Dr Rob Yonover invented a piece of plastic that’s now on US Navy submarines, fighter jets and SpaceX manned flights. It’s saved at least four lives. He built it on his patio. His first PR break came from faxing press releases at 11pm.
He’s been at it for 40 years. No investors. No PR agency. No marketing budget.
This episode is a masterclass in getting attention without spending money — and the discipline it takes to keep going when nobody believes in your idea yet.
How Rob actually got press
Pre-internet, Rob bought a directory called Bacon’s Publicity Checker. It listed every magazine editor in the world with their fax numbers. He’d spend his days writing out 50–100 numbers by hand, then at 11:01pm — when phone calls were cheaper — he’d fax out a one-page press release to all of them.
His framing: “It’s like fishing. You want 100 lines in the water, you catch one fish.”
The first fish he caught was the Miami Herald. He took that article and faxed it out 100 more times. Then took the next coverage and did it again. He’s been parlaying press into more press for four decades.
The tools have changed. The principles haven’t:
- Cast wide. One pitch to one outlet isn’t a strategy.
- Use existing coverage as proof in your next pitch.
- Be specific about what’s interesting. “Saves lives” is interesting. “New product launch” isn’t.
- Let journalists run with their own angle. Rob’s favourite line — “Gilligan’s Island would have been one episode if they had the See/Rescue® Streamer” — was written by Men’s Journal, not him.
Why he turned down every Shark
This was the line that stopped me: “Taking investor money shortens your life arc.”
Rob walked into Shark Tank with a working product, military contracts, and a story that should have triggered a bidding war. Every Shark passed. Looking back, he says it was the best thing that could have happened.
His reasoning is sharp. If you take $200k from someone, you don’t get a mentor — you get a 30-year-old assistant calling you every week asking why you haven’t been to LA yet. You inherit someone else’s timeline, someone else’s priorities, someone else’s idea of what success looks like.
His alternative: keep your day job, keep overhead absurdly low, and give yourself permission to play the long game. “Don’t quit your day job so you can quit your day job.”
For small business owners, this is the trade nobody talks about. Investor money looks like acceleration. It often functions as a leash.
The polite pain in the ass strategy
Rob called Outside Magazine for three years before they wrote about him. His own framing: “I’m a polite pain in the ass. I’m persistent.”
He believes in his product. He’s not going away. He doesn’t lose his temper when people brush him off. He just keeps showing up — to the trade show, to the editor, to the military buyer — looking sharp, with a clear elevator pitch and zero entitlement to a yes.
The discipline isn’t pushiness. It’s polite, consistent presence over years. Most people quit by month six.
Function over form
Rob’s whole approach to inventing — and to business — is that function comes before form. “It may not look good, but if it works, that’s your creation. That’s a piece of artwork.”
The See/Rescue® Streamer is a long orange strip of plastic with spreader bars. It saves lives because it can be seen from a mile away in open water. He’s proud of it because it works, not because it photographs well.
Most small business owners get this backwards. They polish the website before they’ve validated the offer. They build the brand before they’ve built the thing.
Rob’s order: build something that genuinely works, prove it works, then let the marketing carry it.
What to take from this
If you’re building something simple that nobody understands yet — this episode is for you.
If you’re tempted to take investor money to speed things up, listen to Rob’s reasoning first.
If you’ve been telling yourself you need a PR agency before journalists will take you seriously, Rob spent 30 years getting national coverage with a fax machine and a list.
The tools are easier now. The discipline is the same.
Find Rob’s books on Amazon: Hardcore Inventing, Caregiver Survival Guide, Brainstorm Islands.
Want to be a guest on The Jo Show? Apply here.
