Entrepreneur and business consultant Dujon Smith (MSL ’22) had already worked in and traveled to dozens of countries, with stints at two international consultancies, when he decided to pursue a post-graduate degree to round out his experience.
Though a traditional MBA might have seemed the right fit for Smith, who is Global Investment Lead for the Accenture Founders Development Program, the Evanston native was instead drawn to Northwestern Pritzker Law School’s Master of Science in Law (MSL).
By the time he started the hybrid program in 2020, his work life had given him a grounding in business and technology; he was only lacking legal expertise.
“I wanted to be a triple threat,” Smith says. “The worlds are not so siloed, and the MSL can speak to all these areas.”
Today, Smith draws on experiences and lessons from the MSL program every day in his work with founders at Accenture and his own experience launching My Block Skin, a fast-growing skin care line that seeks to transform sun care for individuals of color.
In both of those positions, Smith said his education from Northwestern gives him an edge in two of the most important areas for any start-up: setting up the structure of the business and negotiating terms for capital investments.
Consider his role at Accenture, where Smith advises founders from historically underrepresented groups on how to structure deals and, in some cases, negotiates a capital investment from Accenture.
“I’m cash, contacts and community,” Smith says about his role, which includes connecting founders with investors and other partners.
Raising money wasn’t a new concept for Smith, who had founded two other companies since graduating from Pepperdine University with a degree in international business. But the classroom experience at Northwestern’s MSL gave him an invaluable knowledge base to understand everything from intellectual property agreements to payment terms with vendors and term sheets for new investors, he says.
“As with any relationship, marriage or most business relationships, you have to write it down,” Smith says.
That education was especially useful when he began bootstrapping My Block Skin by raising money from family and friends. He pulled contract templates from his classes, but then drew on his own business experience to communicate his vision. His classes helped in other ways, including his understanding of liability, which is why he chose a C-Corp and not an LLC for the consumer products company.
“Overall, the MSL program gave me more confidence and understanding to think more tactically about setting up a business from the regulatory standpoint,” Smith says.
The idea for My Block Skin came as an epiphany while Smith, who now lives in Chicago, was traveling. Even though Bob Marley famously died from skin cancer, Smith realized that men of color continue to be left out of the conversation about sun care. Further market research confirmed a lack of education to challenge the myth that melanin-rich individuals don’t need sun protection, despite research showing Black men are more likely to die of melanoma than White men. On a personal level, Smith was turned off by the many sunscreens that left a white cast on his skin.
Armed with this research and results of focus groups of potential customers, Smith knew there was an opening for a company that innovated in sun care, so he put together a team to develop a gel sunscreen that goes smoothly on all skin tones.
Amid the seemingly endless tasks of reviewing forms and contracts, Smith realized that his MSL degree was helping him with these jobs – and saving resources.
“Lawyers can be expensive,” he says. “I had a shared common language, and I was able to get through 80 percent of the legal stuff before hiring lawyers.”
Once the product was in hand, Smith set a date for launch – Juneteenth 2023 – and worked his impressive network to find unorthodox ways to get visibility. These included an event at SoHo House Festival, an NFL game in London, and at NY Fashion Week, as well as online activations with influencers and other brands.
Today, My Block Skin products are sold online and in Boots retail stores in the U.K.; by next year, the products are scheduled to launch in 100 more stores.
Smith says all entrepreneurs constantly come up with ideas; he knows first-hand how hard it is to know if your idea is a good one. And even when you have a great idea, the daunting task of getting a business off the ground challenges everyone.
He recommends Northwestern’s MSL program for the tactical experience that entrepreneurs can use from Day One.
“This is a hidden gem,” Smith said.
