Bougie SF Coffee Chain Bids Founders Farewell as Starbucks Vet Takes Over

Sightglass, a San Francisco coffee roaster, has announced that its founders, Justin and Jerad Morrison, have stepped down from the business after raising millions in venture capital funding. The company, which was founded in 2009 as a coffee cart in SoMa, has expanded to three locations in San Francisco and a full restaurant in Los Angeles. The company raised funding from Twitter, Square cofounder Jack Dorsey, and multiple rounds from VC firm GingerBread Capital.

Sightglass is among the ranks of other local caffeine peddlers to raise substantial funding over the last decade. Philz, Blue Bottle, and CafeX have all received millions from VC firms. Outside the Bay Area, Blank Street Coffee in Brooklyn has raised $100 million, including from tech-centric VC funds General Catalyst and Tiger Global.

However, the funding frenzy has also caused friction, with Bulletproof and Sudden Coffee facing lawsuits and shutting down, respectively. Expanded distribution has given rise to charges of diluted quality from coffee snobs, with complaints on Reddit about declining coffee quality, increasing prices, and the sins of the company’s corporate behemoth owner. Philz has been accused of selling out and losing its original charm.

Healy’s long experience working for the most corporate chain of them all is sure to arouse suspicions among artisanal coffee purists. As one Reddit user put it, “There’s so much great coffee here that drinking Philz and Starbucks should be a crime.”

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