Our Story

Our journey thus far has shown us that there is a void and a white space in the commodities marketplace for brands like ours. Our story begins with our co-founder Sylvia Emuwa growing up in rural Mississippi.  Her Father, Dr. Paul Jackson would always look at her and say, “your main job in this life is to find a need and fill it!” She had no idea what this meant until having a family of her own. With a busy and active husband and four kids, we seemed to operate in chaos all the time.  Long were the days of scheduled laundry days - we just washed clothes when we needed to which seemed like everyday. We started to notice how many different cleaning agents we used and discovered that we were purchasing up to six different brands - one for the baby, another for the baby’s cloth diapers, another “gentle” alternative for our daughters, another for Augie given his eczema flare ups; Brennan and Sylvia just used what was left.  After getting frustrated, we decided to do something about it. After years of working directly with an organic chemist, Dinobi was born and the lesson from Sylvia’s father finally came full circle.  We even made it to Windy City Live, amongst other news outlets!! See our WCL interview below to get to know Dinobi a little better:


Now, here's why you should help us get our product to the masses!


Dinóbi Detergent is the first of its kind!  It is a gentle, skin-focused detergent that cleans clothing and bedding for everyone, including pets! Our lab tested formula is engineered to be ALL IN ONE; for baby clothing and cloth diapers (we remove ammonia too!), clothing for those with sensitive skin issues, as well as pet bedding and garments.  For two years we received feedback from friends, family, and community members and in April of 2019 we began bottling our detergent; selling out of our inventory each time we receive a shipment from our manufacturer within weeks. Despite this issue, we continue to amass very exciting reviews. For instance, Evan B. from Chicago says "because of Dinóbi, I can finally go to the beach.”  Testimonials like these show our commitment to skin and laundry, hence the name Dinobi, which means “precious.”

Now that we know what we have, we need YOU to help us expand our reach and live up to our mission of making “plant based living” less niche and highly accessible to the masses.  This holiday season, we need your investment to make a larger impact by providing our high quality formula at a price that most can afford.  In short, it’s time for Dinobi to compete in an industry that has enjoyed high profits with low involvement and concern for its customers.  Dinobi Detergent aims to benefit all those who seek a better, high performing alternative at a great price. 

Right now, we are raising $25,000.00.  With these funds, we will move our business from a tested and proven concept to a real business that can handle the demand of the people that need us.  On one hand, it’s an amazing feeling to be "sold out" several times over but we recognize that this is a huge challenge and want to tackle this early before our company continues to grow and prepares for retail distribution.  On the other hand, we are an integrity brand and have carefully researched the demand for products like ours. Nielsen research shows that green spending on commodities is slated to grow by 150 billion dollars by 2021 and we know that Dinobi should be represented within this expansive growth.  We are looking to raise these funds by January 27, 2020 to meet our inventory demands.

So, how will we use the funds? 
 

A large percentage of the funds that we raise will be invested in inventory which will help us to reduce our prices by up to 40% to meet the demands of our growing customer base. Wow, 40% percent!  Why do we want to reduce price?  The word Dinobi means "precious" as this is our belief about every living thing on Earth.  Our belief is that everyone should be able to afford “green” products. While we might be idealistic, we’re not ignorant to the fact that the big brand names out there have a head start. Lower price points will help us compete and we know this based on a series of personal phone calls and surveys we have done with our customers.  


Additionally, the remaining funds will be used to spread the good word as we expand our focus past our region. Through digital and grass-root strategic marketing activities, we believe we can penetrate the detergent space with a much needed change.  The following breakdown gives an even deeper look at how your generous contribution will be used. 


Offer more options to customers: We are adding travel sizes for those on the go and our commuter customer base given that these have been extremely popular. We will also introduce our “greenfill” reusables so that our customers can re-fill their glass bottles or purchase the 100% recyclable alternative upfront which means more savings for our customers!

Open our 1st warehouse and storage facility: This means that we will have a space dedicated to properly packaging and shipping our items. We are excited to take this leap as this is key in reducing costs for our customers and building toward our five year vision to manufacture our product in house.   

Expanding our Inventory:  This is the key to cutting our costs and making our high performing product accessible on a consistent basis to our customers.

Telling the story: Many businesses fail because of a lack of exposure.  People can’t buy into what they can’t experience. Our plan is simple: get to our customers!  This means attending high traffic trade shows, developing consistent ad campaigns, and connecting with more users online and via email. 

Other: Other items include equipment and operating costs for 6 months in our new space.

How can you help? Well, no contribution is too small! We accept ALL contributions, no matter the amount.  In return, here's how we will show our gratitude: 

$50 - $99 gets you a #green-ish wearable pin, to show your commitment to the Dinobi cause, and to being earth friendly!




$100 - $199 gets you a Dinobi laundry bag


$200 - $500 gets you a special custom T (‘green-ish”), showing your commitment to being earth friendly.

$501+ gets you a year long supply of Dinobi, our powerful formula housed in reusable, refillable, recyclable glass or housed in our green-fills! One 32 oz bottle/green-fill per month in one calendar year, beginning after the close of the campaign.

$5,000 +  please email or contact us directly at [email redacted]  to let us know if you are interested in an investment in the Company so that we can discuss terms and returns. 

Your contribution, great or small, will be life changing not only for us, but for our customers in general. Our overarching goal is to realize the day when people are treated equitably and with a sense of transparency in the marketplace. Our aim is that consumers will have access to a high quality, much needed product for everyday life without the high costs.

We want to thank each and every one of our current customers, those who have waited patiently for product when we run low (especially Miss Elizabeth!!), those who have shared their stories with us about how Dinobi has helped them, those who have advised us and helped us get this far without asking for anything in return, and those future customers in advance.  We can't wait for you to #laundrywithus!