Billie priced out the pink tax, then sold for $310M in four years.
A women’s razor sold by subscription, launched in November 2017, owned by Edgewell Personal Care (Schick’s parent) since November 29, 2021, and now in 30,000+ stores.
BLOOM10X did not work with Billie. This breakdown uses public sources only, linked below.
- Nov 2017Launches online with $1.5M
- Jun 2018“Project Body Hair” video
- Jan 2020P&G agrees to buy Billie
- Jan 2021Deal dropped after the FTC sues
- Nov 2021Edgewell buys it for $310M cash
- Feb 2022First stores: 4,000 Walmarts
- Nov 202330,000+ doors, 21 retailers
Four years to an exit, two to 30,000 doors.
Store doors after the sale
Two buyers, one blocked
Five plays behind the sale.
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Price against a named unfairness
The co-founder priced Billie at about half the drugstore price, in line with men’s razor subscriptions, to remove the “pink tax” (podcast, May 2019). The FTC’s complaint itself describes Billie’s marketing as “attacking” that pricing (FTC, Dec 2020). The product page still says “a razor without the pink tax”.
Copy this: name the specific thing buyers overpay for in your category, and print your price next to theirs.
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Show what category ads hide
In June 2018 “Project Body Hair” showed women’s body hair in a razor ad, with the line that shaving is a choice. The co-founder put it at about 22 million views (May 2019); the YouTube upload alone has 1.5M (Billie’s YouTube).
Copy this: list the shots every competitor’s ads share, then make one ad that breaks the most obvious one. Creative →
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Ship refills on the buyer’s schedule
By 2019, sign-up asked “How often do you shave?”: daily gets refills monthly, a few times a week every two months, weekly every three (May 2019). The same picker sits in the buy box today.
Copy this: set the subscription interval from one usage question, not a menu of plans. Retention →
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Grow into a competitor worth buying
P&G agreed to buy Billie about two years after launch. The FTC sued, calling Billie a “nascent competitor”, and the deal ended Jan 5, 2021 (FTC). Ten months later Edgewell, a supplier “since its inception”, paid $310M (Edgewell).
Copy this: your contract manufacturer already knows your numbers. Treat that relationship as a possible buyer, not only a vendor.
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Let the buyer’s sales team take the shelf
Billie went from one retailer, 4,000 Walmart stores in February 2022, to 21 retailers and 30,000+ doors by November 2023, using Edgewell’s sales force (Modern Retail, Nov 2023). On Nov 10, 2026, Target, not Billie, was running the Meta ads for its razors.
Copy this: before retail, check the margin left after the retailer’s cut and your own trade spend. Margin calculator →
The $10 starter kit, annotated.
Billie’s DTC site sells one thing first: a $10 kit that opens a refill subscription. Tap a number to see each part.
- 1Proof at the top4.5 stars from 33,597 reviews, linked to the review list.
- 2The 2017 positioning, still liveThe description ends “A razor without the pink tax”.
- 3The subscription, in one line“We’ll deliver 4 refill blades to you as often as you like.”
- 4Risk removed before the button“Change, delay or cancel your refills at any time.”
- 5Color as the fun choiceTen handle colors in a carousel, starting with “Frost Sparkle”.
- 6One question sets the plan“How often do you shave?” Every day means a delivery once a month.
- 7A $10 yesThe button reads “Add to cart” and “$10 (free shipping)”. It opens an add-on step, not checkout.
Our wireframe of the same box
- 1Reviews before priceThe count is the only claim above the description.
- 2Why it existsOne line of positioning, not a feature list.
- 3What happens nextThe refill pack is $10 for 4 blades on the shave page.
- 4A choice that isn’t pricePicking a color keeps the shopper deciding what, not whether.
- 5The default is the most frequent plan“Every day” is preselected: 12 refills a year.
- 6Kit priced like a refillHandle, 2 blades and holder for the price of one 4-blade pack.
- 7The upsell after the clickAdd-ons from $5 to $13 with a “Skip” button.
Our wireframe of mybillie.com/products/razor-starter-kit on Nov 10, 2026. Not a copy of their page.
Our math on the buy box
Copy this on your product page
- Ask one usage question and set the delivery interval from it. Conversion
- Price the starter kit at the price of one refill, so the first yes is small.
