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Andy Katz-Mayfield

Co-Founder & Co-CEO, Mammoth Brands · 1 appearance on the record.

computed by AI from the episodes · how this works → · full disclaimer →

founderexecutive@AndyKatzM ↗LinkedIn ↗mammothbrands.com ↗

In 2013, Andy Katz-Mayfield co-founded direct-to-consumer grooming company Harry's alongside Jeff Raider. Under his leadership, the company acquired German blade manufacturer Feintechnik, expanded into major retailers, and evolved into multi-brand CPG holding company Mammoth Brands.

13statements → 6claims → 3claims resolved → 33%fully supported → 3.85/5average certainty → 1.54/5average debate potential → ≈4.5/5argument clarity, estimated → 4said about them ↓

1 supported 1 partly supported 1 contradicted 3 not checkable as stated how the 6 claims stand · each chip opens the sources

6 assertions · 5 insights · 2 disclosures · every statement was checked. The predictions and assertions are the 6 claims: statements the public record can support or contradict. 3 are resolved, and 3 name no date, number or outcome precise enough to check. Everything else (opinions, insights, what ifs, disclosures) can never be settled by the record, so it carries no assessment.

The record, in short

What the tape says about how Andy argues and how the claims held up. Everything they said, and everything said about them, is in the tabs below.

Their most notable supported claim

Assertion Supported
Gillette held a massive 70% global market share in the shaving industry
“Gillette globally had, you know, 70% market share, like truly insane.”
Andy Katz-Mayfield Jun 12, 2023 ▶ 55:21 Harry’s Razors: Andy Katz-Mayfield and Jeff Raider

Their most notable contradicted claim

Assertion Contradicted
Only 15 to 20 people globally have founded two multi-billion-dollar companies
“So there's probably, you know, 15 or 20 people on the planet who can say that they've successfully started two multi-billion dollar companies.”
Andy Katz-Mayfield Jun 12, 2023 ▶ 1:11:21 Harry’s Razors: Andy Katz-Mayfield and Jeff Raider

Expressed certainty vs assessment result

none yet certainty 1
none yet certainty 2
0% certainty 3
75% certainty 4
none yet certainty 5

weighted support: a fully supported claim counts one, a partly supported claim counts half. Each filled bar is clickable and opens exactly those claims; "none yet" means nothing said at that certainty level has resolved yet

How they sound: not measured why? →

We measure speaking style by listening to the audio itself, and a fair number needs at least 2,000 words from one person on tape we have measured. There is too little of Andy Katz-Mayfield on measured tape to publish a rate. This says nothing about how they speak.

Everything Andy Katz-Mayfield said on How I Built This that made the record, most notable first. Filter by type, assessment or year in the ledger →

