We built it because
we needed it.
Kin Café isn't just our namesake — it's our living lab. We're a small coffee shop and bar in Robbinsville, North Carolina. We struggled with inventory the same way you probably do. We tried generic apps. We tried pen and paper. So we wrote some code instead.
HOW WE GOT HERE
We opened Kin Café with two espresso machines, a small kitchen, and a wildly optimistic spreadsheet. We were running out of oat milk three Saturdays in a row. We were closing for an hour every Sunday to count cups. Sound familiar?
Every inventory tool we tried was either designed for a warehouse, designed for a chain restaurant, or designed by someone who'd never wiped down a counter. So we built something that fit the way a small café actually moves: at the counter, on the line, between tickets.
The first version was a Google Sheet hooked to Square's sales feed. The second was a Python script. The third was an iOS app a fellow shop owner asked to borrow. The fourth was Kinventory.
We still run Kin Café. The café still uses Kinventory — it's also our QA team. That's the dent we hope to leave: software built by people who close the till at the end of the day.
Four ideas we refuse to forget.
Built by users.
Every PM, designer, and engineer either owns or has worked in a small hospitality business. We dogfood every release behind our own counter before it ships.
One source of truth.
Your inventory is a single number — not a row in three spreadsheets and a memory. We never duplicate state. We never silently disagree with Square.
Boring tech.
Go API. Firestore. iOS. React. We pick tools that will be readable in five years over tools that get retweeted. Same applies to UI: legibility over novelty.
Yours to leave.
Your data is exportable, any time, in CSV. We will never hold your inventory hostage. We will never bury an export. We will never charge for it.
WHO'S HERE
A small team. One café.
We're the folks pulling espresso shots by morning and writing code by night. Email any of us — we'll write back.
Wrote v1 in a notebook between morning rushes. Pulls Saturday shifts.
Knows what every recipe takes off the shelf. Runs the floor on weekdays.
Writes Go. Pulls shots. Both well. Maintains the Square sync.
Native Swift maximalist. The reason the +1 button is the size it is.
Bakes the team's bread. Designed every screen you've seen.
Onboards every new shop. Replies in under an hour, on average.
People started to write about us.
"A rare SaaS where the founders still close the till at the end of the day."
"Kinventory makes inventory feel like a problem you can finish, not just manage."
"The first Square inventory partner we'd recommend to a friend with a single cafe."
"Built in the back of a café in Robbinsville. The owners use it. So does half the block."
Above Kin Café 102 Main Street Robbinsville, NC 28771
hello@kin.cafe Mon–Fri · 9a–5p ET (We reply same-day)
support@kin.cafe In-app chat · 24h reply status.inventory.kin.cafe
Stop counting cups by hand.
Connect Square, import your catalog, and have your back of house humming by tomorrow's open.
FOR EVERYONE RUNNING ONE