Dubin: Dollar Shave Club struggled to raise venture capital through Series D
Michael Dubin · Dollar Shave Club: Michael Dubin, From Zero to a Billion Dollar Exit in Five Years (December 2018) · Jan 5, 2026 · at 37:04
Michael Dubin, founder and former CEO of Dollar Shave Club, discusses the persistent investor skepticism the direct-to-consumer shaving brand faced from venture capitalists despite rapid consumer adoption.
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“Raising money has never been easy for us, and I think for, unless you're Snapchat circa 2000 whatever, You know, it's hard to raise money for any kind of company and for all the reasons that you pointed out in the beginning, you know, what, how do you think that you are going to, you know, take on these giants that have been doing this for, you know, over 50 years and aren't they going to squash you? Aren't they going to copy you? And so it was never easy for us. Yes. There was always, you can always raise some money from some portion of the market, but the people that you want to raise money from the smart money, so to speak, the smart money asks the smart questions. And they asked all the questions that, that they should, and it was never easy for us, even, you know, into our Series D.”
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