Greentop Gifts founders Jackie and her husband Shaun have created a new wrapping paper that features a melanin-rich Santa Claus. The pair of Atlanta University Center (AUC) alumni — Jackie went to Clark Atlanta University and Shaun went to Morehouse College — told NBCBLK that they looked for a Black Santa but to no avail, so they made their own. Jackie and Shaun spoke to NBCBLK about running their new company. Some highlights of the interview are below.
On how the Greentop Gifts came about:
Jackie: Last year this time I was looking for wrapping paper for our two-year-old to wrap his gifts, and I couldn’t find any paper that featured a black Santa. I found white Santas and in the past, I bought them and colored them in with a colored pencil but it wasn’t something that I wanted.
I was just really discouraged so I came home and told my husband that if I couldn’t find wrapping paper by next year that I was just going to make my own. If I had to go to Kinko’s, get on photoshop, or otherwise, I was going to figure it out. And so that’s how we started this process. It was out of a void we were trying to fill for our son.
On how their education helped them in launching their business:
Shaun: Jackie went to Clark Atlanta and I went to Morehouse College. We’re AUC alumni. Those experiences were so phenomenal and really the formative years for us, not just within the classroom, we were both business majors, but outside the classroom as well. Just learning about our neighborhoods, our communities and all the different types of people that make up our communities how they make decisions.
Then, once we started rolling out ‘Greentop’ that was the same base —the Clark-Atlanta, Morehouse College base —who really helped us get it out there and really showed up and showed out for us and through their support and love.
Jackie: We were both business majors and we both work in sales now. My husband started in finance and he has is MBA from Duke University. All our educational background has really helped to launch this for us because when you think of it, all our experiences in our corporate jobs helped grow ‘Greentop.’ In addition to that, we really relied a lot on our HBCU network with finding different vendors, from our attorney, who’s an HBCU
In addition to that, we really relied a lot on our HBCU network with finding different vendors, from our attorney, also an HBCU graduate, to finding other black illustrators and graphic design artists, we tried to really make sure that we could support black businesses as much we could.
Also, with our launch in October we did a marketing dump where we attended different homecomings and passed out promotional items. We went to Clark Atlanta, Morehouse/Spelman, North Carolina A&T, North Carolina Central, and Howard’s Homecomings and passed out promo items and had our brand ambassadors there. They had on the ‘Clarence Claus’ shirt. It was a really great opportunity for us to be at those homecoming events. As an HBCU graduate, you know important and how exciting an HBCU Homecomings are so for us to have ‘Clarence Claus’ there it was really great to launch our business.
Head over to NBCBLK to read more.
