How a Magnetic Dish Brush Became a Global Sensation: The Yeseco Founder’s Jamie Phillips Story of Innovation and Grit.
When you think of world-changing ideas, you probably don’t picture a dish brush. But that’s exactly what happened when Australian–New Zealand founder Jamie Phillips created the YesECO magnetic dish brush that has now taken over sinks around the world.
In today’s blog, I’m sharing Jamie’s story – a raw, real, and inspiring deep dive into what it truly takes to bring a brand-new physical product to life. If you’re a product-based business owner, maker, or designer, this is the kind of insight you usually only get behind closed doors.
The Moment That Changed Everything
Jamie wasn’t always a product founder. Before creating Yeseco, he worked in advertising, photography and high-end digital retouching. That career took him across global campaigns and dream clients… until one moment on a remote Indonesian island shifted everything.
After seeing a beach covered in plastic – the kind untouched by humans, but destroyed by human habits – he made a decision. He could keep using his skills for brands he wasn’t aligned with, or he could build something that genuinely made an impact.
He came home. Looked around his kitchen. And realised every sink had the same problem: ugly, cheap, disposable dish brushes and sponges no one liked, but everyone needed.
That became the seed for Yeseco. https://yeseco.life/
Why His First Attempt Didn’t Work
Jamie did what many first-time founders do. He created an eco line using bamboo, added his branding, and launched into the world.
And it worked – for about 12 months.
But deep down, he knew it wasn’t solving anything. He wasn’t designing a solution. He was curating one.
That insight led him to rethink everything.
The A-Ha Moment: Magnets
One afternoon during COVID, while living with two product designers, Jamie started sketching. He wrote down pain points. Mapped out problems. Looked at the everyday mess around the sink.
And he realised:
No one knows where to put the dish brush.
It rolls around, falls over, grows mould, sits in puddles, looks messy. And despite millions of kitchens worldwide, no one had improved the design.
After a trip to Bunnings and an afternoon playing with magnets on the couch, he realised he could create a magnetic mount that works on ANY sink… without drilling or suction cups.
It was a genuine invention.
A patentable one.
Two days after his attorney did a global search, she called him and said, “This never happens… it’s completely original. You need to go all in.”
And he did.
The Harsh Reality of Manufacturing Something New
Here’s the part most people don’t know: inventing a physical product is not like making a candle, tee, or face oil.
It is slow.
Expensive.
Complex.
And often unpredictable.
The mold for his design was enormous – and cost more than most early-stage founders could fund.
Every tweak took 3–4 weeks because manufacturing tooling is a whole different beast. And during COVID? Everything that could slow down… did slow down.
At one stage his molds sat untouched for four months because engineers couldn’t get to the factory.
But he kept going.
Kickstarter: The Lifeline Moment
Jamie knew friends and family saying “We love it!” wasn’t enough. He needed strangers to take out their credit card.
So he launched on Kickstarter.
It was a masterstroke.
He raised funds from more than 1,500 backers, validated demand globally, and created the momentum that helped YesECO break into both wholesale and DTC markets.
Today, more than 12,000 customers use his product daily.
Why Retail and DTC Both Matter
Half of Jamie’s business comes from wholesale and stockists, and half comes from direct-to-consumer sales.
And here’s the genius part: each supports the other.
People might discover the product in an ad, but buy it in-store when they need a gift. Retailers love selling it because the packaging and visual merchandising is elite. Customers who buy in-store often purchase consumables online later.
It’s the ideal multi-channel strategy.
Version 2: The Relaunch
After learning through thousands of customer reviews, manufacturing challenges, and real-world usage, Jamie completely redesigned the internal manufacturing structure of the brush.
The result?
A faster-to-produce, more durable, more efficient version… but with the same iconic design.
Version 2 is now on Kickstarter, and the momentum is strong. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/yeseco/yeseco-v2
The Real Lesson: Perseverance
When I asked Jamie what he would change, he said something so relatable for founders:
“I wish I had known how huge the gap is between design and manufacturing. And I wish I had more help in the early days. But I wouldn’t change the journey, because everything I learned made me the founder I am now.”
Product-based businesses aren’t for the faint-hearted.
But the reward?
Creating something that becomes part of someone’s everyday life.
And that is exactly what Yeseco has done.
LINKS:
👉 Explore YesECO: https://yeseco.life
👉 Support the YesECO V2 Kickstarter: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/yeseco/yeseco-v2
👉 Follow me on Instagram: @thelotco
If you want to build a profitable product business you LOVE (without the burnout and chaos), come join me inside my Roadmap to Profit program. Details at thelotco.com.au.
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Business Coach for product-based businesses. Teaching creative business women how to build a scalable and profitable million-dollar product business whether a physical Retail store or Brand.
Over 25 years as a Retail and Wholesale Strategist (Sales and Marketing for Brands).
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