Three Keys Coffee is bringing music and culture to the coffee scene in Houston!

Please tell me about both of your backgrounds!
Three Keys Coffee was founded in Houston, TX by Kenzel and Tio Fallen, married for 12 years and parents of 3 sons.

Tio Fallen (Co-Founder), originally from Atlanta, GA is a mechanical engineer with a BS in Mechanical Engineering from Florida Agriculture & Mechanical University (FAMU) and an MS in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor. The trumpet is a personal connection to the company’s origin story because Tio played the trumpet for over 15 years including for the renowned FAMU Marching 100. Kenzel Fallen (Co-Founder), originally from Cincinnati, OH is a corporate banking professional with experience in enterprise risk management and management consulting. Coffee became a passion for both Tio and Kenzel after traveling to coffee-producing regions and exploring the art of home-roasting.

What was your inspiration behind the business?
Three Keys takes its inspiration from the sounds and art of Jazz, and specifically derives its name from the keys of the trumpet—an instrument of simplicity that uses just three keys to produce notes across a creative and complex range of tonal outputs. The mission of Three Keys is to offer a multisensory experience of coffee, exploring the intersection of art, music, and ingenuity.

As a Black-owned Business in the coffee space, how has the experience been?
The specialty coffee industry has traditionally excluded Black individuals as owners, leaders, and influencers of the industry which is even more interesting when considering that coffee originated in Africa. So we are proud to offer an innovative view of how coffee can be consumed while celebrating music and art culture but also proud of our story of Black entrepreneurship and the impact we’ve been able to have by existing and contributing to our industry and community in a meaningful way. Since we launched, we have shipped our coffee to all 50 states plus internationally and received recognition and awards by multiple global review authorities. So the experience has definitely exceeded our wildest dreams!

What are some things you both wish you knew before going into business?
Starting a business is not for the faint of heart! We did not anticipate the sleepless nights and challenges to balance and juggle business, family, and other work obligations. So I’d say the biggest thing we wish we knew is that we cannot do it alone and we will need a strong supportive team if we want to pursue and realize growth.

What’s one of the major hurdles you have had to overcome?
The biggest hurdle was purchasing our manufacturing facility. We went through numerous obstacles with our city permitting office and the whole process took us 1.5 years. But we persevered because we are dedicated to making an impact and spreading our positive message and specialty coffee with the greater community. We also experienced many challenges with needing to scale up quickly. For example, in our first year of business we were on the shelves of 40+ Trader Joe’s locations which required us to significantly streamline our operations. But we are grateful for the hurdles because they each work to make us stronger and able to explore future opportunities and overcome challenges that may come our way.

What advice would you give to new Black business owners?
Unfortunately there is sometimes a stigma or implicit bias attached to Black-owned businesses, especially a misconception that we offer lower quality products or services. Food & Wine Magazine named us the 2022 Best Coffee Roaster in TX (not the best Black coffee roaster, just the “Best”). I would encourage new Black business owners to not think small and to know that you belong and have a right to be in your industry/business. The cliche that we have to work twice as hard to get half as far is very true in many spaces and so we have to relentlessly commit ourselves to quality and excellence in everything that we do. Lastly, be very diligent about researching and applying for grants. We have been fortunate to receive about 8 significant grants for our business that were game-changers and allowed us to invest in our company, our community, our products and our team.

As a family ran business how do you both balance everything?
It’s impossible to achieve perfect balance but we try to carve out blocks of time for family, for business, for our personal selves, and for each other. We don’t always get it right but we do agree that family always comes first for us. If we are not whole, we cannot pour anything into our business. But it doesn’t hurt that our business is a coffee business, because that means we have unlimited access to plenty of caffeine for fuel! 🙂