Today we’d like to introduce you to Robert Ashjian.
Robert, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
I was finishing a degree in Biochemistry at the University of San Diego and getting ready to start a career in the pharmaceutical industry as I was soaking in my last few days on a surf trip. During this trip my two friends and I encountered this man selling Honey and Cacao Powder mixed together in small metal tins.
What was the equivalence of putting peanut butter on your face or a sweet snack, he was pushing it as sunscreen? This is when I had my ‘uh huh’ moment and decided I could do something similar.
Coming from a background of being an entrepreneur with three previous startups, I decided I could formulate and start a sunscreen company to keep anyone under the sun protected. Fast forward a few years later, and now we have YeaBah.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Smooth road would be a complete opposite of what it has been thus far. As someone might think of sunscreen being just your typical bottle of chemical-laden lotion to keep you protected from the sun, it is actually considered a ‘drug’ product (OTC – Over the counter drug to be more specific).
This means that sunscreen is an FDA regulated substance and must undergo some expensive testing before being able to be marketed. It has been tough learning the regulatory side to OTC manufacturing and the in and outs of the industry for following good manufacturing practices cGMP.
YeaBah – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
We recently changed our name to YeaBah due to some complications with our very niched previous name. As we are redefining our company moving into 2019, we are a sunscreen specific company with a few other products outside of that category. We are known for our chemical free, reef and child safe sunscreen products.
Most distinctively our face formula. It consists of only 5 or 6 ingredients and features a biodegradable cardboard container. We wanted to create an image that we really do care about the environment, and although we do have to keep the lights on, it is not just about making money. In 2017 we switched from plastic containers to the cardboard containers increasing our container cost 5X.
We usually don’t bring that up, but it definitely highlights a unique attribute of our company (the containers). Also, kids really love our face formula because it has cocoa butter and cacao powder giving it a sweet chocolate scent. As a company, one thing we are really proud of is our impact on educating people about sunscreen and its effects. We do so many local events (farmer’s markets, beach clean-ups, etc.) where we can touch people and educate them.
What moment in your career do you look back most fondly on?
Some of the proudest moments that I have seen thus far with YeaBah were that fact of whom had gotten our products in their hands. From famous athletes, musicians, actors and magazine people. We never paid for any of their opinions, it was all organic, and it was definitely proud moments.
One specific moment was when I was looking at our website analytics, and I saw A LOT of hits on the site from this “Elle” magazine that I had never heard of. I was asking everyone around if they had ever heard of L E (completely pronouncing it wrong) magazine. Then I realized how big of a magazine it was and what they had just wrote.
They said we were one of the top natural sunscreens for summer. They completely messed up our background story and spelled the name wrong, but hey we went with it!
https://www.elle.com/beauty/makeup-skin-care/tips/g7885/the-best-natural-sunscreens/ (it appears they updated this article for 2018, but it was originally written in 2017).
Pricing:
- YeaBah Natural Face Sunscreen – $15
- YeaBah Natural Sunscreen Lotion – $18
Contact Info:
- Website: www.yeabah.com
- Phone: 619 259 2931
- Email: Help@yeabah.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/yeabah_/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/yeabahsd/
Getting in touch: SDVoyager is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.
