Dutch Bros

Dutch Bros was founded in 1992 by brothers Dane and Travis Boersma, who opened a 10-by-20 foot coffee stand in Grants Pass, Oregon with a $10,000 loan from their parents. They sold just coffee and tea at first, plus a small selection of baked goods, and focused on fast, friendly service for the town’s construction crews, high school students, and shift workers who stopped by before early morning shifts. Their signature policy of handing out free drinks to customers who waited longer than three minutes set them apart from other local coffee shops almost immediately.

By the early 2000s, the brothers had opened 10 locations across southern Oregon, but their 2004 expansion into Northern California stumbled. The first three Northern California stores lost money for 18 straight months, and the brothers realized their franchise-like model where store managers had almost total control over operations was leading to inconsistent customer experiences and wasted inventory. They spent two years rebuilding their training program, creating a standardized drink menu, and implementing a centralized supply chain, even scrapping their original plan to sell food at most...