---
title: "From Dutch Bros Barista to $20M Exit | Darren Spicer (Clutch Coffee Founder)"
url: https://burnaze.com/article/b2e65bfd-6ac9-4707-926b-8633a2cd794f
source: "Empires Weekly"
original_url: https://empirespod.substack.com/p/from-dutch-bros-barista-to-20m-exit-020
author: "Patrick Buckley"
category: "Coffee & tea"
industry: "Restaurants"
segment: "Coffee & tea"
published: 2026-02-27T13:00:00.000Z
modified: 2026-10-31T13:17:46.741Z
image: https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!MU18!,w_1200,h_600,c_fill,f_jpg,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep,g_auto/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fcc5ea8cf-e183-491d-bff5-a9e5cfd26ff4_1920x1080.png
---

# From Dutch Bros Barista to $20M Exit | Darren Spicer (Clutch Coffee Founder)

**TL;DR:** Darren Spicer, founder of Clutch Coffee, scaled his drive-thru coffee chain to 20 locations before selling it to Dutch Bros in a $20 million deal. Spicer started his career as a barista at Dutch Bros and later built Clutch Coffee from scratch.

*By Patrick Buckley, originally published in Empires Weekly on 2026-02-27. [Read the original](https://empirespod.substack.com/p/from-dutch-bros-barista-to-20m-exit-020).*

## Story

Interested in buying a franchise?

Are you a multi-unit owner considering selling your business?

Get in touch with Darren:

Darren Spicer started as a barista at Dutch Bros.

Years later, after the company shut down its franchise program, he built his own drive-thru coffee chain from scratch, scaling it to 20 locations before selling it back to Dutch Bros in a $20M deal.

In this episode, Darren breaks down:

- How he went from employee to founder

- The 80% pay cut he took to start Clutch Coffee
- The real economics of drive-thru coffee
- What it’s like managing 400+ hourly employees
- Why site selection can make or break a chain
- Growing 40% during COVID
- The mistake that cost them $10K per month
- And how the Dutch Bros acquisition actually came together

This is a full-cycle brick-and-mortar story, from barista to exit.

If you’re building (or thinking about building) a physical retail or franchise business, this episode is a masterclass in culture, real estate, and scaling the right way.

## Entities

- QSR (sector)
- Dutch Bros (company)
- drive-thru coffee (topic)
- Empires Weekly (publication)
- Patrick Buckley (person)
- business scaling (topic)
- Clutch Coffee (company)
- founder story (topic)
- Darren Spicer (person)
- Dutch Bros acquisition of Clutch Coffee (deal)
- franchise exit (topic)
- Darren Spicer acquisition of Clutch Coffee (deal)

---
Originally reported by Patrick Buckley, Empires Weekly (https://empirespod.substack.com/p/from-dutch-bros-barista-to-20m-exit-020). Summarized by Burnaze (https://burnaze.com/article/b2e65bfd-6ac9-4707-926b-8633a2cd794f).