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Thank you. And we also have Clinton Anderson, the CEO of 4th, who will be moderating the discussion with Jason. So Jason, how about I let you provide the audience some info about your background and you can likewise tell them a bit about Chop Store. 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 bought the brand name in 2016three unitsand I have actually grown it to 26. Prior to this, I've invested most of my profession in hospitality in some shape or kind. After a quick stint of trying to be an accountant for about a year and a half, I transitioned into casino property and operated in business financing.

I was the very first staff member there after personal equity bought the company. Assisted grow that from 20 to 150 places, 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 really good start.

We're at the counter, we bring the food to the table. The secret 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 complex than a few of the walk-the-line concepts that are out there, however we think we've got something quite unique. We're going to include another shop this year and at least four stores next year. We will be 31 or so stores by the end of next year.

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Hey, everybody. It's great to be with you once again. My name is Clinton Anderson. I'm the CEO here at 4th. I have actually remained in this role for about 6 years. Fourth, as a number of you know, is a leading supplier of software solutions to the dining establishment and hospitality market. Our objective is to assist our consumers be successful in driving profitability and being efficientmanaging labor, managing stock, and generally providing them with tools they require to deliver their vision.

It's rare to have companies that are precious 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 amazing. I've just satisfied a handful of brands where there was such a strong customer affinity for the brand name.

And now you're doing the same thing at Chop Store. When you speak to clients about Chop Store, they love the place. They speak about its differentiation. And to be able to take what is a relatively complicated concept in terms of providing an excellent experience for the consumer, and have the ability to grow that from a few shops to now north of 30 stores next yearit's incredible.

We're going to talk about how to scale a restaurant organization. Every restaurateur I ever talk to has imagine taking one shop, two stores, 5 shops, and turning it into something much biggerexpanding throughout the city, across the state, into multiple states, and ultimately nationwide, even worldwide reach. It's not simple, particularly in today's environment.

Labor is hard. Stock costs remain high. It's not a simple time to drive success and growth at the same time. However we're happy to have you here today, Jason, because we're going to go into that subject. The questions are going to be truly around: how do you grow a service? How do you scale it and make it successful? How do you duplicate early success? And from there, after we speak about your experience and the lessons you've found out, we 'd enjoy to then say: well, appearance, how could technology help? How can you utilize innovation as a multiplier to duplicate early success to far-reaching success? Second, beyond innovation, how do you scale great groups? And last but not least, AI.

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The first question I have for you, Jasonlook, you've done this twice now in the dining establishment industry. What has your experience been in terms of what it takes to really drive success in expanding dining establishments?

We talked a little bit before we started about LinkedIn, and I've got a post teed as much as follow this next week about what the playbook is likepoint by pointfor growing a service. To me, one of the crucial things, and I feel really lucky, is that both brands I have actually been included with are special.

And there's absolutely nothing precisely like Chop Store in terms of what we're finishing with a large, diverse menu. Many brands today are really singularly focused in regards to what they're using from a food. I seem like we started at a benefit with both brand names by having something special that filled a niche nobody else was doing.

A lot of it starts with the brand. Does your brand have something distinct that no one else is doing?

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The second thingI originated from a finance background, so a lot of my learnings are more finance and data-driven versus a great deal of early startup restaurateurs who are creative types. They like the food, they constructed the menu, they constructed the brand. I probably couldn't do that from scratch. If you gave me something that has all those elements in location, I can take it from there and put the playbook in place.

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

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If you don't have those two things, you should not be constructing shops. Yeah, perhaps both? Since as I hear your description, you have actually highlighted 3 things: execution, brand name distinction, and financial practicality. You have actually got to start with execution. If you do not have an operating model that works, broadening it simply increases issues.

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Second, you need an engaging brand or unique principle that resonates with consumers. And 3rd, the math needs to work. If you don't understand your unit economics, your repaired and variable expenses, you may be broadening blind and losing cash. Precisely. And another key lesson has to do with entering brand-new markets.

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