Find Your Yes, with Sharon Reynolds

In this episode of Money Tales, our guest is Sharon Reynolds. Sharon is a successful serial entrepreneur. Her first entrepreneurial role model was her grandfather, who had to hide money in the walls of his home to protect his earnings from the Klan. She had the same perseverance as she launched her first start-up in high school as a seamstress and bespoke neighborhood designer. Today, she’s in the process of raising $70 million in series A round for one of her latest ventures.

Sharon, President and CEO of DevMar Products, LLC, began her company with the idea to develop and distribute environmentally friendly, innovative products that eradicate pathogens while creating healthy spaces and sustaining the environment.

DevMar Products, LLC was launched in December of 2007, right on the cusp of the financial crisis. By 2011, DevMar was recognized as a “Green Hero” of Nashville by the “Nashville Post” and the Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce. In 2012, DevMar was selected as the recipient of the Women Impacting Public Policy Business Leadership “External Communications” award. Afterwards, the company was named one of the NEXT 50 Companies to Watch by the Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce and the Nashville Entrepreneur Center. In February 2013, DevMar was featured by the Office Depot Office of Diversity and Inclusion’s Top customer profile. The company is proud to be featured in publications such as Essence Magazine, WE South, WE USA, Diversity Professional, CleanLink, Beyond Exclamation, Enterprising Women, the Her Story of Success Podcast, MBE Magazine, The Tennessee Tribune, Black EOE Journal, Nashville Post and Business Williamson.

Most recently, Sharon was honored as a 2021 Women to Watch in the Nashville Medical News. 2020, for all its challenges, also brought a few opportunities. Enterprising Women selected Sharon as one of the Top 20 in 2020 Award Recipients. Sharon was selected to participate in the prestigious Million Women Mentors Program sponsored by Wells Fargo; DevMar Products was awarded Beyonce’s #BeyGood for Black Businesses Grant in collaboration with the NAACP; and DevMar continues to develop products that Clean, Disinfect, and Protect.

Sharon received the 100 Black Men/Women President’s Organization Women of Color Achievement Award and was honored with the Power Moves Award as Best Entrepreneur of the Year in 2018. She was one of the 100 Leading Women in 2018 and in the same year, received MBE Magazine’s WBEs Who Rock Award – an honor established to provide special recognition for women business owners who exemplify passion, courage, and leadership in their pursuit of business success. In September 2017, DevMar was named the WBEC South Tier I Supplier of the Year.

In 2015, the Nashville Black Chamber of Commerce named DevMar as the Small Business of the Year recipient and Sharon successfully graduated the SBA Emerging Leaders Initiative for Entrepreneurs. June of 2014, DevMar Products was selected by WBEC South as the WBE Spotlight company and was recognized a 2014 Small Business Awards recipient.

In October of 2013, Sharon was selected as a WBENC scholarship recipient and attended the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth, WBENC Executive Program at IBM in Palisades, New York. She was a Nashville Business Journal 2013 Women of Influence award recipient and was featured in the People Issue of the Nashville Scene for her contributions to sustainability through her line of specialty green products.

Before earning her Executive MBA from Tennessee State University and graduating with distinction, Sharon earned her Bachelor of Science degree in Business Management with a focus on Green & Sustainable Enterprise. She was inducted into the Beta Gamma Sigma Honor Society at TSU and the Sigma Nu Tau Entrepreneurship Honor Society at Belmont University.

Sharon continues to promote parity and equity for women through her position on the Board of Directors of the Women Business Collaborative and her role as Co-Chair of the Advisory Board for the same company. One of the many ways she serves her local community is through her seats on the Boards of the Second Harvest Food Bank of Middle Tennessee, Nashville State Community College Foundation, the Enterprising Women Magazine’s Advisory Council, and the Board of the Women’s Business Enterprise Council South in New Orleans, a Regional Partner of WBENC. She is a former Board member of the West End Home Foundation Board and Ni-Q.

DevMar is a family of companies, consisting of a diverse group of businesses that all serve to better the lives of citizens where we live, work, and play. In 2012, Sharon launched DevMar Manufacturing, LLC and to collaborate with larger manufacturers to formulate cleaning and sanitizing solutions to meet the sustainable goals of Fortune 100 and 500 companies. In 2016, DevMar Global Healthcare Solutions, LLC was formed and guided by Sharon’s partnership with Ni-Q, LLC to launch a commercially – sterile human donor milk for micro-preemie and premature infants in the NICU. In 2018, Bryla J Couture Clothiers, inspired by Sharon’s granddaughter, was born.

Every day, the President and CEO of DevMar Products makes it her mission to manufacture and distribute products that keep employees safe in the workplace, and communities safe where they live, work, and play. She and her husband DeMarco Reynolds Sr. are proud parents of two adult sons, and grandparents to a confident and very clever granddaughter. Sharon is a 5th-generation “Nashvillian” and now resides in Brentwood, Tennessee.

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