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And we also have Clinton Anderson, the CEO of Fourth, 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 Store.

Thanks Christina. My name is Jason Morgan, CEO of Original Chop Store. I've been doing this for about 9 years now. We purchased the brand in 2016three unitsand I've grown it to 26. Prior to this, I have actually invested the majority of my profession in hospitality in some shape or kind. After a quick stint of trying to be an accounting professional for about a year and a half, I transitioned into casino residential or commercial property and operated in corporate financing.

I was the very first employee there after private equity bought the business. Assisted grow that from 20 to 150 areas, 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 reproduce 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 mainly protein bowlsabout 40 percent of the mix. We also 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 believe we've got something pretty unique. We're going to add another shop this year and at least four shops next year. So we will be 31 or so stores by the end of next year.

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I've been in this function for about six years. 4th, as many of you understand, is a leading provider of software services to the restaurant and hospitality industry. Our goal is to help our customers be successful in driving success and being efficientmanaging labor, handling stock, and essentially offering them with tools they need to provide their vision.

It's rare to have companies that are cherished 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 amazing. I have actually just met a handful of brands where there was such a strong consumer affinity for the brand name.

And now you're doing the very same thing at Chop Shop. When you talk with clients about Chop Shop, they love the location. They speak about its distinction. And to be able to take what is a fairly complicated concept in regards to providing a fantastic experience for the customer, and have the ability to grow that from a few stores to now north of 30 stores next yearit's remarkable.

We're going to speak about how to scale a dining establishment organization. Every restaurateur I ever talk with has dreams of taking one store, 2 stores, five stores, and turning it into something much biggerexpanding throughout the city, throughout the state, into several states, and eventually nationwide, even global reach. However it's challenging, especially in today's environment.

Labor is difficult. Stock costs remain high. It's not a simple time to drive profitability and growth at the exact same time. However we're glad to have you here today, Jason, because we're going to go into that topic. The questions are going to be really around: how do you grow a company? How do you scale it and make it effective? How do you reproduce early success? And from there, after we discuss your experience and the lessons you've learned, we 'd enjoy to then say: well, appearance, how could technology assist? How can you use innovation as a multiplier to duplicate early success to significant success? Second, beyond technology, how do you scale excellent teams? And last but not least, AI.

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

We talked a bit before we started about LinkedIn, and I have actually got a post teed as much as follow this next week about what the playbook is likepoint by pointfor growing a company. To me, among the essential things, and I feel extremely fortunate, is that both brands I've been involved with are distinct.

And there's nothing precisely like Chop Shop in regards to what we're doing with a large, varied menu. A lot of brands today are really singularly focused in terms of what they're providing from a food. I seem like we began at a benefit with both brand names by having something distinct that filled a niche nobody else was doing.

Since it's simply harder to stick out when there are 10, 20, 50 principles within a two- or three-mile radius attempting to do the exact very same thing. A lot of it begins with the brand. Does your brand name have something distinct that no one else is doing? That's uncommon.

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

They don't understand their breakeven sales. They don't understand how margin improves as sales boost. They don't understand cash-on-cash returns. I have actually seen a lot of companies where the numbers simply don't work. And yet people state: let's open 10 more. And I'll state: why? It does not generate income. Stop. You need to find a concept that is special.

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If you do not have those 2 things, you should not be developing stores. Because as I hear your description, you have actually highlighted 3 things: execution, brand name differentiation, and financial viability.

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Second, you need an engaging brand name or special idea that resonates with consumers. And third, the math has to work. If you do not understand your system economics, your fixed and variable expenses, you might be expanding blind and losing cash. Exactly. And another essential lesson has to do with entering new markets.

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