Green: Viral launch videos grant early scale but cannot make a company
Kirsten Green · Legendary Consumer VC Predicts The Future Of AI Products · Y Combinator · Jun 27, 2025 · at 16:17
Kirsten Green, founder of Forerunner Ventures and early investor in Dollar Shave Club, explains why viral video marketing works initially but is insufficient on its own.
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“At the time when Dollar Shave Club launched, and the founder, Michael Dubin, had that incredible video, that was new. YouTube didn't, I mean, YouTube was big, but it didn't have that many marketing videos, and there weren't that many places to distribute it because social was still ramping up, and so that was a real novelty, and people were delighted by it, and they shared it, and it went around viral fast. That was never going to make the company, but that was a meaningful moment to start a step change and get into some early scale.”
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