Profitable Hospitality Investments Arising in 2026

Thank you. And we likewise have Clinton Anderson, the CEO of Fourth, who will be moderating the discussion with Jason. Jason, how about I let you give the audience some details about your background and you can likewise tell them a little bit about Chop Store. And after that I'll let you take it from there, Clinton.

My name is Jason Morgan, CEO of Original Chop Shop. We purchased the brand name in 2016three unitsand I've grown it to 26. After a short stint of attempting to be an accounting professional for about a year and a half, I transitioned into casino home and worked in business finance.

I was the very first staff member there after personal equity purchased business. Assisted grow that from 20 to 150 locations, took it public in 2014, and after that 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 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 also do salads, sandwiches. The secret to the program is we have a beverage part also 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 principles 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. So we will be 31 or so shops by the end of next year.

Profitable Hospitality Ventures Arising in 2026

I've been in this function for about 6 years. Fourth, as many of you know, is a leading provider of software options to the dining establishment and hospitality industry. Our goal is to assist our customers be effective in driving profitability and being efficientmanaging labor, handling inventory, and basically supplying them with tools they require to provide their vision.

It's rare to have companies that are precious and growing rapidly, that can duplicate that success year after year. Jason, among the reasons I was so thrilled to have you join our session is the success at Zos was incredible. I've just satisfied a handful of brand names where there was such a strong customer affinity for the brand.

When you talk to customers about Chop Store, they enjoy the place. And to be able to take what is a fairly complex concept in terms of providing a fantastic experience for the customer, and be able to grow that from a couple of shops to now north of 30 stores next yearit's amazing.

We're going to discuss how to scale a restaurant organization. Every restaurateur I ever speak to has imagine taking one store, two shops, five shops, and turning it into something much biggerexpanding throughout the city, across the state, into numerous states, and eventually national, even global reach. It's not simple, particularly in today's environment.

It's not a simple time to drive success and growth at the same time. How do you scale it and make it successful? Second, beyond innovation, how do you scale fantastic teams?

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The very first concern I have for you, Jasonlook, you have actually done this two times now in the restaurant industry. What are a few of the lessons you've discovered? What has your experience remained in terms of what it requires to actually drive success in expanding restaurants? Tell me a little about your course, what you experienced along the method, and maybe a few of the harder lessons you found out.

We talked a bit before we started about LinkedIn, and I've got a post teed up to 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 very lucky, is that both brand names I have actually been included with are special.

And there's nothing exactly like Chop Shop in terms of what we're doing with a big, varied menu. The majority of brand names today are really singularly focused in terms of what they're providing from a food. I feel like we started at an advantage with both brands by having something distinct that filled a niche nobody else was doing.

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

National Milestones in Brand Scaling

The second thingI came from a finance background, so a great deal of my learnings are more finance and data-driven versus a great deal of early startup restaurateurs who are imaginative types. They like the food, they built the menu, they developed the brand. I probably could not do that from scratch. If you offered me something that has all those components in place, I can take it from there and put the playbook in location.

They don't know their breakeven sales. They don't comprehend how margin improves as sales increase. They don't understand cash-on-cash returns. I have actually seen so lots of companies where the numbers simply do not work. And yet individuals state: let's open 10 more. And I'll say: why? It does not make money. Stop. You require to find a principle that is unique.

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If you do not have those two things, you should not be constructing stores. Because as I hear your description, you've highlighted 3 things: execution, brand distinction, and financial viability.

Comparing Investment Models Against Market Data

Second, you require an engaging brand or unique idea that resonates with customers. And third, the mathematics needs to work. If you don't understand your unit economics, your repaired and variable costs, you may be broadening blind and losing cash. Exactly. And another key lesson is about going into brand-new markets.

When we expanded to Dallas, I anticipated new stores to do 5070% of Phoenix sales in the very first year. Too many operators presume brand-new markets will open at full volume day one. That practically never takes place. And when the stores open sluggish, however you've signed leases and developed a financial design based on higher volumes, you get overextended.