How a bunch of men’s grooming startups take on the big blades in the sector

March 2014. A chance meeting with a childhood friend, who had bagged an internship with American men’s shaving startup Harry’s, left Shantanu Deshpande fixated with a disruptive idea . The duo spent the entire evening at Nariman Point in south Mumbai discussing how Harry’s and its ilk such as Dollar Shave Club are giving sleepless nights to the big daddies of men’s shaving like Gillette . The idea stayed in my head for the next one and a half years, recalls Deshpande, a former McKinsey employee, who further brainstormed with three other friends — Raunak Munot, Rohit Jaiswal and Deepu Panicker — and thought of replicating the model in India. Result? Bombay Shaving Company, which was founded last October and started operations in May 2016. The men’s shaving startup got Rs4 crore as angel funding in August, has taken its membership count to 1,400 in four months and gets over 17 orders daily, claims Deshpande. Bombay Shaving, explains the 29-year-old entrepreneur, works on a subscription model where a user buys a six-part shaving kit containing a razor, a brush, blades, a pre-shave scrub, shaving cream and after-shave balm for Rs 2,995, and pays a subscription fee of Rs 1,200 for a pre-shave scrub, shaving cream, post-shave balm and 20 blades. A subscriber is also free to subscribe to any of the four products according to his needs, he adds. It seemed like a good bet to take, says Deshpande. But is it a right bet? After all, the men’s shaving segment in India is dominated by multinationals like Gillette and Colgate . Deshpande exudes confidence. FMCG is ripe for disruption. Beyond the Lime & Musk Like Bombay Shaving, a bunch of startups such as The Man Company, Ustraa, LetsShave and Beardo is getting into the men’s shaving game. And what has nudged them in this direction are the bright prospects for the market in India. According to Euromonitor , the Indian men’s grooming market is projected to touch sales of Rs 14,200 crore by 2020, up from Rs 3,000 crore in 2010 and Rs 7,500 crore in 2015. What is driving the growth are rising consumer lifestyle expectations, increasing disposable incomes in urban areas and growing image and appearance awareness among men. The numbers last year attest to the huge market potential: men’s shaving accounted for 42% of grooming sales. While refill blades made up over 18% of value sales, razors accounted for close to 16%. Rohit Chawla, cofounder of Gurgaonbased men’s grooming startup The Man Company, reckons image-conscious men will expand the market as they strive to pamper themselves. Men’s grooming, he believes, has long been ignored by FMCG companies. Their focus has always been women since they account for 90% of the personal care market and traditionally women have been influencers for purchase decisions at home, adds Chawla, who started his company last September and has priced its products from Rs250 to Rs3,100. The startup, which doesn’t work on a subscription model, sells its stuff online, has pocketed Rs3 crore in angel funding, has seen daily orders jump from 20 in January to 200 in August, claims Chawla, who has set an ambitious target for next year: 50,000 orders per month, a portfolio of 55 products and an offline presence. Another comforting factor for Chawla is the bright global picture. Last month, American men’s grooming startup Dollar Shave Club was bought by Unilever for $1 billion — a price tag that is five times its sales. Harry’s, the New York-based online subscription shaving startup, has an estimated 2 million customers. Online sales of men’s grooming products, points out a recent Euromonitor report, rose to $625.3 million in 2015 from $463.1 million in 2014. Men, it seems, are now spoilt for choice. However, it was the ranting of an employee about lack of grooming products for men, which made Rajat Tuli start Ustraa in August last year. Tuli, cofounder of online lifestyle brand Happily Unmarried that was started in Delhi in 2003, met cosmetologists, did a lot of research and, after 17 trials, rolled out Ustraa. Our products are not tested on animals but only on rascals, boasts Tuli, bursting into laughter. Happily Unmarried, the parent company of Ustraa, has raised Rs 21 crore so far; the last round was in July this year when it raised Rs 5 crore. Ustraa gets 40,000-50,000 orders per month, has a product range starting from Rs 199 to Rs 1,499, and plans to touch Rs 40 crore in revenues next year, he claims. Tuli reckons that men are desperate to move beyond the lime, musk and classic fragrances that they have been forced to buy due to lack of choice. If you give him what he wants, then he will definitely buy, says Tuli, adding that he is focusing on niches which are not been attended by the large mass brands. We are not just a beard brand or a shaving blade brand, he says. Grooming Indian Consumers Ashutosh Valani in Ahmedabad doesn’t have any problem in being identified as a beard brand. There is a huge potential for grooming products for beards in India, says Valani who cofounded Beardo in October last year. The bootstrapped startup has a range of products for beards such as oil, comb, balm, and wax. In most parts of the world, you will see communities with different beard styles and having a beard is considered a style statement these days, says Valani. Having a beard is not just a trend but a tradition. Can Indian men’s grooming startups take heart from the recent acquisition of Dollar Shave Club by Unilever? Valani is cautiously optimistic. It’s like comparing apples and oranges at this point of time, he says, adding that it’s still early days for homegrown startups. Retail experts too sound a word of caution for the overzealous grooming entrepreneurs. While the online market for men’s shaving product is still nascent, low brand awareness is a big dampener in terms of pushing the widespread usage of such products. Luring price-sensitive consumers would be one of the biggest challenges if they want to expand their appeal, says Ankur Bisen, senior vice-president, retail and consumer, Technopak Advisors. Hooking consumers — particularly price-sensitive ones — to a subscription-based model isn’t easy, he adds. Another big challenge would be penetrating rural markets. Valani is aware of the daunting task. Penetrating the offline market, reaching out to the hordes of untapped consumers, and consistently delivering high-quality products are going to be the main challenges, he contends. For Deshpande of Bombay Shaving, one of the two big challenges is making the subscription model a part of life for Indian consumers. Subscriptions have not yet worked in India, he acknowledges, adding that people don’t like committing upfront. Add to it the RBI regulations making a two-step authentication process mandatory for payment. Deshpande, however, maintains that he has created a subscription engine that makes it easy for people to make online payments, which in turn would result in increasing adoption. Another challenge, he says, is creating a cohesive brand narrative. It is absolutely critical to tell consumers an authentic story, says Deshpande, ruling out the possibility of using celebrities to spread awareness about the brand. Putting a celebrity endorser on screen doesn’t work anymore, he says. It is about engaging consumers, he adds. But can he take on the big blades or even think of making a mark in a market where the Gillettes and Colgates of the world spend millions on marketing and advertising? Deshpande fancies his chances. There is something really romantic about an underdog winning.

How a bunch of men’s grooming startups take on the big blades in the sector

Like Bombay Shaving, a bunch of startups such as The Man Company, Ustraa, LetsShave and Beardo is getting into the men’s shaving game.

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