Dollar Shave Club

Dollar Shave Club
Private
Industry Consumer packaged goods
Founded July 2011
Founder Michael Dubin and Mark Levine
Headquarters Venice, California
Area served
 United States, Canada, Australia
Products The Humble Twin, The 4X, The Executive, Dr. Carver's Easy Shave Butter, One Wipe Charlies
Website www.dollarshaveclub.com

Dollar Shave Club is a Venice, CA based company that delivers razors and other personal grooming products by mail. The company positions itself as a cost-effective and convenient alternative to retail chains. It delivers razor blades on a monthly basis and offers additional grooming products for home delivery.[1][2]

History

Dollar Shave Club was founded by Mark Levine and Michael Dubin. The pair met at a party and spoke of their frustrations with the cost of razor blades. With their own money and investments from start-up incubator Science Inc., they began operations in July 2011.[3][4][5]

Dollar Shave Club is backed by a variety of venture capitalists. In March 2012, seed investors provided $1 million in funding from groups that included, Felicis Ventures, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Andreessen Horowitz, Shasta Ventures, and Forerunner Ventures.[6] The same group, joined by Venrock, provided $9.8 million in series A funding in October 2012.[7] A year later, a $12 million series B round was raised led by Venrock, Comcast Ventures, New World Investors and Battery Ventures. Amidst the fundraising announcement, Dollar Shave Club announced it would be expanding its product line to include a dozen other men’s products in 2014.[8]

Membership

The initial welcome packet from Dollar Shave Club.
The initial welcome packet from Dollar Shave Club.

Dollar Shave Club offers three membership plans, which can be upgraded or downgraded at any time.[9] The membership service first launched March 6, 2012, via a YouTube video that went viral.[10] The YouTube video attracted an unanticipated amount of traffic, that crashed the company’s server in the first hour. Once Dubin got the server working, he enlisted a team of friends and contractors to help fulfill the 12,000 orders that arrived in the first 48 hours of launching the video. The orders were packed by hand in a warehouse in Gardena, California.[11] Since the membership launch, the company acquired 600,000 members, buying more than 24 million razors a year. Although the company primarily markets its products to men, approximately 20 percent of its customers are women.[12]

Products

The plans start at $1 a month and include three types of razors: The Humble Twin, The 4X (a.k.a. Lover's Blade), and the Executive.[13] Each subscription comes with a free compatible handle.[1][13]

In April 2013, Dollar Shave Club launched their second product, Dr. Carver’s Easy Shave Butter, a transparent pre shave product for members with sensitive skin.[14] In June 2013, the company launched a line of wet wipes targeted at men called One Wipe Charlies.[5] Both the Shave Butter and One Wipe Charlies are proprietary products that Dollar Shave Club created.

In late 2012, Dollar Shave Club launched in Canada and Australia, with other international markets coming in the future.[15][16]

Dollar Shave Club launched Dr. Carver's Magnanimous Post Shave All-In-One Daily Moisturizer in 2014.[17]

Promotion

In March 2012, the company launched a YouTube video entitled “Our Blades Are F***ing Great” featuring CEO Michael Dubin.[18] The video prompted 12,000 orders in a two-day span after it was released, and has received over 17 million views as of January 2015.[2][19]

The video won “Best Out-of-Nowhere Video Campaign” at the 2012 AdAge Viral Video Awards.[20] Dollar Shave Club was also awarded a 2013 Webby Award in the Fashion & Beauty category [21] and earned the People's Choice Webby Award in the Consumer Packaged Goods category.[22]

In June 2013, Dollar Shave Club released a second video on YouTube called "Let's Talk About #2", which again starred its CEO and promoted One Wipe Charlies.[5] The video won the Shorty Award in 2014 for best use of Social Media.[23]

In 2014, Dollar Shave Club and its One Wipe Charlies teamed up with the Colon Cancer Alliance in an effort to help “wipe out” colon cancer.[24] The company reports that during National Colorectal Cancer Awareness month it reached 23 million people in spreading the message about the importance of getting screened. The company also donated $10,000 to the Colon Cancer Alliance, contributing a percentage of One Wipe Charlies’ sales and putting a dollar value on social shares.[25] Also as part of the campaign, Michael Dubin had his own colonoscopy streamed live online.[26]

