Sightglass Coffee stared in 2009 in San Francisco by brothers Jerad and Justin Morrison. In that time, the coffee shop and roastery grew to three Bay Area locations and another in Los Angeles. In 2018, the Morrisons accepted outside funding from GingerBread Capital, a venture capital firm that “[invests] in women leading high-growth-potential businesses,” per their website. Now, the Morrison brothers are out at Sightglass, with the board appointing a new CEO, former Starbucks corporate exec Sharon Healy.
GingerBread is not the first outside investor in Sightglass. The brand somewhat famously counted Twitter cofounder Jack Dorsey as one of its initial investors. Fast forward 15 years and Sightglass has received multiple rounds of funding from GingerBread for undisclosed amounts and have become part of an investment portfolio with a board to make business decisions. Most recently, that business decision has been to seek outside leadership with “the Morrison brothers [steeping] down from the business to pursue other endeavors,” per the press release.
For that, the board tapped Sharon Healy. Healy has spent over 30 years on the retail and sales side of the food and beverage industry, with 10 of them at Starbucks, where she was a National Account Executive, overseeing relationships with large scale licensees like retailers Safeway and Kroger as well as Sodexo, the largest food service management company in North America. Now, she is at the helm of the San Francisco coffee brand with close to 100 employees.
“Sightglass is a special brand adored by those who cherish super-premium coffee. I’m excited for the opportunity to introduce our brand to a wider audience and guide it toward its full potential,” Healy states in the press release.
The hiring of Healy appears to be a move to bring Sightglass into more major retail chains nationwide. “With her track record for creating new revenue streams and growing market share with major retailers in the food and beverage industry, Sharon is the right executive at the right time to lead Sightglass into its next phase of growth,” states Linnea Roberts, GingerBread Capital’s found and CEO and a member of the Sightglass board.
For more information, visit Sightglass Coffee’s LinkdIn page.
Zac Cadwalader is the managing editor at Sprudge Media Network and a staff writer based in Dallas. Read more Zac Cadwalader on Sprudge.
