dpHUE
Donna Pohlad started dpHUE in 2011 because she was tired of covering her grays. Fifteen years later, Bethenny Frankel bought a stake and made herself Chief Brand Officer.
In June 2026, Bethenny Frankel, who sold Skinnygirl cocktails for a reported $120 million, bought a meaningful ownership stake in a Minneapolis hair brand and named herself its Chief Brand Officer. The woman she now works alongside on product, Donna Pohlad, had started the company fifteen years earlier for a plain and personal reason: she was sick of constantly covering her own grays.
Pohlad did not need the job. She is married into the family that owns the Minnesota Twins. She built dpHUE anyway, out of a frustration she suspected millions of other women shared, and turned it into a color-care brand sold in Ulta and Sephora and backed by a growth-equity fund. Frankel buying in is the latest proof the bet worked.
At a glance:
| Founded | 2011 |
| Founder | Donna Pohlad (partnered with celebrity colorist Justin Anderson in 2014) |
| Headquarters | Minneapolis |
| Category | At-home hair color care |
| Hero products | Gloss+ deep-conditioning gloss ($35), Apple Cider Vinegar Hair Rinse, root touch-up kits |
| Investor | Prelude Growth Partners (invested during the pandemic color-care boom) |
| Retailers | dphue.com, Ulta, Sephora, QVC, Amazon, TikTok Shop |
| 2026 development | Bethenny Frankel acquired an ownership stake and became Chief Brand Officer (June 2026) |
The Story
”There has to be other women”
Donna Pohlad founded dpHUE in 2011 with a small, specific irritation. She was tired of feeling like she constantly needed to hide her grays, and she could not find products that kept salon color looking fresh between appointments. “I thought, there has to be other women out there sharing the same frustration,” she said. That hunch was the entire thesis. She was not chasing a trend or a gap in a market report. She was solving her own problem and betting it was not just hers.
The early idea was to rethink home hair coloring. Over time it sharpened into something more defensible: not replacing the salon, but maintaining what the salon did. Glosses, rinses, and touch-ups to stretch the weeks between visits.
The celebrity colorist
In 2014, Pohlad partnered with Justin Anderson, a celebrity hair colorist whose clients included Jennifer Aniston, Margot Robbie, and Gwyneth Paltrow. He joined as creative director and co-founder, and he gave dpHUE two things a Minneapolis startup could not manufacture on its own: salon-grade credibility and a direct line to the kind of famous heads of hair that sell color products.
Anderson also shaped the brand’s most important decision, the one about who dpHUE was for and who it was against.
The apple cider vinegar cult product
The product line grew around salon-quality staples rather than gimmicks. The Apple Cider Vinegar Hair Rinse became a cult favorite for stripping buildup and locking in color. The Gloss+, a semi-permanent deep-conditioning gloss at $35, added shine and refreshed tone at home. Then came the color boosters that actually flew off shelves: permanent root touch-up kits and temporary root sprays, later joined by a blonding brush made with Kristin Cavallari, another Anderson client. The range gave a woman a reason to buy something between salon visits, and then another reason a few weeks after that.
The Strategy
Maintenance, not replacement
dpHUE’s defining choice was to position with hairstylists, not against them. Plenty of at-home color brands frame themselves as a way to fire your colorist. dpHUE did the opposite, selling itself as the thing that keeps professional color looking good longer. During the 2020 stay-at-home orders, when salons closed and stylists lost income, Pohlad and Anderson raised the commission paid to stylists through the brand’s professional program from 35% to 50%, and built an app so independent stylists could order dpHUE for their own clients. Keeping the salon world as an ally, rather than a target, gave the brand credibility that a pure disruptor never earns.
Retail on every shelf that mattered
dpHUE did not stay a direct-to-consumer niche. It moved into Ulta and onto Sephora, sold through QVC, and later reached shoppers on Amazon and TikTok Shop. Being in the beauty aisles where color shoppers already were, instead of waiting for them to find the website, is how a maintenance product becomes a habit.
Taking growth capital at the peak
When the pandemic sent at-home color demand through the roof, Pohlad did not try to fund the surge alone. Prelude Growth Partners, a consumer-brand investor that closed a $250 million fund in 2021, took a stake to help dpHUE scale into the boom. It was outside money brought in to press an advantage, not to rescue a struggling company.
The Marketing
A famous colorist as the face
For most of its life, dpHUE’s marketing engine was Justin Anderson himself: his A-list client roster, his social presence, and celebrity collaborations like the Cavallari blonding brush. The brand borrowed credibility and reach from the salon chair instead of buying it in ads.
