Couplepreneurs · Tampa Bay
Love, coffee & the courage to build together
Sarah and Raphael Perrier brought different strengths to Kahwa Coffee. Their Tampa Bay story offers a thoughtful starting point for couples building a business of their own.
· Heart & Hustle
A coffee shop is a pretty good place to start a story. In Philadelphia, a young barista named Raphael Perrier met Sarah. Years later, the two would build a life together and bring their shared ambition to St. Petersburg, Florida.
You may know the business that grew from that partnership: Kahwa Coffee. Behind the familiar cup is a husband-and-wife founding team with different skills, a shared idea, and the patience to work on the blend.
For couples building a company together, that last part feels especially familiar. You can love the same dream and still bring very different ways of getting there.
Different strengths, a shared direction
According to Kahwa’s published history, Raphael developed his experience in wholesale coffee sales and roasting. Sarah became the company manager of a dance troupe and developed her business management skills. The couple moved to St. Pete in 2005 and brought those experiences together.
Kahwa opened in 2006. The founders spent months developing their blends, and their first retail café opened in downtown St. Pete in 2008.
There is a useful lesson in that beginning: a shared vision becomes more practical when each person has something distinct to contribute. One partner’s skill gives the other’s room to work.
For your business, try naming those contributions out loud. Who sees the possibilities? Who turns them into a plan? Who notices when the team needs support? You may share some answers. The conversation can still reveal where a decision needs a clear owner.
The blend takes work
The months spent developing Kahwa’s coffee are a small detail with a big business lesson. A good idea needs room for practice, adjustment, and another try.
That is the Hustle ingredient: giving your intentions a repeatable way to become real. In your company, it might mean a clear handoff, a simple weekly planning meeting, or a process your team can follow without calling you every time.
Pick one part of the week that keeps getting tangled. Write down how it should work, who owns it, and how you will know it worked. Keep the first version simple enough to use tomorrow.
People belong in the recipe
Kahwa describes community as central to its business and shares its support for nonprofit organizations through time and products. That gives the story another ingredient: Soul.
Every business has people who make it possible: employees, customers, neighbors, and the person who listens when your day goes sideways. Making room for them belongs in the way you run the business.
A practical place to begin is a conversation with your team. Ask what makes their work easier, what keeps getting in the way, and what one change would help this month. Then choose something you can follow through on.
Leave room for the life you share
In a 2024 conversation covered by WUSF’s The Zest, Sarah and Raphael discussed their journey from meeting in a café to leading a family and a growing coffee business together.
For fellow couplepreneurs, that is an invitation to consider Home: the life your business is meant to support. A shared company can fill every available conversation if you let it.
Choose a small boundary you both want to keep. A dinner without business talk. A walk after a hard day. A regular check-in where you ask how each other is doing before you open the task list. Make it specific, and put it on the calendar together.
What is in your blend?
Heart gives your company direction. Hustle turns that direction into action. Soul cares for the people doing the work. Home keeps your life in the picture.
Sarah and Raphael’s public story gives us a warm starting point for that conversation. Different strengths can serve a shared purpose. The next step is finding the ingredient your own business needs more of.
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