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The startup world is booming. From San Francisco to Dubai, cities around the world are morphing into tech hub havens that offer the ideal ecosystem for growing businesses. Even more, startups have many more avenues for attaining capital than ever before. Venture capitalists, incubators, and accelerators all play a major role in shaping the future of the startups of today.
“Within the first few years, roughly half of all startups will fail,” says Lee Jacobs, a venture capitalist who’s invested in companies like Blue Bottle Coffee, Loom, and Pipefy. “The vast majority fail because of poor execution.”
With the right branding, your target market will be able to better identify with you. Here are five men-focused startups that got branding and marketing right:
Vuori
Vuori is a men’s active lifestyle clothing company that launched in 2015. As a startup company that dubbed itself the “Lululemon for men,” they were able to raise $300,000 in capital during its early stages. Eventually, funding increased to $2.6 million, all of which came from friends (including singer Jason Mraz). In 2018, they projected end-of-year revenues in the $30 million to $50 million range, following a 125% growth rate from 2016 to 2017.
The startup markets its clothing to men who participate in sports and physical activities that are less mainstream than the likes of football, basketball, or strength training. Instead, it targets men who enjoy activities like yoga, surfing, and while the typical men’s activewear brands have, on average, three shirts for every pair of shorts, Vuori hones in on high-end shirts. Its offerings are opposite; three shorts for every shirt, and shorts comprise 60% of its total sales.
Harry’s
Harry’s entered a $2.4 million market as a startup vying to compete with major brands like Gillette and Schtick. Its branding was one of its biggest advantages. With co-founder Jeffrey Raider on board, who spearheaded branding efforts as the co-founder over at Warby Parker, the company already had a strong start. Raider and co-founder Andy Katz-Mayfield felt there was a gap in the market; while there were plenty of options, none were personalized or had that creative touch that’s prominent in the branding world of today.
“We want to give our customers all the tools and information they need to go on and talk about Harry’s in their own voice,” Matthew Tully, Director of Digital Products, told FirstRound. “If we can package the experience, the mood, the feeling that we want our product to create and put it into customers’ hands, then they go out into the world as megaphones for our message.”
One way they were able to do this way by launching a campaign called National Shave Day, which encouraged participants who participated in the cultural phenomena called “No Shave November” to break their no-shave fast with a good razor. As a result, National Shave Day saw a 360% increase in website traffic.
Roman
Roman is a men’s health brand that makes it easy to connect with healthcare professionals. Men can head over to the Roman website, schedule an appointment, meet with a doctor, and set up recurring prescription shipments within just a few hours.
Roman wanted to help normalize common conditions that men experience, like erectile dysfunction and hair loss. Although 66% of men will start losing their hair by the age of 35, and more than half of men will experience erectile dysfunction at some point in their lives. And yet, because of the macho culture that’s permeated today’s men, many of them aren’t seeking proper treatment.
“Roman is a healthcare company, not a beauty or a lifestyle brand,” said co-founder Saman Rahmanian. As a result, it uses bold typography and dark images, and a style reminiscent of an official medical practice. The company wanted customers to feel as though they were using a reliable, professional service that understood the underlying needs of the modern man.
Filippo Loreti
Filippo Loreti is the most crowdfunded watch company to ever exist; they raised $6.7 million. The company’s goal was to create luxury watching that the average man could afford, and it was able to achieve this by eliminating the middlemen that hike their prices. The iconic watches are inspired by Rome, Milan, and Venice, and come in a variety of styles. Rome Gold, for example, has a brown leather band, white dial, and gold case: simple yet elegant.
Hims
Like Roman, Hims is a lifestyle brand with great marketing to boot. The branding is aesthetically pleasing; its visual design is neutral and poignant. According to Andrew Dudum, the company’s CEO, the packaging and style was curated to help men use medicinal lifestyle products without them feeling as if they’re taking something medicinal. After all, according to a World Health Organization study, half of all patients in developed countries don’t take their medicine as prescribed.
“Making it not feel medical at all was a fundamental part of how we thought about this brand,” Dudum told Racked. “Arguably, the biggest issue in medicine is that people don’t take the proper medicine at the proper dosage, and that’s for the most part because it’s pretty shitty to take pills all day. Shampooing your hair with some medical shampoo that smells like chemicals doesn’t spark a ton of endorphins or encourage you to use it. Adherence and consistency drives efficacy, so we wanted them to taste and smell great.”
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This content is sponsored by Kousik Nandi.
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