Jacob Rosenberg eyes replacement lens business after Stanford sailing season is canceled due to COVID-19

The coast appeared to be clear for Jacob Rosenberg heading into the spring quarter.

Rosenberg, a senior on the sailing team at Stanford, had completed his degree requirements and was looking forward to turning his attention to an unimpeded season to close out his college career.

It started out well. Stanford, ranked No. 1 at the end of the fall by the Intercollegiate Sailing Assn., claimed victory at the St. Mary’s Team Race, topping Navy in a tiebreaker on head-to-head results on March 7-8.

That would be the end of Rosenberg’s season, however, as the coronavirus pandemic shut down spring sports altogether.

Rosenberg, a Huntington Beach native, had grown up around the sport, as both of his parents — Steve and Caroll-Ann — had also been sailors. Rosenberg’s mother was a three-time Olympian as a windsurfer for Canada. She competed in the Olympic Games at Barcelona (1992), Atlanta (1996) and Sydney (2000).

At Sage Hill School, where Rosenberg graduated in 2016, he trained with the sailing team out of Bahia Corinthian Yacht Club. He also played four seasons of varsity soccer for the Lightning.

There was another constant in his life from the beginning, and that was the optics industry. Whether he was wearing sunglasses out on the water or watching his father work, Rosenberg had been surrounded by polarized lenses.

Before he knew it, Rosenberg was on the fast track to a similar path. He majored in management science and engineering, which teammates had told him was the closest thing Stanford offered to an undergraduate business degree.

It was on a ride home at the end of his sophomore year that Rosenberg had the idea that led to his start-up, Tajima Direct. He was having a conversation with his father.

“That’s where Jacob had asked me about, ‘Why aren’t we selling your lens technology direct to the consumer?’” Steve Rosenberg said. “We were talking about this, and I said, ‘I’d love to. That’s part of my plan, but I need young people to drive it and partner with, and we can look at it.’ That’s when the light bulb went on for Jacob.”

The father had a key piece of advice for his son before the idea could take shape.

“When he was interested in creating his own brand, the single [thing] I kept sharing with him was, ‘Well, you’re going to have to consider a new way of selling and marketing. The world has changed,’” he said. “It’s ironic how profound those comments are today as we’re going through another incredible economic downturn in a span of less than 10 years.”

When his senior sailing season fell through due to COVID-19, Jacob Rosenberg moved up the timeline of his entrepreneurial ambitions by several months, fully immersing himself in his work.

Tajima Direct offers polarized replacement lenses, which allows customers to keep frames for sunglasses that fit their lifestyle, even after the original lenses have deteriorated or been scratched. The company has partnered with the Japanese lens maker Talex Optical.

Customers can shop online, which makes Rosenberg’s company optimal for consumers who do not want to leave their homes in the age of the coronavirus. Tajima Direct is also fit to service customers with prescriptions.

“Optical shops are closed right now,” Rosenberg said. “People still need to get their prescriptions done, so in that case, we are essential. We are providing a service that is essential to people today, where they can’t go get it in person at the stores.”

The shortened season moved up the timeline, but Rosenberg is excited to see how being fully invested in the business will play out. Polarized lens replacements are priced at $95, while the cost for prescription lenses vary.

“For all the frames that we’ve ever done, cut lenses for, we actually have all of those frame shapes in a database,” Rosenberg said. “Let’s say your frame is one we’ve done before and we have in our database, then we can send you just the cut lenses, and we have an instructional video guide that we send along, as well, on how to pop the old lenses out and put your new lenses in.

“Another place where we differentiate from some of the other companies that are doing lens replacement is we’re happy to service any frame, so even if we don’t have your frame shape in our database, we basically send you a box with a prepaid shipping label to send your frames back to us. We basically do the replacement there and send your frames back fully installed with the new lenses.”

At Stanford, Rosenberg had several opportunities. He said that he consulted with several professors as he looked to get the business started.

“There is a huge entrepreneurial startup culture at Stanford and around Stanford, being right in the heart of Silicon Valley,” Rosenberg said. “My professors were very receptive.”

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