"Take everything as a learning moment instead of focusing so much on the outcomes" with Jacob Rosenberg
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Jacob Rosenberg is a recent Stanford Graduate from the COVID-19 Class of 2020. While at Stanford, he captained the #1 nationally ranked Varsity Sailing Team and incubated the concept for his startup, Tajima Direct since his Junior year. He is now working full time as the Co-Founder and CEO of Tajima Direct, a premium lens replacement company specializing in their patented polarized lens technology.
Can you tell our readers about your background?
I grew up in sunny Southern California spending my time sailing, surfing, and around the water. I attended Stanford University as a Student-Athlete Undergraduate on the Varsity Stanford Sailing Team majoring in Management Science & Engineering. While at Stanford, I became captain of the Sailing Team and a leader for the number 1 ranked Sailing Team in the nation. Meanwhile, I spent my time incubating the concept of my startup, Tajima Direct, with my favorite professors, peers, and resources that Stanford had to offer. Fast forward to now and I am working full time on Tajima Direct during my first year after graduating from Stanford.
What inspired you to start your business?
When I was born, my dad was a key leader at Oakley. When I was two, he left in pursuit of creating his own sunglass brand featuring a better-polarized lens technology than the industry and brands were offering. So, I grew up around sunglasses and entrepreneurship as he built his company, Kaenon Polarized. Spending my time surfing, sailing, and constantly on the water, sunglasses were a necessity and I saw firsthand the value of a superior polarized lens. Fast forward and I find myself as an undergraduate at Stanford University, surrounded by a vibrant startup culture, focused on incorporating the latest developments in technology into our increasingly digital-first world. All of these factors lead me to want to start my own company revolving around eyewear. The pieces all came together as my Dad had sold Kaenon and was now doing the B2B business for this patented lens technology he developed. It all seemed to make sense, why not offer this superior polarized lens technology direct to the consumer, with a lean startup e-commerce model using the vast resources that Stanford had to offer in digital technology as well as know-how and wisdom from professors.
Where is your business based?
We are based in Southern California. Our lenses are made in our factory in Tajima, Osaka, Japan then shipped to our lab in Southern California, where the lenses are cut to your frame shape and all prescription work is done.
How did you start your business? What were the first steps you took?
I came up with the idea for Tajima Direct between my Sophomore and Junior years at Stanford. Being busy with school and captain of the Stanford Sailing Team, the progress was slow until I went to the design school for Launchpad Office Hours in early February of 2019. We discussed the idea, which they liked, and they told me to throw out the business plan and start taking action using d.school design principles of quick experiments and iteration (Design Thinking / Learning). That was a pivotal moment for me in creating this company. They told me to come back the following week with a simple SquareSpace website that detailed the Pain Point I was solving and how our Key Feature addressed that pain. So, I did, and that is when our website/online store (the same SquareSpace site we still are using to date) was created. I continued to come back week over week to meet with them, discuss the week's progress, and make a plan for the following week. Early on was a lot of testing product/market fit and understanding who the target user was and what their pain point was that we solved. We took it slow and ultimately planned to launch when I could work on it full time after graduation in June 2020. When the pandemic hit and we were forced to leave campus, I decided to graduate a quarter early and dive fully into launching Tajima Direct and have not looked back since.
You can read the full story here.
What has been the most effective way of raising awareness for your business?
The most effective way of raising awareness for our business has been through Google Search and through niche editorial in categories like Sailing and Fishing. Google Search allows us to get in front of people who are searching for what we offer, polarized replacement lenses and prescription lens replacements, while our editorial in these niche categories allows us to tell our story to passionate enthusiasts in Sailing and Fishing who value a superior polarized lens that give them advantages in their sport.
What have been your biggest challenges and how did you overcome them?
The most challenging part of growing our company has been reaching people and gaining traction during the onset of COVID 19 when consumer spend and consumer confidence dropped significantly. We pivoted by iterating and changing our messaging to emphasize and focus more on certain aspects such as being contact-free, delivering directly to consumers' doorsteps, saving a trip to the eye doctor's office, or simply extending the life and making the most out of the sunglasses people already had instead of buying more new stuff. The other main challenge has been convincing consumers that our lens technology is in fact superior to their original lenses, even if they were a name brand like Maui Jim, Ray-Ban, Prada, etc. Most people don't know that most designer brands actually use pretty low-quality polycarbonate lenses from China and would be amazed at the difference with our lens technology.
How do you stay focused?
