No.3 Make a Connection
SHARING FAMILY STORIES
One of Richelieu Dennis’s most important deals began with a deep personal connection. Dennis, founder and CEO of Sundial Brands, which makes beauty products, was at dinner with a team of buyers from cosmetics retailer Sephora. About half of the team were women of color, and one began complaining that she was always late to dates with her husband because she was spending hours using a hot-iron to straighten her unruly mane. “There would be this cloud of smoke in the room when she’d leave, but she had no choice because there weren’t any products that made her feel like her curly hair was beautiful,” Dennis recalls. He told her that the women in his family had the same problem. His cousins, aunts, mother, and sister all had trouble finding products that helped them maintain their curls—so the family started making their own products (his grandmother’s shea butter recipe is what many of Sundial’s products are based on). “We had that option, but people who didn’t have that option were constantly complaining” about their hair, he says. The story struck a chord with the woman. Nine months later, Dennis sealed an exclusive deal with Sephora to launch his Madam C.J. Walker products, a hair care line for wavy and kinky hair. By then, “the relationship was on such a solid foundation that I don’t think it ever occurred to us that we wouldn’t be able to do something spectacular.”