This CFO’s scrappy coffee chain just went public

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With around 18,300 stores in the US and Canada, Starbucks is still the green giant of coffeehouses. But it’s faltered in recent years, and upstart, drive-thru-centered coffee chains like Dutch Bros, Scooter’s, and 7 Brew have gained market share.

Black Rock Coffee Bar, which went public this September, wants to join their number—and there are lessons to be learned from how it’s positioned to capitalize on shifts in the to-go coffee market. Its CFO, Rodd Booth, spoke with us about Black Rock’s IPO, gave advice for other companies thinking of going public, and shared where he sees the coffee shop market heading.

Preparation is key to a successful IPO: Black Rock Coffee was founded in Oregon in 2008. It had 158 locations in seven states at the time of its IPO, when it raised $294 million. Shortly after its public debut, it was valued at $1.27 billion.

The company has set a goal of 20% annual growth, which would give it 1,000 stores by 2035. The plan’s an ambitious one: Black Rock has only added 108 stores over the past five years. But its expansion plans over the next two years are well underway. It’s leased 70% of its planned 2026 stores, and is in negotiations for most of its 2027 openings, QSR reported, and it plans to add a third coffee roastery, in Austin, Texas.

Founders Daniel Brand and Jeff Hernandez “always had a dream of taking their company public,” according to Booth, who was Black Rock’s CPA at top 70 firm Aldrich Advisors before joining the company as CFO. The company knew it was ready to begin preparing for an IPO “once we proved our model could scale nationally, and we had the ability to consistently, predictably, and with confidence deliver on our strategic plan and meet all of our commitments,” he said.

His advice for companies contemplating IPOs is to “prepare early, prepare often, and get way out in front of where you think you want to be,”as the process involves so much time, energy, and commitment, and can be disruptive to day-to-day business if you’re not ready for it. Black Rock, he said, tried to operate as if it were a public company “long before” it became one.

The IPO process was an opportunity for Black Rock to “reset and strengthen [its] balance sheet, Booth said, and “committing to the process really made us stronger and more accountable as a team.”

Drive-thru may be the future of coffee: Black Rock could be poised to take advantage of emerging trends in the US coffee shop market, where the landscape has shifted in recent years. Starbucks may be losing just a little of its dominance: The chain saw sales slump in 2024 as promotions and complicated drink orders slowed baristas down, stores were understaffed, and customers complained about long waits. The company ousted CEO Laxman Narasimhan after just 17 months on the job. Its new CEO, Brian Niccol, launched a turnaround plan called “Back to Starbucks,” which aims to return the chain to its roots as a “third place,” neither home nor work, where customers can linger over lattes.

But the turnaround hasn’t yet paid off. In Q2 2025, its net earnings were down almost 50% year over year. Sales have been declining for six straight quarters.

And consumers may not be as interested in the “third place” any more. The National Coffee Association reported this spring that US cafe foot traffic was down 22% since before the pandemic. “‘Back to Starbucks’ feels more nostalgic than forward-looking,” analyst Saswat Sidhant Prusty told Coffee Intelligence.

Drive-thru-only coffee chains like Black Rock are catering to customers’ desire for speedy service. Though Starbucks and Dunkin’ are still the behemoths, owning around 85% of the US away-from-home coffee market, the drive-thru upstarts are gaining ground. Dutch Bros, the third-largest chain in the US by number of locations, went public in 2021 and aims to have 2,029 stores by 2029. The fifth- and sixth-largest US coffee chains, Scooter’s and 7 Brew, are drive-thru only.

What’s brewing at Black Rock: Black Rock might be able to capitalize on this and other consumer shifts. Though it’s smaller than Dutch Bros, Scooters, and 7 Brew, all its stores are drive-thru and it stresses speed of service.

“Convenience has only become more of a priority for many of our guests,” Booth said, adding, “If you want to get your drive-thru coffee on your way to work, you want it timely.” Staff at Black Rock aim to get drinks in customers’ hands within 90 seconds. (At Starbucks, Niccol’s goal is to have drinks served in a comparatively stodgy four minutes.)

And it’s hedging its bets in case customers do want to return to the “third space,” equipping around 75% of its stores with seating areas it calls “lobbies.” “The business is anchored on the drive-thru,” Booth said. “But the lobbies are differentiated in the sense that it gives guests options.” The company has found that some customers “want the option to come in, to sit down, to meet folks.”

Like Dutch Bros, Black Rock has a Gen Z-friendly menu, replete with energy drinks and iced options. In fact, energy drinks are its #2 seller, after coffee-based beverages.

Plus, it seems well-positioned to avoid the missteps that plagued Starbucks in recent years. Service, Booth said, could be the chain’s differentiator.

“Service is something that oftentimes people don’t really realize they want or need until they don’t have it,” he said. When customers have a positive experience at a store, it “really reinforces the brand,” he said. To that end, Black Rock focuses on its store operators, training them on people management. It keeps operators in mind when “implementing new food items or drink recipes” to ensure they’re practical and easy to execute.

Room to grow: Questions remain about how saturated the coffee shop market is in the US. Is there still room for expansion, or will the chains start competing for market share? Booth, a coffee lover who sipped java throughout his interview, believes there’s still room for more cafes to sprout.

“Coffee is something that people do every day, and I think if anything, the market is only growing,” Booth said. Analysts suggest that the US could support some 20,000 more coffee shops in the next decade, QSR reported.

What would Booth be ordering at those cafes, in case you’re wondering? An americano, he said. “I am very basic, as you would imagine someone in finance to be,” he quipped.