Insight
Meaningful physical product improvement is difficult without owning the manufacturing process
“It's, it would be really difficult to meaningfully inflect product improvement without actually owning the manufacturing process.”
Andy Katz-Mayfield Jun 12, 2023 ▶ 46:27 Harry’s Razors: Andy Katz-Mayfield and Jeff Raider
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Harry's captured over 50% of Target's razor category market share overnight
“When we launched in Target, we took over 50% market share of the category at Target overnight.”
Andy Katz-Mayfield Jun 12, 2023 ▶ 59:58 Harry’s Razors: Andy Katz-Mayfield and Jeff Raider
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Razor blade prices were historically inflated by an effective monopoly
“There is a single player that really dominates this industry. And that was also true of Warby Parker. And one of the reasons why prices were so inflated is that there was effectively a monopolist.”
Andy Katz-Mayfield Jun 12, 2023 ▶ 14:09 Harry’s Razors: Andy Katz-Mayfield and Jeff Raider
Insight
Consumer hardware like razors cannot launch with a software-style minimum viable product
“There isn't really like an MVP here. Like we need this thing to work out of the gate. Like it's a razor. We need the product to be good. We need the inventory.”
Andy Katz-Mayfield Jun 12, 2023 ▶ 39:10 Harry’s Razors: Andy Katz-Mayfield and Jeff Raider
Insight
Agile software-style testing and iteration methods do not work in manufacturing
“And of course, in a manufacturing environment, like, you need to be more planful. You can't just, like, test and learn things on the fly. On a website, you can do that stuff.”
Andy Katz-Mayfield Jun 12, 2023 ▶ 53:47 Harry’s Razors: Andy Katz-Mayfield and Jeff Raider
Assertion Contradicted
Only 15 to 20 people globally have founded two multi-billion-dollar companies
“So there's probably, you know, 15 or 20 people on the planet who can say that they've successfully started two multi-billion dollar companies.”
Andy Katz-Mayfield Jun 12, 2023 ▶ 1:11:21 Harry’s Razors: Andy Katz-Mayfield and Jeff Raider
Insight
Razor blades require complex manufacturing unlike other commoditized consumer packaged goods
“Most consumer packaged goods are reasonably commoditized. There's probably a hundred manufacturers, you know, throughout the world that can make, or, you know, thousands that can make soap or, Hairstyling products or whatever. And razor blades, not so. There i…”
Andy Katz-Mayfield Jun 12, 2023 ▶ 19:29 Harry’s Razors: Andy Katz-Mayfield and Jeff Raider
Insight
Razor blade manufacturing complexity comes from high-velocity precision edge grinding
“The grinding process, Which is really where the secret sauce of razor blade manufacturing comes in. It's the actual grinding of this very thin steel to get that edge and get that shape is a very hard process to perfect, and to get billions of these things made…”
Andy Katz-Mayfield Jun 12, 2023 ▶ 27:49 Harry’s Razors: Andy Katz-Mayfield and Jeff Raider
Assertion Partly supported
Harry's raised $100M in debt and equity to buy its German manufacturer
“And so we were able to get commitments for. Sixty five million dollars of equity. We then went to Germany to raise. Thirty five million dollars of debt, which was a whole different challenge to convince these, like, very conservative German bank lenders to len…”
Andy Katz-Mayfield Jun 12, 2023 ▶ 50:30 Harry’s Razors: Andy Katz-Mayfield and Jeff Raider
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Harry's generated up to $10M in annualized revenue before buying its factory
“We went, you know, from a, you know you know, a sort of technology enabled startup You know, that was doing, I don't know what we were doing at the time, Jeff, you know, five or ten million dollars of revenue on an annualized basis to like a fully vertically i…”
Andy Katz-Mayfield Jun 12, 2023 ▶ 51:35 Harry’s Razors: Andy Katz-Mayfield and Jeff Raider
Assertion Supported
Gillette held a massive 70% global market share in the shaving industry
“Gillette globally had, you know, 70% market share, like truly insane.”
Andy Katz-Mayfield Jun 12, 2023 ▶ 55:21 Harry’s Razors: Andy Katz-Mayfield and Jeff Raider
Disclosure
Harry's evolved its corporate vision from a single brand to a next-generation P&G
“The vision really evolved from, hey, we're gonna build, you know, a next generation Gillette or a next generation Old Spice, you know, from a Harry's brand standpoint to, hey, we're gonna build a next generation, you know, Procter & Gamble. Like, we wanna, we …”
Andy Katz-Mayfield Jun 12, 2023 ▶ 1:03:40 Harry’s Razors: Andy Katz-Mayfield and Jeff Raider
Disclosure
Harry's initially explored partnering with private equity to acquire public competitor Edgewell
“I actually talked to a couple private equity firms about, because Edgewell was a public company, but a reasonably small public company, about trying to buy them Take them private and fold it into our business. That was actually how it started. And we could nev…”
Andy Katz-Mayfield Jun 12, 2023 ▶ 1:05:28 Harry’s Razors: Andy Katz-Mayfield and Jeff Raider

The other half of the tape: Andy Katz-Mayfield's own voice is left out of every number here. Other people bring the name up 3 times in 2 episodes on How I Built This. 1 statement on the record names them. every mention, with the transcript →

Who brings them up most Guy Raz 3

Statements about Andy Katz-Mayfield, by other people (1)

Insight
Equal co-founder equity is crucial for aligning long-term economic incentives
“I think that's actually been really important for us to like having the same economic incentives all the time, same ownership. Like it's just good, you know, equal partnership. That's I'm really glad we did that in retrospect.”
Jeff Raider Jun 12, 2023 ▶ 39:31 Harry’s Razors: Andy Katz-Mayfield and Jeff Raider

Every mention by year

tap a year for its mentions
0021322024episodesmentions
0122024episodes it came up in
000.811.522024episodesmentions per episode
2024 3 mentions in 2 episodes 2 per episode

Appearances (1)

EpisodeDateSpeaking time
Harry’s Razors: Andy Katz-Mayfield and Jeff Raider Jun 12, 2023 21m
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