ME Alum Reinvents Razor

Ten years ago when Adam Simone, then a North­eastern stu­dent, was working on co- op at Gillette in Boston, he never imag­ined one day launching a startup to com­pete in the shaving industry. On the con­trary, from his perspective—as an engi­neer on the product devel­op­ment team—he saw a strong industry that wasn’t primed to be clipped by fresh competition.

But that changed sev­eral years later, when Dollar Shave Club and others emerged onto the scene and dis­rupted the market. At that time Simone, now a North­eastern grad­uate, was working at Blue Belt Tech­nolo­gies as director of mar­keting and clin­ical ser­vices. He and a col­league, Adam Hahn, took notice. An industry that was old and stale had become new and exciting, but they real­ized an oppor­tu­nity still untapped.

As they saw it, no one was bringing inno­va­tion to the product itself. Plus, they both sport thick- growing hair and wanted a better shaving option than a tra­di­tional razor. So they decided to launch their own busi­ness: Pittsburgh- based Leaf Shave.

“We looked at the market and noticed that all the new players were using the same old prod­ucts that have been around for decades,” said Simone, E’09, who is also Leaf Shave’s chief oper­ating officer. “We fig­ured we could engi­neer a better solution.”

Enter the Leaf—a cus­tomiz­able metal razor with a piv­oting head using double- edge razor blades that puts a new spin on an old- fashioned style of shaving. The razor is designed for users to insert up to three blades. Each blade posi­tion fea­tures a dif­ferent level of blade expo­sure. For example, if you haven’t shaved lately, you can use all three blades to cut through longer hair; inserting only one blade min­i­mizes the blade expo­sure on the razor and allows for shaving against the grain without much irri­ta­tion. The entre­pre­neurs describe this pro­pri­etary design as a “tapered expo­sure system.”

Simone is devel­oping a busi­ness model in which Leaf Shave cus­tomers earn their blades instead of having to pay for them. Leaf Shave’s Blade Rewards pro­gram drops the cost of razor blades to $0, while deliv­ering high- quality con­sum­able shave care prod­ucts like shave cream and after- shave balm.

This summer, Leaf Shave ran a Kick­starter cam­paign in which more than 1,400 backers pledged a com­bined total of $115,328—eclipsing its $100,000 goal. The com­pany is still taking pre- orders and pro­duc­tion is underway through early 2017, and it antic­i­pates cus­tomers will start receiving the product in the spring. The com­pany is also working to expand its port­folio of prod­ucts to include razors specif­i­cally designed for women and for head shaving, as well as acces­sories and addi­tional con­sum­able shave care prod­ucts. Simone under­scored that the orig­inal Leaf razor “works for every­body,” though men cur­rently com­prise the majority of their customers.

Leaf Shave is located at a co- working space called Alloy 26 at Nova Place on Pittsburgh’s North Side. Nova Place is a former retail mecca that was recently rede­vel­oped into a hub for tech­nology and inno­va­tion and dubbed one of the largest rede­vel­op­ment projects in the country.

We looked at the market and noticed that all the new players were using the same old prod­ucts that have been around for decades. We fig­ured we could engi­neer a better solu­tion.
—Adam Simone, E’09, co-​​founder of Leaf Shave

Simone said he and Hahn make a good team; he han­dles mar­keting, cus­tomer acqui­si­tion, and sales, and Hahn focuses on man­u­fac­turing and product devel­op­ment. Simone’s engi­neering back­ground also makes it easier to work along­side Hahn and under­stand the chal­lenges and oppor­tu­ni­ties from that perspective.

Simone said he’s learned a lot about busi­ness during Leaf Shave’s first eight months and credits his North­eastern expe­ri­ences with putting him on the path toward suc­cess. In addi­tion to Gillette, he worked on co- op at Hasbro in Prov­i­dence and at ELEVEN, a product devel­op­ment con­sulting firm in Boston.

Each of those co- op expe­ri­ences, he said, built upon the next. Gillette offered a good intro­duc­tion into how a large busi­ness oper­ates; at Hasbro, he gained even more hands- on expe­ri­ence and par­tic­i­pated in an inno­va­tion fair that chal­lenged employees to create ideas for new toys; and at ELEVEN he expe­ri­enced a “rapid pro­gres­sion” of his engi­neering skills at a smaller, more nimble company.

“The biggest skill set I acquired is the large breadth of expe­ri­ences that I bring to bear in this com­pany,” he said, noting that he bol­stered his engi­neering acumen and learned how to use a range of web soft­ware tools during co- op. “That wide base of knowl­edge has been invaluable.”