Start-up spotlight: Dollar Shave Club offers monthly razor supply

By Andrea Chang

March 23, 2014 9:54 AM PT

A Santa Monica start-up wants to take the financial pain out of shaving.

Dollar Shave Club is a new membership-only website that promises to “shave time, shave money” by sending customers a shipment of razor blades automatically every month. The company estimates that it will save members as much as $292 per year on shaving.

“For a very long time people have been flummoxed by the price of brand-name razors, so they hang on to their blades for longer than they should and milk their blades,” company co-founder and Chief Executive Michael Dubin said. “You should change your blade once a week, and with the Dollar Shave Club you’re going to be able to do that.”

The company offers three kinds of razors: the Humble Twin, a standard two-blade razor, for $3 a month; the 4x, a four-blade razor for men and women, for $6; and the Executive, a “state-of-the-art” six-blade razor for $9. Shipping is included.

Dollar Shave Club launched out of private beta Tuesday. It is the fifth company to launch out of Santa Monica tech studio Science, founded by former Myspace CEO Mike Jones.

The shaving company announced nearly $1 million in seed funding co-led by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and Forerunner Ventures. Other contributors include Andreessen Horowitz, Shasta Ventures and Felicis Ventures. Science also contributed $100,000 in angel funding, Dubin said.

Dollar Shave Club filmed a hysterical video for the launch, in which Dubin tells consumers (with a little bit of coarse language) to “stop paying for shave tech you don’t need.”

“Each razor has stainless steel blades and aloe vera lubricating strip and pivot head. It’s so gentle a toddler could use it,” he says. “Do you think your razor needs a vibrating handle, a flashlight, a back-scratcher and 10 blades? Your handsome-ass grandfather had one blade -- and polio.”

The blades are made by a private-label manufacturer in Korea. Members can pause their memberships if they don’t want to receive a new shipment of blades, Dubin said. He started the company with co-founder Mark Levine in December 2010.

The company plans to release more products this year, including shaving cream and after-shave moisturizer.

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