Richelieu Dennis: Community Commerce as a Business Model

Who is Richelieu Dennis?

As an entrepreneur, Richelieu Dennis has managed to apply his life skills and academic knowledge to do the unthinkable. Yet is that simply a predictable pathway for someone like Richelieu Dennis coming from a family of entrepreneurs? Dennis’ very first taste of entrepreneurship came from both his grandmothers who were innovative women far ahead of their time. He very much soaked in all that was taught to him as a child. Dennis may have picked up a few tricks from his family, but he has built an empire that has exceeded even his grandmother’s wildest dreams for him.

Dennis followed in the steps of his father by becoming business partners with his own mother. But besides being an entrepreneur and an investor, from a very young age he has also focused a good portion of his time on philanthropic endeavors. With his mother as partner, Dennis has created some of the most definitive brands of our time for African American women. Alongside his businesses, he and his mother have also partnered on a varied list of philanthropic efforts, creating multiple organizations that have reached thousands and thousands of underserved citizens desperately in need of help in so many different parts of our country.

Richelieu Dennis’s professional timeline: The highlights

Dennis couldn’t have foreseen that he would end up as the founder and CEO of one of the most popular natural skin and hair product manufacturers in the world. As he was growing up in Liberia, his main professional ambition was to become a citrus farmer in the town where he lived. However, something or someone had a very different plan for the young fruit farmer, and Dennis decided to take the opportunities as they came instead of resisting them. Take a look at the immense success he has amassed during his decorated career.

Operating a business on the streets of New York City

Dennis knew he was into business when he and his mother started selling their products in Harlem near the corner of 125th Street and Fifth Avenue. To help his brand stand out in a sea of street vendors, Dennis used the knowledge he had acquired from the well-known business school he attended at Babson College.

He and his mother also originally partnered with Dennis’s college roommate. They agreed that their business would address the specific hair and skincare issues of darker-skinned women. Bigger skin and hair care brands had never created and sold such products on a scale sufficient to reach commercialization.

The humble beginnings of Sundial Brands

Dennis drew not only on ambition and determination, but also on deep traditions and four generations of family formulas, coupling them with his recently acquired modern business wisdom. The result was a line of body care products and a natural bath product. With their first line of products catching fire in Harlem, the three business partners—Dennis, his mother, and his college roommate—founded Sundial Brands in 1991, making deliveries to vendors from the back of a Toyota Previa they owned. That’s how Sundial Brands first experienced the idea of going “retail.” They supplied products to county fairs and flea markets through their mom-and-pop delivery service.

Sundial Brands claims international distribution status

It took Dennis and his co-founders approximately 16 years to grow Sundial Brands into a maker of top hair, natural, bar soap, and bath and body brands. He was the company’s executive chairman and CEO. Under Dennis’s leadership, the company grew tremendously, building a comprehensive portfolio of product offerings with America’s largest retailers. Sundial gained global distribution of its products when Dennis sold it to Unilever in 2017.

Sundial’s decorated existence

Dennis led Sundial to become a certified B Corp and a certified Fair for Life socially responsible company. Aside from being named to the Inc. 5000 list of fastest-growing private companies in the United States, Sundial received the WWD/Beauty Inc. 2015 Corporate Social Responsibility of the Year Award, and Dennis received the Babson College Lewis Institute Changemaker Award. Sundial also received the “Emerging Business of the Year” award from Black Enterprise in 2016 and made its debut on the Black Enterprise BE 100s list in 2017. The company also received the 2016 Ad Campaign of the Year Award from WWD/Beauty Inc. for its “Break the Walls” campaign.

Selling Sundial Brands to Unilever

According to Dennis, the transfer of Sundial Brands to Unilever took approximately five years. He believed that Sundial was a mission that integrated a business, so it was essential for the mission’s development to continue. And for the mission (economic impact and inclusion) to spread to all corners of the world’s communities, it needed a bigger platform. Dennis and his business partners brokered the largest natural skin care deal ever in the history of the U.S. They chose to sell to Unilever mainly due to its integrated global supply chain and sophistication.

Dennis’s philanthropic endeavors

Dennis has always had other people’s best interests at heart since his breakthrough in the skin and hair care industry. Many philanthropic organizations stemmed from his desire to help others. As a result of his vision and Sundial’s Community Commerce purpose-driven business model, he provides underserved communities and people with access to the opportunities and resources they need to create value.

Dennis creates the New Voices Fund

The groundbreaking $100 million New Voices Fund initiative was created through a purpose-driven agreement made when Unilever acquired Sundial Brands. Dennis created this initiative with the sole purpose of empowering and investing in women of color driven by entrepreneurial ideas and visions.

The New Voices Fund support services offered these women tangible ways to turn their ideas into businesses through entrepreneurial knowledge and leadership skills development. The foundation also created networking opportunities for their participants to meet like-minded, successful business leaders who could help them in their journey.

Sundial’s community commerce

Dennis’s vision was to achieve global Community Commerce as a business model to promote start-up entrepreneurs. Through this purpose-driven model, he saw himself equipping underserved individuals and communities with the tools needed to gain real success. He offers access to resources and opportunities that help the target group create enduring economic value for themselves and others.

Through executive investment and education for women and girls of color, and organizational partnerships, the New Voices Fund’s Community Commerce projects are now creating self-sustaining, more vital enterprises and communities around the globe. Among the affiliations Dennis has implemented are those with WACO Theater Center and the Jackie Robinson Foundation.

Founding of Essence Ventures

In 2017 Dennis founded Essence Ventures as an African American–owned company. After acquiring Essence Communications Inc. in January 2018, Dennis re-established it as a 100% black-owned independent firm. The company’s primary focus is merging community, commerce, and content to meet black women’s growing lifestyle and cultural needs.

Major honors for Richelieu Dennis

OWN: Oprah Winfrey Network has recently named Dennis to its inaugural “SuperSoul 100” list. He has also been named by Fast Company as one of the “Most Creative People in Business,” and received the distinction of Knight Commander from the President of Liberia in December 2017. He was admitted to the Most Venerable Order of the Knighthood of the Pioneers.

Final word

Richelieu Dennis maintains that Community Commerce is a perfect business model to lead to positive economic impacts. With two scoops of philanthropy and a helping of entrepreneurial initiative stirred in, his secret sauce is transforming the world for the better, one day at a time.