Coffee Project NY is a married couple's coffee company: bootstrapped from one East Village café in 2015 into seven cafés and an SCA-certified training academy, funded along the way by reinvested profits, friends-and-family money, and customer contributions rather than any institutional investor. Baristas start above $18 an hour before tips, well over New York City's $17 food-service minimum, with paid sick leave, health benefits, and a training scholarship after a year on staff, though its sourcing and environmental claims remain self-reported without third-party certification. Ngai and Teoh remain the company's day-to-day operators and public face, answerable to their own customers and staff rather than outside shareholders.