- Put the add-on step after the click, with a visible “Skip”. Raise AOV
- Set the sale threshold above the kit price so it pulls add-ons into the cart.
- Print “change, delay or cancel” above the button, not in the FAQ.
The retailer runs the ads now.
On Nov 10, 2026, Billie’s own Meta page had no active US ads. A search for “Billie razor” found 4, all from Target. Pick one to see it.
“Shop the latest at Target.”
A Target catalog ad that rotates Billie products: kits in Sparkle, Waterpark and Malibu, and 4- and 6-count refills.
The click goes to target.com. Billie’s DTC subscription never appears.
No active ads
The Billie page showed no active US ads on Nov 10, 2026, while mybillie.com ran its “biggest sale of the year”.
Billie’s newest YouTube spot, “Billie Lab | The Razor”, sends viewers to a “where to buy” page, not to the subscription.
Active US ads in the Meta Ad Library, Nov 10, 2026. Click an image to enlarge.
How a retailer’s Billie ad is built.
- 1The retailer’s pageThe ad runs from Target’s page, which had about 3,200 active ads.
- 2Generic copyOne line about Target, not about razors.
- 3The pack shotBillie’s own packaging does the selling.
- 4Feed title as headline“Billie Women’s 5-Blade Razor Refill - 6ct”.
- 5The sale lands at TargetThe refill buyer becomes Target’s customer.
Our wireframe of Target ad 1152166750826430 in the Meta Ad Library, seen Nov 10, 2026. Not a copy of the ad.
Two Billie spots.
Project Body Hair (2018) is on Billie’s YouTube; we link it rather than show its thumbnail.
“By day two of our launch, we had sold to all 50 states.”
“We wouldn’t have been able to do that on our own that quickly.”
Read it with three caveats.
- The buyer was the supplier. Edgewell had supplied Billie since launch. Most brands don’t sell to a supplier.
- No revenue was published. Edgewell disclosed the price, not Billie’s sales, so the multiple is unknown.
- Retail changes who owns the customer. Since the sale, Target and Walmart buy the ads and keep the shopper data.
- What we’d change: keep a small always-on Meta budget for the $10 kit. With zero ads on its own page during its biggest sale, the subscription depends on people who already know Billie.
Seven moves for a $1M–$10M brand.
- Name the overcharge in your category and price against it. Creative
- Make one ad that shows what every competitor’s ads avoid. Static ads guide
- Set refill timing from one usage question. Retention
- Price the starter kit low and earn it back on refills. LTV calculator
- Put an add-on step between cart and checkout. Raise AOV
- Check retail margin after the retailer’s cut before you say yes. Margin calculator
- Keep Meta ads running for DTC after you land retail. Meta ads
Where every number comes from.
- Edgewell Personal Care, “Edgewell Personal Care Announces Acquisition of Billie Inc.,” press release, Nov 29, 2021. ir.edgewell.com
- Federal Trade Commission, “FTC Sues to Block Procter & Gamble’s Acquisition of Billie, Inc.,” press release, Dec 8, 2020. ftc.gov
- Federal Trade Commission, “Procter & Gamble Co. and Billie, Inc., In the Matter of,” case page (deal ended Jan 5, 2021). ftc.gov
- Maria Monteros, “Billie to enter physical stores for the first time via Walmart,” Retail Dive, Jan 11, 2022. retaildive.com
- Gabriela Barkho, “How Billie is plotting for its next phase of growth two years after being acquired by Edgewell,” Modern Retail, Nov 16, 2023. modernretail.co
- “Episode 109: Georgina Gooley, Co-Founder of Billie,” Where Brains Meet Beauty (podcast transcript), May 22, 2019. wherebrainsmeetbeauty.com
- Georgina Gooley, “How the Founder of Billie Razors Is Disrupting the Male-Dominated Shaving Industry,” TIME, Jul 12, 2018. time.com
- Billie, Razor Starter Kit page, shave page, get-started page and homepage, viewed Nov 10, 2026. mybillie.com
- Meta Ad Library, active US ads for Billie and for Target, viewed Nov 10, 2026. facebook.com/ads/library
- Billie, official YouTube channel (@mybillie), videos dated Jun 26, 2018 to Mar 10, 2026. youtube.com/@mybillie