The pandemic accelerant
The 2020 lockdowns were the single biggest thing that ever happened to dpHUE. With salons shut, women who had never touched at-home color suddenly needed it, and dpHUE’s sales skyrocketed to the point that it scrambled to keep bestsellers in stock. A category that had been a quiet convenience became, briefly, essential.
Bringing in Bethenny Frankel
On June 29, 2026, dpHUE announced that Bethenny Frankel had acquired a meaningful ownership stake and joined as Chief Brand Officer, investor, and strategic partner. Frankel is not a passive celebrity endorser. She built and sold Skinnygirl, and she now runs one of the most-watched content operations in beauty, dissecting products for millions of followers across TikTok and Instagram. The plan is for her to work directly with Pohlad on product innovation and creator partnerships. dpHUE gets Frankel’s audience and content machine bolted onto a product line that already works, which is exactly the kind of distribution a fifteen-year-old brand buys when it wants a second act.
The Numbers
dpHUE is privately held and does not disclose revenue, so treat the financial picture as directional rather than precise. The markers that are public tell the story: a growth investment from Prelude Growth Partners during the 2020 to 2021 color-care boom, a pandemic sales surge large enough to cause stockouts, and now a cash-and-equity deal that brought in Bethenny Frankel. Each is the kind of move made around a brand that is growing and worth betting on, not one that is stalling.
What You Can Learn
Your own frustration is a legitimate product thesis. Pohlad built dpHUE from a problem she lived, then bet other women lived it too. Solving something real for yourself beats chasing a gap you spotted in a spreadsheet, because you already understand the customer. You are the customer.
Position with the incumbent, not against it. By selling color maintenance instead of salon replacement, and even raising the commission it paid stylists during the pandemic, dpHUE turned the people who could have rejected it into a distribution channel. Look hard at who your product threatens, then find a way to make them an ally instead of an enemy.
Borrow credibility and audience instead of building from zero. A celebrity colorist early gave dpHUE salon authority it could not manufacture, and a serial founder with millions of followers later gave it reach an ad budget could not buy. The fastest way to get in front of the right customer is often to partner with someone who already has their attention. See celebrity beauty brands.
Bring in a partner at the stage where they multiply you. Frankel joined as an owner and Chief Brand Officer, not a paid face, which ties her payoff to the brand’s growth rather than a flat fee. The right partner at the right moment is a growth strategy, the same way Good American paired a Kardashian’s audience with an operator who could run the business.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who founded dpHUE?
Donna Pohlad founded dpHUE in 2011 in Minneapolis, after growing frustrated with covering her grays and maintaining salon color at home. In 2014 she partnered with celebrity hair colorist Justin Anderson, who joined as creative director and co-founder.
Does Bethenny Frankel own dpHUE?
Frankel owns a stake in it. In June 2026 she acquired a meaningful ownership stake in dpHUE and joined the leadership team as Chief Brand Officer, investor, and strategic partner, working alongside founder Donna Pohlad. She is not the sole or majority owner; the brand is also backed by Prelude Growth Partners.
What is dpHUE known for?
At-home hair color care that maintains salon color between visits. Its best-known products are the Apple Cider Vinegar Hair Rinse, the Gloss+ deep-conditioning color gloss, and its root touch-up kits and sprays.
Where is dpHUE sold?
On dphue.com and through major retailers including Ulta and Sephora, plus QVC, Amazon, and TikTok Shop.
Is Donna Pohlad connected to the Minnesota Twins?
Yes. Pohlad is married into the Pohlad family, which owns the Minnesota Twins. She built dpHUE independently of the family’s baseball and business holdings.
Sources
- PRNewswire, “Bethenny Frankel Joins dpHUE as Chief Brand Officer, Investor and Strategic Partner,” June 29, 2026. The official announcement of Frankel’s stake and role.
- WWD, “Bethenny Frankel Acquires Ownership Stake in DpHue,” June 29, 2026. Deal details and Frankel’s work with founder Donna Pohlad.
- WWD, “Prelude Growth Partners Invests in DpHue”. The growth-equity investment and dpHUE’s category.
- Mpls.St.Paul Magazine, “dpHUE Is Rethinking Home Hair Coloring,” July 2020. Pohlad’s founding motivation, the product line, and the pandemic sales surge.
- Minnesota Monthly, “Minnesota Brand dpHUE Launches Products on Sephora’s Website”. Founding by Donna Pohlad and Justin Anderson, and retail expansion.
- WWD, “Prestige Hair-Color Line DpHue Enters Ulta Beauty”. Justin Anderson joining in 2014 and the brand’s move into Ulta.