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On a rainy, but unseasonably warm Friday morning in mid-February, something historic happened.
A gathering of Black entrepreneurs—each representing their brands across different industries—convened at the Nasdaq office in Times Square for the opening bell ceremony. The ritual has long been for financial institutions, companies announcing an IPO, or other milestones garnering fanfare from the business world.
Which is why it was so monumental for the founders of Slutty Vegan, Mielle Organics and The Lip Bar to be there and why investor and entrepreneur Richelieu Dennis made sure they were.
“What you’re seeing is the manifestation of what our ancestors could not do,” Dennis told the group after an outdoor photoshoot where their logos and photos flashed across the famed building. “And so, we’re all here getting the opportunity to do that.”
This is about how you’re going to use that money to bring real sustainable joy and change to our communities.
—Richelieu Dennis, entrepreneur, investor
“Representation matters,” said Sehr Thadani, Nasdaq’s chief digital officer, who organized the event with Dennis’ New Voices Fund and Essence Ventures along with Skai Blue Media, which also included a post-ceremony panel discussions with some of the founders and funders in attendance.
Thadani told Adweek she planned to do similar events going forward.
“I cannot underestimate how important this is,” said Ceci Kurzman, founder of Nexus Management Group. “When you see Rich [Dennis] flashing these names up here, that’s really what allows people to be in a position … to be able to advocate for this consumer.”
Always betting on Black (entrepreneurs)
For Dennis, the day was the culmination of years of hard work that began at a card table on 125th street in Harlem, where he sold soaps and shea butter. A business that, in 1991, would evolve into personal care company Sundial Brands. When Dennis sold the company to Unilever in 2017, he did so with the promise of establishing a $100 million fund to support other Black-owned businesses. He called it the New Voices Fund.
“We don’t have Black banks that are set up to fund us at scale,” said Dennis. “So, you can go up and down the things that are missing from the ecosystem.”
A few weeks after the event, a wave of jarring news stories surrounding troubled banks began to hit, sending shockwaves through the tech and financial sector and panic among small business owners seeking capital. But as troubling as the news was for those affected and the public’s overall faith in the institutions, it proved Dennis’ point on the necessity and urgency of putting such an ecosystem in place.
It is a privilege for us to partner with organizations that convene extraordinary companies.
—Sehr Thadani, chief digital officer, Nasdaq
“But in order to build those things, you’ve got to have capital,” said Dennis. “We decided that we would unlock the wealth that we have built inside of Sundial and leverage that to go build these infrastructures and these resources.”