If you’ve seen the famous viral commercial for Dollar Shave Club then you’ve probably heard of it’s foil, the Dollar Beard Club. Dollar Beard Club was an idea that had been kicked around by Chris Stoikos but he wasn’t quite sure how to market it until he saw the approach that Dollar Shave Club took. So he took their format and made it about growing beards, not shaving them. The rest is history and in the first 8 months of Dollar Beard Club’s life, they had a revenue of 8 million dollars. Chris has even been on the TV show Shark Tank and landed a funding deal.
According to his own website Chris would describe himself as, “a wildly creative, out-of-the-box thinking, high performing CEO. He has been behind multiple successful product and company launches, and established a formula to create extremely engaging, low budget marketing videos that simultaneously entertain and educate your audience.” Chris thrives off of viral social media campaigns.
I believe Chris is quite exemplary for a millennial entrepreneur as he has started two multi-million dollar business by the age of 27. Chris is also quite brilliant at running viral campaigns, particularly when it comes to beards. His videos on youtube have hit over 100 million views advertising Dollar Beard Club and I would say that shows expert knowledge of how to use social media for marketing. Chris in a huge innovator in these social media viral campaigns he has been called “explosive and energetic” by the king of social media himself, Dan Bilzerian.
Chris also shows a good grasp of networking which can be a good trait when starting a business. He was able to network one of his companies “Coolbox” onto Shark Tank where he managed to strike a deal. He also has networked to Social Media Phenomena like the Ice Bucket Challenge to attract brand ambassadors to Dollar Beard Club. This includes social media stars like Sean Whalen, now running for Congress, and the infamous Dan Bilzerian.
Chris shows an understanding for marketing towards the under 35 crowd in the social media landscape better than anyone else out there, and that might be the greatest thing that sets him apart from his fellow Millennial Entrepreneurs.
This idea is so creative and I love how it supplements the widely popular, and extremely successful Dollar Shave Club. Also, I think that a concept like this really does illustrate how people can be inspired by others to have their own great ideas. That is why being present in an innovative culture is something so pivotal for an aspiring entrepreneur.
I love how he took the exact same approach as the competition who literally eliminate the point of belonging to his club. I was at one point a member to both groups. Beards are a big thing as of recently, and I think this club is a great idea.