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Thank you. And we also have Clinton Anderson, the CEO of Fourth, who will be moderating the conversation with Jason. So Jason, how about I let you give the audience some details about your background and you can likewise inform 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 bought 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 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 corporate financing.

I was the first employee there after personal equity bought 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 duplicate the success we had at Zos, and we're off to a truly excellent 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 key to the program is we have a beverage part as well with fresh-squeezed juices and protein shakes. We do all stables, we do breakfast throughout the day.

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A little more complicated than some of the walk-the-line ideas that are out there, but we think we've got something quite special. We're going to add another shop this year and at least 4 stores next year. We will be 31 or so stores 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 understand, is a leading service provider of software application solutions to the dining establishment and hospitality industry. Our objective is to help our customers be effective in driving success and being efficientmanaging labor, managing inventory, and basically offering them with tools they need to provide their vision.

It's uncommon to have companies that are beloved and growing quickly, that can duplicate that success year after year. Jason, among the reasons I was so excited to have you join our session is the success at Zos was fantastic. I have actually 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 speak to customers about Chop Store, they love the place. They discuss its differentiation. And to be able to take what is a relatively complex idea in regards to delivering a terrific experience for the client, 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 discuss how to scale a restaurant service. Every restaurateur I ever talk to has imagine taking one store, two shops, 5 stores, and turning it into something much biggerexpanding throughout the city, throughout the state, into multiple states, and eventually nationwide, even international reach. But it's not easy, specifically 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 successful? Second, beyond technology, how do you scale excellent teams?

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The very first concern I have for you, Jasonlook, you've done this two times 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 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 service. To me, among the essential things, and I feel very fortunate, is that both brands I have actually been involved with are special.

And there's nothing precisely like Chop Store in regards to what we're doing with a big, diverse menu. A lot of brand names today are really singularly focused in terms of what they're providing from a food item. I seem like we started at an advantage with both brand names by having something special that filled a niche no one else was doing.

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

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The 2nd thingI originated from a finance background, so a lot of my learnings are more financing and data-driven versus a great deal of early start-up restaurateurs who are imaginative types. They enjoy the food, they constructed the menu, they developed the brand. I probably couldn't do that from scratch. If you provided me something that has all those parts in place, I can take it from there and put the playbook in location.

They don't understand their breakeven sales. They do not comprehend how margin enhances as sales increase. I've seen so many companies where the numbers just do not work.

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If you do not have those two things, you shouldn't be building shops. Yeah, perhaps both, right? Because as I hear your description, you have actually highlighted three things: execution, brand differentiation, and financial viability. You have actually got to begin with execution. If you don't have an operating design that works, expanding it simply increases issues.

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Second, you require an engaging brand or unique idea that resonates with consumers. And another crucial lesson is about going into new markets.

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