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Think Coffee

Coffee · 11+ locations · New York City

Think Coffee looks like a classic indie NYC coffee chain, and it is: founder Jason Scherr has personally run and financed all 11 cafés since 2006, with no outside investors. An NLRB charge alleging retaliation, filed April 2025, is still open.

Founder-run

The Big Picture

Solid Record

Think Coffee is a genuinely founder-run business: Jason Scherr has owned and operated all 11 NYC cafés since 2006 without ever taking outside investment. The record isn't spotless — an NLRB charge alleging retaliation tied to an employee's organizing activity, filed in April 2025, remains open and unresolved. Scherr, not a board of outside investors, is who answers for how the company runs.

Let's Get Critical

Local ownership
8/10
Founder involvement
9/10
Worker pay & benefits
5/10
Environmental impact
6/10
Sourcing & labor
6/10

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Company data last updated July 2026

How does one person build and research all this? They don't: here's how it actually works. Verdicts are our opinions, based on the public sources cited above as of July 2026. Spotted something off? or learn more.