A billion dollars for a mail-order razor blade service?
Though it may sound like a simple idea, the development of the Dollar Shave Club brand — particularly its growth via simple, but compelling viral marketing on YouTube — was impressive enough to the senior leadership team at Unilever that it announced its intention to purchase the company while keeping its co-founder, Michael Dubin, in charge.
A week before the deal was announced, creative types were already extolling the company’s virtues.
Favorite #brands right now: @DollarShaveClub & @InVisionApp
Awesome content + free stuff spewing from a valuable product and genuine voice
— Brinkmanda (@brinkmanda1) July 11, 2016
For anyone in the entrepreneurship space (or anyone who has dreamed of launching their own startup) this was one of the biggest exit successes in some time.
It is pretty great to see that great ideas are still valued. That idea being Dollar Shave Club being bought by Unilever.
— Jesse James (@j_ettebe) July 20, 2016
Somewhere between Impressed and Jealous on Dollar Shave Club
— Jason M. Lemkin (@jasonlk) July 20, 2016
A @DollarShaveClub turned into a @BillionShaveClub. @Unilever | #Startupnews
— Juan Pablo Uribe (@uribejp) July 20, 2016
I'll take 1 billion razors #dollarshaveclub
— Vanessa Scull (@vskully) July 20, 2016
This magnitude of the deal spurred execs to look for best practices that paved the way for the deal.
A CMO’s View: How Dollar Shave Club built its brand on #video marketing https://t.co/eM2OBrYVhX (via @_SEM)
— SEM SEO PPC RTB (@_SEM) July 20, 2016
Some suggested Dollar Shave Club benefitted from some unusual skill sets.
RT ZoeLaHenry: How improv helped Dollar Shave Club founder sell his startup for $1 billion: https://t.co/1XqpQTzUsJ
— Vamsy K (@VamceK) July 20, 2016
Not surprisingly, many online commentators were quick to revisit the clip that started it all:
Thanks @theskimm for reminding us of this gem: https://t.co/iluwS22lwp from @DollarShaveClub A win for brilliant marketing!
— Joe Gutberlet (@joegutberlet) July 20, 2016
