Dollar Shave Club

About

Dollar Shave Club is an online store which ships customers various personal grooming products, including a monthly razor blade delivery service. The company gained a significant following online following the success of several viral commercials on YouTube, bearing many similarities to the Isaiah Mustafa Old Spice advertisements.

History

In July 2011, the company was launched by founders Mark Levine and Michael Dubin in Venice, California, with assistance from the start-up incubator Science Inc. The company has received millions in funding from a variety of investors, including Felicis Ventures, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Andreessen Horowitz, Shasta Ventures, Forerunner Ventures, Venrock, Comcast Ventures, New World Investors and Battery Ventures.

Online Presence

On March 6th, 2012, the company uploaded a commercial to YouTube titled “DollarShaveClub.com – Our Blades Are F***ing Great,” in which a man named Mike promotes the Dollar Shave Club razor delivery service while walking through a warehouse filled with various sight gags (shown below). That day, Redditor JustMadMike submitted the video to the /r/videos^[3] subreddit, where it gathered upwards of 6,500 votes (97% upvoted) and 1,000 comments prior to being archived. In the first four years, the video gained over 19 million views and 4,000 comments.

On November 1st, the company launched an official page on Facebook,^[2] which gathered upwards of 1.8 million likes over the next three years. On June 4th, 2013, the Dollar Shave Club YouTube channel uploaded a video titled “Let’s Talk About #2,” promoting the One Wipe Charlie sanitary wipes (shown below). In the next two years, the video garnered upwards of three million views and 1,300 comments.

Parodies

On September 5th, 2012, the Evike.com Airsoft YouTube channel uploaded a promotional video for their air rifle online store, done in the style of the Dollar Shave Club commercial (shown below, left). On October 15th, 2014, the ArrangementFinders YouTube channel uploaded a parody advertisement for the ArragenmentFinders.com dating website (shown below, right).

Dollar Beard Club

In January 2014, the site DollarBeardClub.com was launched, which sells various facial hair grooming products, including oil, wax and brushes. On June 23rd, 2015, the Dollar Beard Club YouTube channel uploaded a commercial for the website, which mimicked the style of the original Dollar Shave Club ad (shown below).

Traffic

Following the release of the “Our Blades Are F***ing Great” video, the site received 12,000 orders in the following 48 hours. As of June 2015, DollarShaveClub.com has a United States rank of 3,110 on the traffic analytics site Quantcast.^[4]

Search Interest

External References