I stay focused first and foremost by keeping a continually updated Work In Progress notes sheet that encapsulates everything I would want to do if I had unlimited time. I then order the tasks from top to bottom with respect to my priorities at the current time with tasks that will provide the highest return for the time or capital that would be needed to implement them. There are two main things to note here. The first is that having the long list of To-Do’s never allows me to get complacent because I know there’s always more that can be done to increase conversion rates, sales, etc. Secondly, the constant reprioritization of the tasks allows me to be thoughtful about how I’m spending my time and money to maximize the output from the inputs of my time and dollars invested.
How do you differentiate your business from the competition?
Our business differentiates from the competition in a few key ways. First and foremost, the hallmark of our company is our polarized lens technology. We are selling our patented Tajima Urethane™ lenses that will be far higher quality than any other lens replacement company offers. They’ll also be an upgrade in lens quality (from nearly any brand) from the original lenses our customers had in their frames before replacing the lenses. In non-prescription polarized lenses or prescription lenses. We try to be as transparent as possible about our lens sourcing, materials, coatings used, etc, which most other eyewear companies do not do. Secondly, we differentiate ourselves from our competitors in the customer service that we provide. When you read our reviews, people rave about our top-notch customer service matched with our lens quality as their reasons for such a great experience. We believe our knowledgeable and quick responses to customer queries is incredibly important to our overall service and value proposition.
What has been your most effective marketing strategy to grow your business?
Our best marketing channel has certainly been paid search through Google. Since we have a product that has a prerequisite (you need to have scratched or beat up lenses), it is much easier for us to convert customers who are directly having this need and searching for a solution.
What's your best piece of advice for aspiring and new entrepreneurs?
I have two main pieces of advice for aspiring and new entrepreneurs. The first would be the importance of setting yourself up to collect all sorts of data because, without data, there's nothing to analyze to support decisions. Even when it all feels so small scale and it might not be helpful at the moment, later down the line it becomes so helpful and relevant to have kept records and data to be able to compare later on. Going off that, but a little different, my next piece of advice would be to take everything as a learning moment instead of focusing so much on the outcomes. I would find myself being so focused on the number of orders each day or getting people through the funnel that I think I missed opportunities to slow down and reflect on takeaways and learnings that would have sped up our growth more down the line.
What's your favorite app, blog, and book? Why?
The podcast, The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish, is by far my favorite and what I would recommend to other Entrepreneurs. He focuses on decision-making models and processes, brings in amazing guests, and does a great job of asking the right questions to make it so interesting and insightful.
What's your favorite business tool or resource? Why?
My favorite business tool or resource is Zapier. As a lean startup with no outside funding using our profitability to fuel further growth, we are trying to automate as many of our processes as possible, taking away the need for early hires and manual labor for us. Due to the number of integrations and easy interface on Zapier, we’ve been able to automate almost all of our processes and integrate our shipping platforms with our CRMs to email templates for follow up or notifications, etc, which has saved us tons of time for a very reasonable price.
Who is your business role model? Why?
My business role model is one of my professors and mentors from Stanford, Perry Klebahn. Perry has an incredible background starting from building his own successful startup out of college, Atlas Snowshoe Co., to being one of the key leaders of Patagonia. He’s an amazing businessman in the consumer products sector, who is also very approachable and willing to help young Founders and Entrepreneurs on their endeavors. He’s been a key resource in building Tajima Direct, and I’ll continue to look to him for advice and mentorship as this venture continues.
How do you balance work and life?
One of my key focuses is my work-life balance. Work can be hard to put down at times due to the fact that I see such a direct relationship between the hours I put in and the sales and results that we get. This is due to the nature of being a small startup with limited employees. However, with that being said, finding a balance is extremely important to avoid burnout, keep myself at top efficiency when working, and to be a happy individual. For me, that entails exercising every day, usually in the form of a morning surf or afternoon kiteboarding session (depending on the wind and waves), making sure I get enough sleep, focusing on taking the time to cook and eat well, as well as giving time to the important relationships around me (friends, family, significant other, etc).
What’s your favorite way to decompress?
My favorite way to decompress is certainly getting in the ocean to surf or kite surf. Those are my two favorite activities to do and there’s something about getting in the ocean, wiping away the stresses and problems from the day, and having fun doing what I love that decompresses and distances me from the work grind.
What do you have planned for the next six months?
Over the next 6 months, we are planning to truly set up for a high growth next spring and summer. We are working hard on a new website, developing more PR, and nailing our processes and supply chain to prepare for a strong March-August (typical sunglass season). We are also working on building out our online prescription offerings by adding a digital eye exam and allowing customers to take their prescription measurements directly from our site.
How can our readers connect with you?
Our readers can connect with us at Tajima Direct on our website, Instagram, Facebook, or signing up for our email list.
You can connect with me personally on my Instagram, Facebook, or email.