Meet Sam James | Engineering Tech./Entrepreneur & STEM outreach presenter

We had the good fortune of connecting with Sam James and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Sam, how did you come up with the idea for your business?
What’s so amazing, is that I did not anticipate starting a business. It happened by solving a problem and that problem was my brother-in-law having a bad case of razor bumps. It got so bad that his face was starting to swell, and he had to go to a dermatologist. He called me one day and shared his saga. He had done some research and found out that back in the 1800’s men with this problem exfoliated by using sand to rub their faces to uncurl the ingrown hairs, which causes razor bumps. He knew that I had a research and technology background, so he turned to me to see if I could come up with something. So, I started brainstorming about an idea and the key was exfoliating and uncurling the ingrown hair from the skin. I wanted to make the prototype simple and to the point. I researched some soft stones and found Tephra, which is a general term for volcanic rock fragments exploded or carried into the air during a volcanic eruption. When I acquired the material, I designed it with a convex shape so it would follow the contour of the face. When I finished the design, it resembled the shape of a “T”, so I called it the Tstone. I had gone through 8 different designs before I finalized it. I was happy with what I accomplished, so I took pictures and sent them to my brother-in-law, who is now by business partner and lives in Marietta, Ga. He was elated by the prototype.
One thing that I realized was that I didn’t test it to see if it worked. The next time I shaved, I allowed my razor bumps to appear so I could test it. I used a soap lather on my face, and I ran warm water on the T-stone. I moved it gently in a back and forth, up and down motion for about 30 secs. It didn’t take much, and about an hour later you could see the razor bumps diminishing.
The next step was finding a manufacturer that worked with the tephra type material, then I had to produce drawings for fabrication. All the communication with the representative of the manufacturer was by email. Once we finished the logistics and the completion date, I found myself building a website and a business, Tstone Solutions was established by solving a problem. What made me very proud of the product was when a customer told us, “We saved his life,” and other customers saying they can shave again, it makes you appreciate the hard work you put into building a business. What separates our Tstone product from other product competitors is that it uncurls the ingrown hair from the skin without using strong chemicals like other applications. We are now selling our Tstone product on Amazon and our website Tstonesolutions.com.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
I am from a family with 11 siblings, my mother and father were entrepreneurs and hard workers. My parents built our lives on a Christian foundation and that enabled us to persevere through any adversity or hardship. As a kid, my father would take me to work with him and we would have talks about life. One of the most important things that I found out at an early age was my identity. My high ideals personified in my faith are trust, respect, love, honesty and commitment. My parents demonstrated this within our family. With 12 kids and finances stretched thin, my father told us that he could not give us a lot of money, but he could give us a good name. At that time, I did not understand what he meant until later in life. My father richly endowed his family in the form of social capital and intangible wealth with deep respect from the community.
Growing up, I was always inquisitive, enjoyed working with my hands, building things and fascinated by innovative technology. When I was in middle school, I was asked about what type of career did I wanted to pursue. I had no idea, but I liked math, science and fabricating things. I shared this with my guidance counselor, who suggested some form of technology. A high school curriculum was devised for me, where I had to take my higher math and sciences.
I have a BS degree in Industrial/Mechanical Technology with a minor in Electronics from Elizabeth City State University. My junior year in college, I submitted resumes to companies, government facilities and NASA Langley Research Center was one of them. A month after I had graduated, a representative from NASA Langley called to tell me my application was accepted for a mechanical engineering technician position in the Fabrication Division. I was so elated and grateful. My life was forever changed because success followed. As an engineering technician for 37 years, I basically assisted researchers with their innovative ideas by bringing them to life, starting with concepts and prototypes. I had the honor of being part of two group patents in aerospace and composites. While at NASA Langley, I overcame the fear of public speaking by being involved with STEM educational outreach for the youth.
While working as an engineering technician, there were other opportunities outside of NASA that were introduced to me and that was modeling/acting for Wilhelmina Modelogic agency. I did not pursue this opportunity, it pursued me. One thing I always kept open was the door for opportunity. It has been 23 years now and I am still enjoying it. On the modeling scene, I was doing commercials and print work for high profile magazines, department stores and tourism to name a few. On the acting scene, I was doing re-enactments for the Discovery Channel on shows like “The New Detectives, FBI files and The Interpol Investigates. I recently did a short film called” Raggity Anns for a short film director in Atlanta. It has been a journey, and my life experiences have molded me into the person that I am today.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
Although I live in Virginia, I frequent Atlanta because I have family there and a business partner. Of course, where you go in Atlanta depends on how you are feeling, the time of day and the mood. To begin the day, I got to have a good breakfast at the Atlanta Breakfast Club and then work it off at Urban Body Fitness. During the day, my family like to visit the Botanical gardens, Georgia aquarium or the Coca-Cola Museum. We try to find a lot of choices close by so we can walk. For a lot under one roof, you have Andretti’s, which offers bowling, Laser tag, go-karts, and arcade games. With all the activity comes an appetite and there are a lot of food choices in Atlanta. But at the end of the day, I love some soul food, so I would go to Soul Good Fine Food. Most of my siblings play an instrument or sing so we like to check out the jazz scene at the Velvet note, Kat’s Café or Red-Light café. We usually have a blast wherever we go. And when we want to dance, we will find somewhere in Buckhead or Midtown Atlanta.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I would like to thank my niece Candace Mitchell Harris, who assisted me a great deal with building my website, driving traffic to it and establishing the online retail store. She was also instrumental in setting up the payment process. She majored in Computer Science at Georgia Tech., and she is CEO of MYAVANA. In June 2024 she opened her first retail storefront in Uganda, East Africa. It is so ironic because we both started our businesses around the same time in 2012. While building our brand, we were basically promoting each other’s business.
I would also like to give a shoutout to Dr, Lois Benjamin who is an emeritus professor at Hampton University. She is the author of my family book, ASCENSION: The Sociology of an African American Family’s Generational Journey which was published in March 2024 by the UNC Press of UNC-Chapel Hill. I met her at a technology expo, and she asked me how I got to where I am today. I have 11 siblings and I told her my parents sacrificed a lot for us to be successful, sending 11 to college. They molded me into the person that I am today with strong family values and Christ at the forefront of our lives. As I shared my family story Dr. Benjamin showed a lot of interest and wanted to hear more. Initially She wanted to write a newspaper article, but it soon transitioned into a book of academia, which is being used at some universities for African American studies.

Website: https://www.tstonerazorbumpmaster.com/

Instagram: : https://www.instagram.com/aero_modelmaker/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tstonerazorbumpmaster/

Facebook: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sam.james.39/