After building a career in enterprise risk management and rising to senior leadership in banking, Kenzel Fallen ’12 and her husband Tio turned a shared passion for specialty coffee into Three Keys Coffee — a roastery and cafe focused on sustainability, creativity and music. What started as a side project during COVID has since landed on the shelves of Trader Joe's and been named Food & Wine's “Best Coffee Roaster in Texas.”

As CEO of Three Keys Coffee, Kenzel is combining her Rice MBA training with her risk management mindset to navigate the daily challenges of owning a rapidly growing business. On this episode, she joins co-host Brian Jackson ’21 to chat about the inception of Three Keys Coffee, why entrepreneurship was a surprising path for her, and how Rice Business provided the right launchpad.

Episode Guide:

00:00 Meet Kenzel Fallen

01:02 How Love Brought Her to Rice Business

05:27 From Risk to Coffee Entrepreneurship

09:13 Shopping Your Values

12:00 Working as a Couple

14:59 COVID Launch and Growth

18:08 Sourcing and Supply Chain

21:35 Jazz Brand Inspiration

25:03 Awards and Recognition

30:41 Coffee Impact and Purpose

35:04 What's Next for Three Keys

37:31 Distinguished Alumni Honor

39:10 Advice for Aspiring Founders

The Owl Have You Know Podcast is a production of Rice Business and is produced by University FM.

Episode Quotes:

Your network is your education

04:36: Sometimes when people hear that, you know, your network is your net worth, it's almost more of a sense of, someone can just get you an introduction, or they can get you in a room. And it's not so much about having adjacency to people. I think that's more, that's like social climbing, right? But when you network, I see that as sharing. I see that as exchanging information and insights. And so, for me, when I think of that phrase, like "network is your net worth," I look at that as enhancing your education, enhancing your perspective, enhancing how deeply you understand the world and society that we live and work in. And sometimes you do have to rely on a lot of different experiences and perspectives. And for me, that's how that network expands.

Bringing the cafe experience at home

22:50: Jazz was actually one of the genres that helped with the advent of, you know, vinyl albums. You know, people wanted to be able to take that live music experience but be able to enjoy it and celebrate it at home. Prior to some of the early jazz recordings, there really was just, like, classical music that had actually been put on vinyl. And so jazz allowed people to bring home that concert and that live band experience, and that's the same thing that we kind of wanted to do with coffee. It's like, "Hey, you don't have to go to a shop. You get the right beans. You understand how to make them. You can have that cafe experience at home." And so kind of drawing that parallel as well in the way that we wanted to create coffee and share coffee with people.

The email that changed everything

25:25: I remember getting an email that was like, "Hey, we're thinking about doing, you know, highlighting different coffee shops. Can you send us some pictures of your shop?" And it was from Food & Wine, but I'm just thinking, "Oh, they're just going to highlight a bunch of folks." I had no clue. I truly had no clue until the announcement was made that we were named. They had us on the list as the best in Texas. We were just, I mean, mind-blown.

Show Links: 

• Three Keys Coffee
• Transcript

Guest Profile:

• Kenzel Fallen | Rice Business
• Kenzel Fallen | LinkedIn