Dollar Shave Club's $4,500 founder video took 12,000 orders in 48 hours

The founder roasted his own category, and the pitch became the joke people passed on.

One of 1041 viral marketing examples in our library, broken down by format, tactic and results.

What Dollar Shave Club did

Dollar Shave Club was a razor subscription: cheap blades mailed to your door every month. The market was owned by brands selling expensive multi-blade cartridges, and Dollar Shave Club had no retail shelf and no ad budget.

Michael Dubin had done improv comedy before starting the company. He wrote the script himself, shot it in a single day with a friend from his improv days, and spent $4,500 on it.

The video went live on 6 March 2012, the same day the company announced a $1 million seed round. Dubin later told Inc. the site crashed from the traffic and the company took 12,000 orders in the first two days.

The format: The founder roast

1. Open
   Founder introName, company, and the offer in one sentence: razors for a dollar a month.
2. Beat 2
   The objectionHe asks if the blades are any good and answers it with the headline joke.
3. Beat 3
   Price anchorHe names what people pay for brand-name razors and where that money goes.
4. Beat 4
   Feature bloatHe mocks razors with extra blades and gadgets. One blade was fine for your grandfather.
5. Beat 5
   Warehouse gagsStaff and props around the warehouse: proof there's a real operation behind the joke.
6. Close
   TaglineA two-word pun on the category and the URL.

Why it spread

It's a pitch, not an ad

Most ads wrap a product in a story. This one is the sales pitch, played for laughs. You finish the video knowing the price, the model and why it's cheaper.

It punches up

Mocking the big razor brands gave viewers a side to take. Sharing it said "I'm not paying for that either."

The founder is the proof

A founder in his own warehouse reads as honest in a way a paid actor doesn't. The low budget helped. It looked like a startup because it was one.

Results

• 12,000 orders in the first 48 hours, and the site crashed on launch day ^[1]
• A $1 million seed round announced the same week (March 2012) ^[2]
• Over 27 million YouTube views by November 2020 ^[2]
• 3.2 million subscribers by 2016, the year Unilever bought the company for $1 billion ^[2]

How to copy it

1. Pick the one thing that's actually different about your offer. For Dollar Shave Club, it was the price. If you can't say it in one sentence, the video won't work.
2. Name the incumbent habit you're mocking: what people overpay for, or what's overbuilt.
3. Write the objection your buyer already has, then answer it with a joke that's also true.
4. Shoot it in your real space with your real team. One location, one day.
5. End on a short tagline and the URL. Cut a 30-second vertical version for TikTok and Reels.

Hi, I'm [NAME], founder of [BRAND].
What is [BRAND]? [OFFER IN ONE LINE, WITH PRICE].

Is [PRODUCT] any good?
No. It's [BLUNT SUPERLATIVE].

Do you like paying [PRICE] for [INCUMBENT PRODUCT]?
[WHERE THAT MONEY ACTUALLY GOES].

Do you really need [FEATURE BLOAT]?
[ABSURD COMPARISON].

Stop [PAIN 1]. Stop [PAIN 2].
[TWO-WORD PUN ON YOUR CATEGORY]. [URL]

Takeaways

• Make the product benefit the punchline, so the joke can't be separated from the pitch.
• Answer the buyer's doubt out loud.
• Low budget is fine when it matches who you are.

FAQ

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Sources

1. Inc.: How a $4,500 YouTube video turned into a $1 billion company
2. Wikipedia: Dollar Shave Club
3. TechCrunch: Dollar Shave Club launches, raises $1M (2012)