How I Built This with Guy Raz Live Episode! Dollar Shave Club: Michael Dubin
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Dec 17, 2018 
Michael Dubin, the founder of Dollar Shave Club, shares his journey from marketing to creating a subscription razor service. He reveals how a chance meeting at a holiday party sparked the idea, and his background in improv helped craft a viral launch video. Dubin reflects on the initial chaos of scaling the business and the challenges of fundraising. He discusses competition, the eventual acquisition by Unilever, and offers insights on resilience and the balance of luck and hard work in his success story.
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Warehouse Razors Sparked The Idea
- Michael met Mark Levine at a holiday party and learned Mark had 250,000 razors in a California warehouse.
- Michael bought access, tested the razors, and immediately saw a business opportunity for an online subscription.
Start With An MVP To Learn Fast
- Use an MVP to test pricing, assortment, and customer behavior before scaling.
- Learn from early customers to pick the best product and service model quickly.
Viral Video Launched The Business
- Michael used his improv and video experience to script and shoot a humorous launch video that explained the problem and the service.
- The video crashed their site, sold out inventory, and validated strong consumer demand.