HispanicBusiness

Let's get this out of the way, right off.

Hayden Hamilton is well aware that you don't need a $100,000 razor. Neither, he acknowledges, does anyone else.

"This," he says, "is obviously a very indulgent price point."

Even so, the Portland entrepreneur has spent four years on and off -- and close to $1 million of his own money -- developing a luxury alternative to the ubiquitous throwaway blade. The Zafirro Iridium went on sale last week, and despite an avalanche of publicity, Hamilton has zero confirmed orders so far.

"I'm still not sure we'll sell any," he allows.

But Hamilton contends that the value of his razor transcends its price tag, its sapphire blade that lasts a decade, or even the daily ritual of shaving. There's a beauty in making something well, he says, and in disrupting an industry that's lost its cultural status and been reduced to plastic razors and disposable blades.

"It's the product, and the problem, that inspires me."

At 34, Hamilton has already started a small handful of companies. The best known is GreenPrint, which sought to shake up the printer business, much as he hopes to do to the disposable razor industry.

A key difference: This time, Hamilton has his eye on the upper echelons rather than the mass market. No doubt, there are plenty of rich people with money to toss around. But would someone who can afford a Ferrari pay a similar sum for a close shave?

After all, a hundred thousand dollars buys a lot.

A dozen Rolexes. Four Priuses (Prii, Toyota says.) Or 11,123 Gillette Fusion razors, at $8.99 a pop.

It also attracts a lot of attention. Maybe you heard about the razor on NPR's Morning Edition. Or read about it in Wired magazine. Or on Time's website. Or on MSNBC. Or Yahoo.

What the $100,000 hasn't done, at least not yet, is produce a single sale. The publicity generated dozens of orders for Zafirro -- a company formed to bring the razor to market. But it's impossible to know how many of those orders, if any, are for real. Until a money order arrives, or a check clears, Hamilton isn't recording any revenue.

Certainly, he hopes to sell some of these razors. All 99 in Zafirro's limited-edition run, ideally. Hamilton says he did very well during the recession by betting heavily on a market rebound, but he still wants to see some return on his razor investment.

And he has a larger aim. Hamilton wants to demonstrate that there's an alternative to business as usual.

In business, the "razor-blade model" describes a product sold at a low up-front cost that requires a key part to be replaced at regular intervals. That replacement part is typically sold only by the product's manufacturer, whose exclusivity produces a high profit margin.

That's the model Hamilton sought to disrupt at GreenPrint, which attracted national attention four years ago with software that stops computer users from printing blank or unneeded pages.

It's a relatively simple solution that printer companies might never have introduced on their own, because it reduces the amount of pages users print and therefore the amount of ink they use. The ink cartridge, in the razor blade model, generates the bulk of printer companies' profits.

GreenPrint has built a stable business but, despite favorable reviews in prominent publications including The Wall Street Journal and an in-depth New York Times feature, its technology has never been widely adopted. Hamilton, which first targeted GreenPrint toward the mass market, hopes to do better with Zafirro by aiming at the upper echelons.

Zafirro razors will always be a premium product, Hamilton says, but he envisions the $100,000 Iridium model making way for a less luxurious $1,000 version. At that price, Hamilton says he could still offer a convincingly better shave and a better experience than a disposable razor, with less waste.

Scott Marshall, associate dean at Portland State University's business school, knows Hamilton and admires what he's doing.

"He's a smart guy," Marshall says. "He definitely takes things on that people haven't thought of."

In our consumer-oriented society, Marshall says there's a definite market for outrageously priced accoutrements among the very rich.

"When you're dealing at that level, it certainly can be successful," Marshall says. "They key is making it something that is rare."

Still, he says a $100,000 razor is a "tough sell." Top-shelf luxuries are all about conspicuous consumption and -- generally speaking -- there's no one in the bathroom with you when you shave.

"It's not the same as a watch or car, that has public consumption," Marshall says. Ironically, Marshall says, a lower-priced model might be an even harder sell. Zafirro would have to sacrifice some of the luxury elements that distinguish it.

"That can be pretty tenuous," Marshall says. "There's a reason why Rolex isn't selling a plastic digital watch."

Assuredly, Hamilton says, he's testing the fates with his razor. He's putting his faith in customers, and the notion of building an excellent product -- whatever it takes.

"I'm sure I did a lot of things that, from a business model perspective, I never should have done," Hamilton says. "But where's the fun in that?"

-- Mike Rogoway; twitter: @rogoway; phone: 503-294-7699