Two years ago I wrote a piece about Dollar Shave Club that provoked an unexpected reaction from some quarters (I hadn’t realized there were so many razor-blades-on-demand haters). The irony is that my article at the time was more an ode to the revenue model — give away the razor for free and make money on selling the blades — than to DSC, Harry’s, Bevel per se (although I admire them too).

It’s with admiration that I read about Unilever’s $1 billion acquisition of Dollar Shave Club in this week’s press.

For some great insight into the ingredients of this success story and its implications, I encourage you to read Dollar Shave Club: How Michael Dubin Created A Massively Successful Company and Re-Defined CPG by DSC’s lead investor David Pakman at Venrock, as well as Dollar Shave Club and The Disruption of Everything by Ben Thompson.