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 "DollarShaveClub.com - How It Works". Dollar Shave Club. Retrieved 2012-09-12.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Naziri, Jessica. "Dollar Shave Club co-founder Michael Dubin had a smooth transition". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 28 April 2014.
  3. ↑ "A David and Gillette Story". Wall Street Journal. 2012-04-12. Retrieved 2012-09-12.
  4. ↑ "Dollar Shave Club: A Start-Up's Viral Ad for 'F***ing Great' Razors Is a Big Hit". TIME. 2012-03-12. Retrieved 2012-03-19.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 Colao, J.J. "Dollar Shave Club: Breaking The Razor Blade Monopoly". Forbes. Retrieved 30 April 2014.
  6. ↑ O'Dell, J. "Dollar Shave Club’s blades are “so f*cking great” they just raised a round for ‘em". Venture Beat. Retrieved 29 April 2014.
  7. ↑ Chapman, Lizette. "Dollar Shave Club Picks Up $10M to Grow Beyond Razors". Dow Jones. Retrieved 30 April 2014.
  8. ↑ Truong, Alex. "Dollar Shave Club Raises $12 Million to Offer More Grooming Products". Fast Company. Retrieved 30 April 2014.
  9. ↑ Sadasivam, Krishna. "Review: The Dollar Shave Club". The PC Weenies. Retrieved 18 August 2014.
  10. ↑ Janjigian, Robert. "Small beauty renegades make headway amid giants". Palm Beach Daily News. Retrieved 18 August 2014.
  11. ↑ Dahl, Darren. "Riding the Momentum Created by a Cheeky Video". The New York Times. Retrieved 18 August 2014.
  12. ↑ Stock, Kyle. "Dollar Shave Plots to Take Over Your Bathroom". Bloomberg Businessweek. Retrieved 18 August 2014.
  13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 Maurer, Tim. "Revolutionary Retail: Test-Driving Warby Parker And Dollar Shave Club". Forbes. Retrieved 30 April 2014.
  14. ↑ Carney, Michael. "Not just razors anymore: Dollar Shave Club introduces wet wipes for your other sensitive areas". Pando Daily. Retrieved 1 May 2014.
  15. ↑ Mitroff, Sarah. "$10 Million Shave Club: Discount Razor Service Is a Hit With Investors". Wired. Retrieved 1 May 2014.
  16. ↑ Mitchell, Sue. "‘Our wipes are f***ing great’: How Dollar Shave Club’s Michael Dubin plans to ‘own the man in the bathroom’ with $US12m in new funding". BRW. Retrieved 30 April 2014.
  17. ↑ Neff, Jack. "Dollar Shave Club Goes 'Upscale' With $9 Moisturizer". Ad Age. Retrieved 18 August 2014.
  18. ↑ Kaye, Kate. "Why YouTube Darling Dollar Shave Club Is Buying TV Ads". AdvertisingAge. Retrieved 30 April 2014.
  19. ↑ "DollarShaveClub.com - Our Blades Are F***ing Great". Youtube. Retrieved 10 October 2014.
  20. ↑ "Google Takes Top Honors at Viral Video Awards". AdAge. 2012-04-17. Retrieved 2012-09-12.
  21. ↑ "Webby Awards: Fashion & Beauty". Webby Awards. 2013-05-22. Retrieved 2013-06-13.
  22. ↑ "Webby Awards: Consumer Packaged Goods". Webby Awards. 2013-05-22. Retrieved 2013-06-13.
  23. ↑ "Best Use of Social Media for Retail or E-Commerce". Shorty Awards. Retrieved 30 April 2014.
  24. ↑ "Dollar Shave Club". Colon Cancer Alliance. Retrieved 1 May 2014.
  25. ↑ "We Reached 23 Million People!". Dollar Shave Club. Retrieved 1 May 2014.
  26. ↑ Neporent, Liz. "Man Live Tweets His Colonoscopy". ABC News. Retrieved 1 May 2014.


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