The "Complexity Killers" Masterclass

Darren Spicer is a QSR growth strategist and restaurant culture consultant best known as the Founder and CEO of Clutch Coffee Bar. He launched the drive-thru brand in 2018 after prior experience at Dutch Bros, scaling it to 20 locations (and achieving 38% year-over-year growth in a franchise-dominated industry) before coming full circle and leading the company through acquisition by Dutch Bros in 2026. Clutch became recognized for its elite customer experience, best-in-class beverages, exceptional 84% loyalty rate, and community-driven marketing model. Today, Darren runs 110 ventures and advises emerging and established brands on founder-led scaling, building high-performance teams and culture, brand building & product innovation , growth marketing & optimization, customer loyalty, operational excellence while rapidly scaling, and scaling towards successful exits. A passionate advocate for building people-first organizations, he serves on the advisory board at the University of Oregon and mentors student-athletes. Darren is also the founder of TimeBack Talent Staffing Agency, BDE Energy, and Cowboy MUD BBQ Rub.

Joe Barbano brings a decade of experience with ERP and financial visibility applications for franchises, multi-entity brands, and retail/restaurant specific solutions. Since 2024, Joe has been the Sr. Vice President of Sales at Qvinci, a franchise operational and financial performance solution. Before that, Joe sold his ERP company to Sage Intacct, where he led sales for retail and restaurants for a number of years. Joe's passion is to help franchise and multi-entity brands improve their unit-level performance metrics with a particular eye on creating brand-wide efficiencies that create the foundations for growth.