During the pandemic, candles helped Plano native Eric Sedeño stay sane. Stuck at home, he’d make an iced coffee, do a workout in his kitchen, then light a candle. “It really helped me get in my groove,” he says.
The days during the 2020 lockdown were hard for Eric and his older brother, Adrian. They hated watching their friends and family struggle as the economy tanked. Their parents lost their jobs. “How could we make an impact with our own community?” the brothers asked each other.
On February 1, 2023, they officially launched Groove Gives, a North Texas-based candle company that donates a portion of all sales to a charity. “We see ourselves as a social good company,” Adrian says. Currently, they’re working with Minnie’s Food Pantry in Plano. In their first year of business, Groove Gives donated more than 23,000 meals.
The pair first began discussing opening a philanthropy-minded business during Winter Storm Uri in February 2021. Eric had camped out at Adrian’s house in Richardson because he still had power. Adrian worked in tech sales, and Eric is in social media. (He currently has 1 million followers on TikTok.) They wanted to “use our skills and our talents for something good and positive in the world,” Adrian says. They eventually decided to sell candles.
It made sense. Their mother loved candles and would always burn them when the Sedeño brothers were growing up. Eric loved them, too. And the brothers liked how they seemed to create feel-good mindfulness—every time you light your candle, they say, you could be reminded of something good you did.
They began searching for manufacturers. They found a local candlemaker who could pour them. They sampled various fragrances. The brothers wanted candle scents that were multi-dimensional, combining several fragrance types, like floral and woodsy, Adrian says. They began testing samples with friends in June 2022, and soft launched that October. After several rounds of surveys and feedback, they launched with the scents they felt were the “fan favorites.”
Groove Gives has five main scents available year-round, like Velvet Nights, an oud-based fragrance with clove and damask rose. Fleetwood has notes of musk, patchouli, and lavender and “smells like a hot man,” says Eric. They also offer five seasonal scents: Mellow Yellow and Rock the Boat in summer and Spices 54, Woodstock, and Sweet Seasons during the winter.
All the candles and their packaging, which Eric designs himself, have a disco theme. That was intentional, the brothers say. They liked how the ’60s and ’70s were “colorful, powerful” periods of social change. It was time a time when large groups of people began questioning the establishment, Adrian says. That resonated with where they felt society is today post-COVID. “We’re at a point in time where we really need to think about how what we’re doing every day is impacting other people,” he says. And their candles could be a vehicle for that.
For every Groove Gives candle sold, the brothers donate up to 15 meals to Minnie’s Food Pantry. They began talking to the Plano charity when they were still testing, back in the summer of 2022. They were shocked to learn the stats on food insecurity. Nearly 4 million Texans are food insecure, and close to 2 million Texas children have limited access to food in their household. In North Texas, around 700,000 people are food insecure. “When you’re volunteering and you see people crying when they’re picking up their food, it really drives home the impact that they’re having,” Adrian says.
However, “ideally, Groove would be so much bigger than just candles,” Eric says. The brothers, who work full-time and run Groove on the side, would like to expand into making other home goods. Then, they could dedicate the sales of each product line to a different charity across the country. They want to help as much as they can, and encourage others to do the same.
Says Adrian, “our vision is to create a world where giving back as a part of everyday life.”
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