Michael Dubin

To paraphrase one of his company’s early ads, this founder is f***ing great. It was only a few years ago that Michael Dubin (and co-founder Mark Levine) set his sights on shaking up the men’s grooming market. The business plan was simple: Sell well-designed men’s razor and blade products, do it online in the form of a membership club, and price them—starting at, yes, a dollar a month—to undercut Gillette (Procter & Gamble) and Schick (Energizer). Dubin gained YouTube fame in 2012 from the hilarious videos that introduced his company. In less than three years he’s turned that early novelty into a legitimate business, with $150 million in funding, 2015 revenues expected to be about the same, and new products including hair gel and peppermint-scented butt wipes. (Yes, really.) Collectively, Los Angeles-based Dollar Shave Club—and New York rival Harry’s (see next writeup) are a big reason why U.S. online sales of men’s shaving gear nearly doubled last year to $263 million, and are expected to double again this year. “For a four-year-old company to come in and be right behind Gillette,” Dubin says, “that’s a really meaningful statement of our success.”