BLADELIFE was co-founded by David Valdez, a former professional baseball player, entrepreneur, and inventor; Kelly Stuart, who served as a global brand leader for Gillette’s Male Grooming and has more than two decades of experience leading new product development for consumer brands; and Peter Gladstone, an entrepreneur and startup advisor who previously held marketing roles at Gillette, The Boston Beer Company, and P&G.
BLADELIFE arrived at Sprout with an idea for a new type of men’s shaving product but no clear idea about how to commercialize the initiative. The product concept was based on the insight that a controlled environment for storing blade cartridges between shaves could dramatically extend their life. The challenge was to design and engineer that environment in a form factor that would accommodate all leading razor configurations and could be sold at a mass-market price point. We then partnered with our long-time friends at Clio Designs to help manufacture the product.
The product that emerged from the Sprout iterative development process suspends the razor in a chamber where air and moisture are extracted to minimize blade deterioration through oxidation. The final solution features a simple, on-the-counter form factor with a small footprint. It can accommodate over 90% of the razors on the market and has a moisture-wicking cartridge that absorbs ambient moisture from a wet razor after a rinse. Sold separately, the absorbent cartridge provides a recurring revenue stream as a complement to the storage device’s one-time purchase.
Since launching in late 2021, BLADELIFE has been named one of Boston’s Most Innovative Companies of 2021 by the Boston Business Journal and featured in local and national media
