Dutch Bros CEO Christine Barone can do more than steer a $7.5 billion coffee chain—she can also hold her own behind the counter of one of its shops. Like every top executive at the beverage giant, she completed a two-week bootcamp to learn the ropes of being a “broista,” the company’s term for its drink-makers. And the chain’s workers, it turns out, were not shy about calling out her mistakes.

“As I trained, people knew I was the CEO, and our teams would always point out when I was doing something wrong,” Barone tells Fortune. “That is one of the magical signs of a great culture that I need to make sure I build upon, because when my team cares so much about the customer that they’re going to tell the CEO that they were doing something wrong, I love that.”

The executive’s beverage training is a core element of the company’s “growth from within” model. For years, Dutch Bros has put staffers through the course—from store owners to senior managers—so they understand the hard work behind the drinks churned out by the chain’s 25,000 broistas. During the training, leaders complete six shifts of hands-on shop work, sharpening their hospitality skills, perfecting drink orders, and learning to deliver on the brand’s values of speed, quality, and service.

The company says participants witness firsthand how customer connections are made and practice perfecting drinks, including the popular Golden Eagle coffee, so that everything tastes the same on Monday as it does on Wednesday. The program ends with a “Flow” test, with questions spanning drink recipes, company history, shop operations, and culture. The brand takes its standards seriously: those who do not pass must retake the test.

Barone says the broista bootcamp reflects the vision of Dutch Bros’ founders—brothers Travis Boersma and the late Dane Boersma, who named the company in honor of their grandparents, who immigrated from the Netherlands. Beyond the technical and hospitality expertise, she says the training nurtures “compelling futures” at the company and lights a path for employees to work their way up the chain of command.

“As we rolled it out to the more broader team across HQ, we were very thoughtful about making sure our marketing teams went through the training, especially the folks who are helping to design and make beverages,” the CEO explains. “Just thinking through: What are all those decisions we’re making that touch where the customer interaction is? And how do we ensure that everyone who is designing programs for our teams, or designing marketing programs, or designing new beverages, really understands what the shop environment feels like?”

How Dutch Bros has kept a strong culture as it grew into a $7.5 billion coffee giant

After Starbucks and Dunkin’ Donuts, Dutch Bros is the third-largest coffee chain in the United States by sales and number of locations—and a huge hit among Gen Z consumers. But before reaching the top of the caffeine mountain, the business was a humble roadside operation.

The Boersma brothers’ family dairy business was struggling, forcing them to sell their cows and consider a new venture. Their coffee business began in 1992 with a pushcart and 100 pounds of coffee beans, with the brothers slinging espresso by the railroad tracks of Grants Pass, Oregon. Friends, relatives, and loyal customers kept the dream alive as the business grew. In 1994, the pushcart was upgraded to a drive-thru stand, and just two years later they had expanded to six locations. The first Dutch Bros franchise opened for business in 2000.

The brand is known for its high-energy service and sugary drinks, which have since made their way into high school classrooms and office cubicles across the country. By 2018, the chain had grown to 300 locations and employed 9,000 staffers; that year, private equity firm TSG Consumer Partners acquired a minority stake in Dutch Bros to fuel further growth.

The years that followed brought major milestones, including going public, surpassing $1 billion in revenue, and expanding the store count. Dutch Bros reported record-breaking revenue of $1.64 billion in 2025, up 27.9% year over year. The brand now counts 37,000 systemwide employees and 1,273 locations across 27 U.S. states, and it aims to grow its footprint to 2,029 shops by 2029. Reaching that goal would mean opening more than 750 additional shops.

Preserving a homegrown culture is difficult as headcounts balloon, operations spread out, and outside investors enter the picture. One remedy may be putting leaders on the ground floor. Barone says Dutch Bros’ operators—the store or market leaders responsible for running location operations—start their careers on the coffee line before moving up and into new markets. As they advance into leadership and manage more locations, they understand front-line issues and are skilled at building tight community connections. That front-line background is, by the company’s own account, the credential for leading new markets—making the coffee-line-to-leadership path a central piece of the growth it has planned through 2029.

“They’ll manage a region, so they’ll have their own set of shops that they’re managing. So why is that important?” Barone says. “Understanding this is the business that we’re in, and so when you have lived it yourself, your ability to understand where others on your team are starting from, you understand what that customer service feels like. That is important.”

Barone adds that a “large number” of workers at headquarters began as broistas, enabling senior staffers to make decisions “through the right lenses.” That firsthand experience helps employees develop a sense of empathy that extends from the boardroom to the coffee counter—and serves them whether they stay at Dutch Bros or move on to something else.

“When we’re great at hospitality, the definition for me is almost the ability to think through how someone else will experience something, more so than ourselves,” Barone says. “It really is great to be able to be empathetic…I think it’s a great skill if folks come up with us, or if they go and choose to do something else.”

This story was originally published on Fortune.com.