Cafe X

Mother and daughter team Khea Pollard and Cynthia Ajani want to create a safe space for their community to show up — one cup of coffee at a time. They created Cafe X: By Any Beans Necessary, a community coffee cooperative, to to support generational wealth building in the Black community. Their business model is a mix of operational excellence and artistic expression for social, cultural, and economic betterment of Black and minority communities. Khea and Cynthia chose the name Cafe X as an allusion to Malcom X. For them, it’s more than coffee: it’s a movement.

Bonus: Cafe X regularly partners with other Black-owned businesses and Black artists.