The male health and wellness industry is a multi-billion dollar industry, and a segment of this market, male hair-transplant, is alone worth approximately $4.2B. A popular brand that has emerged to treat male pattern baldness is Barber Surgeons Guild (BSG), which operates high-end barbershops that also provide advanced medical grooming procedures. Barber Surgeons Guild, which was founded in 2016, has two physical, brick-and-mortar presences in LA and NYC to transform dealing with hair loss from dreaded medical procedures to a welcome experience, featuring the company’s proprietary hair rejuvenation products. Customers are responding and the company’s Soho location maintains a perfect 5-star revenue on Yelp.
AlleyWatch spoke with Ari Goldberg (Founded and sold Stylecaster) about his vision for building a comprehensive company that addresses all aspects of men’s grooming.
Tell us about the product or service that Barber Surgeons Guild offers.
Barber Surgeons Guild (BSG) provides the highest-quality products and services for men’s grooming, backed by science and medical research. Our BSG HCO1 Edition product line uses scientifically researched ingredients to promote healthy and strong hair on a daily basis. Each of our two BSG Outposts – Los Angeles (West Hollywood) and New York City (Soho) – features a retail section for our products, a high-end barbershop with our Master Barbers, and clinical rooms for our advanced medical grooming procedures. We are one of the industry leaders in Robotic Hair Restoration, PRP (Platelet-rich plasma), Micropigmentation, and other advanced treatments for men’s hair care and skin care
How is Barber Surgeons Guild different?
There are two essential points of differentiation when you look at BSG versus the rest of the market. No other company in the men’s grooming market combines a digitally native business with brick-and-mortar the way we do. There is no other company that brings together consumers, as well as medical, in the way that BSG does.
What market does Barber Surgeons Guild target and how big is it?
BSG is focused on men, ages 25 to 55, that care about their health and wellness, style, and appearance. In 2019, the men’s grooming product market is a $63B industry. As context, the male hair-transplant market segment held maximum market share with a value of $4.166B in 2017. The increase in male-pattern baldness cases owing to genetic predisposition will be a major factor increasing the adoption of hair-transplant procedures in males. It is estimated that about 35M males in the U.S. alone are affected by male-pattern baldness, owing to the aging population and genetics that will lead to segment growth.
The U.S. hair-transplant market is estimated to grow at a CAGR of around 25% over the forecast period. According to The Hair Society, around 35M males suffer from hair loss problems in the United States. The increasing number of people with hair loss, along with recent technological advancement in the field of hair transplant procedure, will enhance industry growth.
What inspired the start of Barber Surgeons Guild?
Before we sold StyleCaster (my last company in the men’s grooming space), I had seen the beauty industry’s growth from the work we did with P&G, L’Oreal and Unilever, meanwhile, Dollar Shave Club had just been acquired for $1B by Unilever. I wanted to create a brand that interested me, something that my friends would want — high-quality, backed by medical research and a real doctor, not some Fortune 100 company looking out for profits instead of my well-being. I wanted to bring together the power of consumer and medical, and juxtapose a digitally native business with a brick-and-mortar business. When I was researching the space, I met Dr. Justin Rome and I immediately knew he was the right guy. We had a shared vision and complementary skill sets. From there, we went to work – and things have been going great ever since.
Who do you consider to be your primary competitors?
There are no direct competitors to BSG because what we do is so unique in the way we combine both digitally native with brick-and-mortar, along with consumer and medical. That said, the blessing and the curse of BSG is it’s a very complex business. That’s good because it creates a high barrier to entry; you would have to be insane to try and go after us. Although there are legacy, albeit antiquated, players in men’s hair restoration like Bosley; however, they are far removed from the modern digital age.
There are a lot of Dollar Shave Club and Harry’s competitors that offer direct-to-consumer men’s products, but they lack the experiential retail environment that really brings the consumer experience to life.
What are the milestones that you plan to achieve within six months?
Within six months, we plan to ramp the BSG NYC Outpost in Soho, as well as scale the BSG LA Outpost in West Hollywood. Additionally, we will continue to scale our BSG HCO1 product line. With these three components firing on all cylinders, we are looking at an eight-figure revenue business with millions of dollars a year in EBITDA.
What is the one piece of startup advice that you never got?
Stay the path. If you believe in something and it’s showing potential, just keep going. It is a marathon, not a sprint.
Stay the path. If you believe in something and it’s showing potential, just keep going. It is a marathon, not a sprint.
If you could be put in touch with anyone in the New York community who would it be and why?
We are actively speaking with the New York City finance, legal, entrepreneurial, and real estate communities because this is our core audience, and the positive response to BSG from them has been tremendous.
Why did you launch in New York?
The BSG LA Outpost is generating millions of dollars in revenue and is profitable, while not being fully ramped. When analyzing the NYC population and demographics, we realized that we can be even more successful in New York City. With these two locations, we will have a significant presence in the two biggest US markets and generating substantial revenue and profitability. Reaching the most influential audience in the country, we’re creating a trickle-down effect to introduce the brand to more people far faster than we could otherwise.
What’s your favorite restaurant in the city?
No New Yorker can have only one favorite restaurant, so here are several: Jewel Bako, Da Umberto, Sushi on Jones, Lil Frankie’s, and Elio’s.
