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Sylvia and Ogi Emua founded Dinobi Cleanser as a premium herbal laundry detergent brand safe for sensitive skin. (All photos courtesy of Sylvia and Augie Imua)
The story of Dinobi Detergent is as much a love story as it is a story of entrepreneurship and laundry detergent.
Founded by Ogi and Sylvia Imua, a Bronzeville couple who have been married for 11 years and raised four children, Dinobi has grown on the strength of a partnership that flows seamlessly into a home-based business.
“Dinobi’s success is a result of our success in marriage,” says Augie Imua.
A Polski Center Small Business Development Program student, Dinobi launched a premium plant-based laundry detergent in 2019 with skin-friendly products in mind. That same year, the startup won the South Side Pitch for local entrepreneurs, hosted by the Polsky Center and Justice Clinic Entrepreneurship Institute.
Today, Dinobi’s expanding product line is sold in a dozen online and retail stores, many with an environmental bent, and the Emu’s have partnered with several South Side schools to promote classes on health, hygiene and entrepreneurship.
It took them ten years to get to this point, going through states far from their comfort zones. And it all started with a dirty diaper.
Sylvia Imua changed her newborn baby 10 years ago because the baby’s legs were dark and wrinkled, a reaction to plastic diapers.
She started using cloth diapers instead, but couldn’t find a soap that was gentle on baby’s skin and effective at cleaning and sanitizing messes.
So Silvia, an accountant, started scouring Pinterest for various home remedies. Her husband was a school principal and served as a human guinea pig to test severe eczema.
Sylvia was contacted by a friend in the skin care business and worked with an organic chemist to develop an all natural formulation that was safe and would thoroughly clean even the dirtiest laundry loads. It took years of trial and error.
“Once we got the funk out of my tights, we knew we were ready,” Augie said.
With a highly concentrated, sugar-based formula, scented with essential oils, and free from dyes and artificial fragrances, Dinobi Detergent is made with the soothing scent of lavender to share with friends and family. Dinobi, in the Igbo language spoken in Nigeria, means “precious” and the tagline has “precious ingredients for precious skins.”
The product was very popular. But the business model needs improvement.
Working out of a 250-square-foot warehouse, the Emuwas were making 20 bottles by hand. Product and ingredients cost more than customers feel comfortable filling.
“We weren’t completely confident that we could stick our chests out and say, ‘This is the price,'” Augie said. “You see the tide of the world that you can wash all this laundry for three dollars, and you feel scared.”
Winning the South Side pitch was a game changer. With $5,000 in prize money, Dinobi placed its first bulk order, partnered with Copacker to make a big run, and launched a website.
The resources of the Polsky Center were also critical. Through its mentoring program, Emuas has consulted with industry experts on marketing, staking, manufacturing costs and how to best support the business.
Augie with his son Benjamin.
Dinobi’s first major order came from The Grove Collaborative, an online retailer of natural, sustainable, ethically sourced home and personal care products. The emuas packed in their storage space and took the soap out of the barrels themselves.
“It really helped me to believe that it was going to work,” says Sylvia.
There were other, more subtle chapters as the accountant and the school principal ventured into the uncharted waters of entrepreneurship.
“When Sylvia, who hates sales, presented the business to the audience for the first time, I was terrified when everyone walked out. But it was a confidence booster. Every person they met who believed in the brand gave them the courage to continue.
Dinobi has since moved to a 1,000-square-foot manufacturing facility on the south side, where two employees help produce the emu. In addition to Amazon and several online specialty retailers, Dinoby products are sold at The Silver Room in Hyde Park, Mighty Nest in Evanston, and Echo and Flamingo in Lincoln Square, among other local stores. Dinobi has found particular success in zero waste stores where it sells its products in glass bottles.
In August, Dinobi will introduce a new product – a herbal moisturizing dish soap – and re-introduce some of its most popular fragrances – bergamot and lime, citrus clove – which were off the market due to supply chain problems caused by the pandemic. He also plans to launch an unscented soap.
At $18.99 for a 32-ounce bottle, Dinoby soap is still worth more than most people pay for laundry detergent. Emuas’ priority is to educate people on the value of the stacked formula – each bottle can hold 32 loads – and the multi-purpose nature of the product, which works just as well for pet carpet removal as it does for dirty cloths. Diaper.
For Auji, spreading the message is especially important in Chicago communities where shopping at zero waste stores is not common. Growing up in the city as an “underprivileged youth,” often in makeshift living conditions, he remembers washing clothes alone in a laundromat as a nine-year-old, swinging his legs as he sat in an orange chair, and immediately felt it. He is overwhelmed by the enormity of everything, with the freedom to take care of himself.
With those kids in mind, the Emuas started a program at Dulce of Excellence and Joplin Elementary, two elementary schools on Chicago’s South Side, to talk about entrepreneurship and help students think carefully about health, hygiene and the environment. They have provided detergents to the schools at deeply discounted prices for students who do not have easy access to personal care products.
“We want to be a positive disruption in the market and get people to evaluate the products they use more,” said Augie, who is in talks to bring the program to more schools.
Through the ups and downs of building the business, Augie and Sylvia Imua supported each other. Being business partners has strengthened their marriage by showing how they communicate and focus on a common goal that allows petty grievances to fall by the wayside.
The couple, who met in college at Jackson State University in Mississippi, were not romantically involved when they reconnected on Facebook eight years later. Auggie was always in love with Sylvia. Sylvia, hearing Auggie’s voice for the first time after all these years, knew immediately that she was going to marry him.
They never thought that they would leave their professions and run a laundry business together. It took a leap of faith, and an irrevocable mutual trust.
Auggie said, “I’m in love.
Article by Alexia Elejalde-RuizAssociate Director of Media Relations and External Relations at the Polsky Center. A longtime journalist, Alexia was most recently a business reporter with the Chicago Tribune. Reach out to Alexia Email Or on Twitter @alexiaer.
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