Dollar Shave Club Uses One Viral Video to Sell for $1 Billion

The Dollar Shave Club, acquired by Unilever for $1 billion. Why is this significant? Five years ago, Dollar Shave Club didn't exist. Today they have been sold for a billion dollars. Their founder is rich. A lot of early investors are rich. How did it all happen? Of course, there have been startups for a long, long time. But many observers, myself included, point the finger at the successful viral video that the founder made. Go to YouTube and just type in Dollar Shave Club and you'll see a video with more than 23 million views. Folks, this was essentially free advertising. Now I say free. They did spend some money and time and effort creating a fantastic 1 minute, 33 second video. But it really told the story, gave a compelling reason as to why you should join the Dollar Shave Club. And it did it with tremendous humor. It mocked the big boys, the big companies, all their sophisticated technology for razors and the 10 blades and all that. Truly, truly masterful, folks. That's why this whole video thing isn't just a gimmick. That's why this whole social media thing isn't just something for the little companies. And big ones can laugh it off. Because big shaving companies are losing market share. Big companies are losing every day to young upstarts who have an idea and are willing to communicate it. Not everyone can make a viral video with the humor and the production values of the Dollar Shave Club and get tens of millions of views. But what if you don't want to make a billion dollars? What if you want to make 100 million or even a million? What is stopping you now? I'll confess. I've never had a video that made 23 million views, or an audio for that matter. All I can tell you though, is I'm out there slugging every day, communicating with people. What's stopping you?