Deal highlights

• Innovative company introducing technology to improve the barbershop experience
• $5+ billion "niche" market opportunity that’s rapidly growing
• 100k+ users (90k in the last 9 months), growing 27% m/m
• 450k+ appointments booked, facilitating over $9,000,000 worth of haircuts
• Barbers in 48 states with users in Puerto Rico & Canada.

In the era of Yelp, Uber, and OpenTable the haircut experience can still be painful at best. Barbershops today have been slow to adopt technologies to improve their business.

theProblem:

For clients, randomly walking into your local barbershop can leave you waiting up to 3 hours to see your barber.

Time spent waiting in your local shop can completely ruin your mood or interfere with your plans. In addition, finding a barber who you trust and feel comfortable with can be a daunting task. Millions of people moving to new cities or going off to college are faced with this problem every year.

For barbers, managing appointments by hand can lead to thousands in revenue lost every year.

Every month, barbers can lose 8-10 hours of productivity scheduling appointments via calls and texts. Over-bookings and no-shows also negatively impact a barber's business. Traditional marketing and relationship management has been a manual process for barbers. Software to improve their efficiency has not been widely adopted. 

theSolution: A mobile platform connecting barbers and clients. 

theCut is modernizing the barbershop experience. By seamlessly bringing both barbers and clients together, we’ve reduced many of the issues present in the barbershop today. 

• Clients can easily discover new barbers, then book and pay for haircuts at their convenience. 
• Barbers can then manage all those clients, appointments, and payments with one easy to use tool.

How it works

1. Barbers create their profile by adding their services, location, and hours of operation. Then, they complete it by uploading pictures of haircuts they’ve done and set up their banking info.

2. Clients are able to search and discover talented and trusted barbers. They can then book, pay, and tip through the app at their convenience.

3. Barbers receive appointments requests and then can manage all their appointments in one place.

4. After completing an appointment, clients can review the barber and shoutout a job well done.

Barber adding services to his profile:

Barber uploading his past haircuts to profile:

Client discovering and booking an appointment:

theTraction:

Today, there are more than 9,000 barbers signed up on theCut nationwide.

Armed with our savings accounts and Instagram page, we were able to hack together some exciting growth and eventually get a little funding along the way. We’ve worked very closely with our early users and have built a product directly reflecting their input and feedback. The insights we’ve learned will be incredibly useful as we grow and expand over the next couple of years.

The release of our android app made a HUGE difference.

100,000+ USERS

450,000+ APPOINTMENTS

theOpportunity:

In the year 2040, the U.S. Census forecasts that people of color will become the majority in the United States. The growth of potential customers is accelerating and showing no signs of slowing down. As the population grows, there is going to be an equal need of quality barbers to keep everyone well groomed.

We’re modernizing a $5 billion market:

• There are over 21 million minorities, including blacks & hispanics, who visit barbershops at least once a month spending $25 on average including tip.

• Men have also increasingly spent more on grooming products in recent years, topping $20 billion in 2016

• Traditionally, barbershops have been community commerce centers, where you could get the latest cd's, movies, and fashion pieces. As our marketplace evolves, we’ll be able to tap into long time barbershop related industries such as sneakers, fashion, and entertainment.

theBusiness:

Many of our competitors have built quality booking software to power both independent professionals and local businesses. However, at theCut, we’re building a technology company to completely modernize the barbershop experience. We have larger ambitions that extend beyond appointments; we are looking to improve all facets of men’s style and grooming.

Phase 1: 

• Barbershops are one of the last traditionally cash industries. Cashless consumer trends and the inherent risks of carrying large sums of cash create an opportunity to offer a different business model.

Phase 2:

• Wholesale pricing and increased access for our users will revolutionize how products are sold in the men’s grooming industry by providing direct access to thousands of engaged customers. Recent trends in men’s grooming point to a more conscious and attentive consumer base.

Phase 3:

• Barbershops have been synonymous with fashion and entertainment. As our business evolves, we’ll be able to offer our customers complimentary content, services, and products.

theReviews:

Our customers love us! We're converting barbers of all ages and backgrounds.

theInvestment:

Investing in theCut is investing in yourself. We want to democratize wealth and ownership by giving the opportunity to the very people who have made the community so valuable.

With your investment, we'll be able to develop a more robust product and build our brand through marketing and partnerships.

The funds raise will help us reach our goals through the end of the year!

Invest in theCut

theDealTerms

Investing in this crowdfunding opportunity through Republic allows you to be an angel investor in theCut under the provisions of Title III of the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act of 2012 (known as the “JOBS Act”) and Regulation Crowdfunding. The financial instrument for your investment is a Crowd Safe. With a Crowd Safe, your investment automatically converts into stock when theCut undergoes a liquidity event - in other words, when we are acquired or have an IPO. 

The valuation cap specifies the maximum valuation under which your investment will convert into shares. theCut's valuation cap for this round is $4 million. If the company is acquired for less than the valuation cap amount, the discount provision gives you a discount to the valuation. The discount provision for this round is 20%.

theFounders

(Kush on the Left, Obi on the Right, Pepper the robot in the middle)

Obi, a recent JMU grad, was forced to spend his first 2 months at a new job, in a new state, post his haircut expiration for fear of trusting a new and untested barber. Kush Patel, interning in California had no choice but to cut his head bald after a random walk-in experience with the wrong pair of clippers. He then goes on strike and grows his hair out past shoulder length in protest. Friends from high school, with shared experiences we realized there was a huge problem here. It wasn’t that there were no talented barbers near us, what lacked was the convenient ability to find the barber who best met our specific needs. This moment and countless hours spent waiting aimlessly in barbershops is what led to the ah-ha moment behind theCut. We built our first prototype, then launched the beta version the following year and we’ve been grinding away ever since. 

Why We Care

My team and I all have similar experiences. Similar stories can be told by anyone who’s ever moved to a new city, went off to college, or is left barber-less due to vacations or unexpected emergency. Barbers have tales of their own, reflecting no-shows, late clients, and schedule mismanagement that have led to less than enjoyable experiences. We’re passionate and dedicated to solving a real problem. We’re giving clients back their time and empowering barbers to take control of their business.

Everyone loves the feeling that comes along with a fresh cut; the confidence, the swag, the fresh look on life symbolized by a clean shapeup. At theCut, we believe that if you look good, you’ll feel better. We want the entire community to rock their best cut and live their best life. We hope that you guys share our vision and help us cut the next generation.