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Thank you. And we also 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 purchased 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 casino home and worked in business finance.

I was the very first worker there after personal equity purchased the company. Helped 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 replicate the success we had at Zos, and we're off to an actually excellent start.

We're at the counter, we bring the food to the table. The key to the program is we have a beverage part as well with fresh-squeezed juices and protein shakes.

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A little more complex than some of the walk-the-line principles that are out there, but we believe we've got something pretty special. We're going to add another shop this year and at least four shops next year. So we will be 31 approximately shops by the end of next year.

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I've been in this role for about 6 years. 4th, as many of you know, is a leading supplier of software application solutions to the dining establishment and hospitality industry. Our goal is to help our clients be successful in driving profitability and being efficientmanaging labor, managing inventory, and generally offering them with tools they need to deliver their vision.

It's unusual to have business that are cherished and growing quickly, that can duplicate that success every year. Jason, one of the factors I was so thrilled to have you join our session is the success at Zos was remarkable. I have actually just fulfilled a handful of brand names where there was such a strong customer affinity for the brand name.

When you talk to consumers about Chop Shop, they love the place. And to be able to take what is a reasonably complex principle in terms of providing a great experience for the client, and be able to grow that from a few shops to now north of 30 stores next yearit's fantastic.

We're going to speak about how to scale a dining establishment organization. Every restaurateur I ever speak to has dreams of taking one store, 2 shops, five shops, and turning it into something much biggerexpanding across the city, across the state, into numerous states, and ultimately national, even worldwide reach. However it's not simple, particularly in today's environment.

Labor is tough. Stock expenses remain high. It's not a simple time to drive profitability and development at the very same time. But we're grateful to have you here today, Jason, because we're going to go into that topic. The concerns are going to be really around: how do you grow a service? 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 found out, we 'd love to then say: well, look, how could technology help? How can you use technology as a multiplier to replicate early success to significant success? Second, beyond technology, how do you scale terrific groups? And lastly, AI.

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The first concern I have for you, Jasonlook, you have actually 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 broadening dining establishments?

We talked a bit before we began 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, one of the essential things, and I feel very lucky, is that both brand names I have actually been included with are unique.

And there's nothing exactly like Chop Shop in regards to what we're making with a large, varied menu. Many brands today are extremely singularly focused in terms of what they're offering from a foodstuff. I seem like we started at an advantage with both brands by having something special that filled a niche nobody else was doing.

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

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

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

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If you do not have those two things, you shouldn't be building shops. Due to the fact that as I hear your description, you've highlighted three things: execution, brand name differentiation, and monetary practicality.

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Second, you need a compelling brand or unique idea that resonates with customers. And third, the mathematics has to work. If you do not comprehend your unit economics, your fixed and variable costs, you may be broadening blind and losing cash. Precisely. And another crucial lesson has to do with going into new markets.

When we expanded to Dallas, I expected 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 the first day. That nearly never ever occurs. And when the stores open slow, but you've signed leases and constructed a financial model based upon higher volumes, you get overextended.