization? How do you scale it and make it effective? How do you replicate early success? And from there, after we speak about your experience and the lessons you've discovered, we 'd enjoy to then state: well, look, how could technology assist? How can you utilize technology as a multiplier to reproduce early success to significant success? Second, beyond technology, how do you scale terrific teams? And finally, AI.

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The first question I have for you, Jasonlook, you have actually done this two times now in the dining establishment market. What has your experience been in terms of what it takes to actually drive success in broadening restaurants?

We talked a bit before we started about LinkedIn, and I've got a post teed approximately follow this next week about what the playbook is likepoint by pointfor growing a business. To me, one of the essential things, and I feel very lucky, is that both brands I've been included with are special.

And there's absolutely nothing precisely like Chop Store in terms of what we're doing with a large, varied menu. Most brand names today are extremely singularly focused in terms of what they're providing from a food item. I feel like we started at an advantage with both brand names by having something unique that filled a niche no one else was doing.

Due to the fact that it's simply more difficult to stand out when there are 10, 20, 50 ideas within a two- or three-mile radius trying to do the specific same thing. So a lot of it begins with the brand. Does your brand name have something unique that nobody else is doing? That's rare.

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The second thingI came from a financing background, so a lot of my learnings 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 built the brand.

They do not understand their breakeven sales. They do not comprehend how margin improves as sales boost. They do not understand cash-on-cash returns. I have actually seen a lot of companies where the numbers just do not work. And yet people say: let's open 10 more. And I'll say: why? It does not earn money. Stop. You need to discover an idea that is distinct.

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If you don't have those two things, you should not be developing shops. Because as I hear your description, you have actually highlighted three things: execution, brand name distinction, and monetary practicality.

Expansion News: Regional Milestones for 2026

Second, you need a compelling brand or distinct concept that resonates with customers. And third, the mathematics needs to work. If you don't understand your unit economics, your fixed and variable costs, you might be expanding blind and losing cash. Exactly. And another essential lesson is about entering new markets.

When we broadened to Dallas, I expected new stores to do 5070% of Phoenix sales in the very first year. Too numerous operators presume brand-new markets will open at full volume the first day. That almost never ever takes place. And when the shops open slow, however you've signed leases and developed a financial model based upon higher volumes, you get overextended.