Gold Coast-based start-up Suncayr sees a bright future for its sun-safe SPOT UV indicator stickers

We all know to slip, slop and slap when at the beach. But this Gold Coast-based start-up wants you to slip slop and stick with their revolutionary SPOT UV stickers that may just save your life.

THE Gold Coast-based Australian arm of a Canadian company sees a bright future in Asia for its sun-safe SPOT UV indicator stickers.

Suncayr was launched five years ago by Canadians Derek Jouppi, Andrew Martinko and Chad Sweetin, after extensive clinical trials.

Eighteen months ago they recruited Sam Sheehan to run the Australian arm of the business after he got to know Mr Jouppi while sharing a co-working space at the Queensland University of Technology.

“They were heading back to the US and said ‘would you be interested in running things here’?” he said.

Suncayr has bought to the Gold Coast a new sticker worn to detect the level of UV rays on your skin. It goes on clear, is water resistant, and when your sunscreen wears off you are alerted with the patch turning purple. Picture Glenn Hampson

Mr Sheehan took on the job running the Australian arm for Suncayr, which markets water-resistant stickers that alert the wearer to whether they are protected from the sun.

“The top layer of the sticker is essentially the same as your skin,” he said. “Sunscreen comes off it at the same rate it does from your body.

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“When the sticker turns purple you know you are no longer protected.”

Mr Sheehan moved the Suncayr team to the Gold Coast to coincide with the opening of the Gold Coast Hub in Robina recently.

People wear sunscreen at the beach, but will they wear a sticker that tells them when it is not working? (AAP image, John Gass)

“That got us over the line, because we’ve been supported by the Queensland Government through a grant,” Mr Sheehan said.

“We’ve been given some money to commercialise the product and seeing that the Gold Coast Hub was opening, I thought, let’s move our base down to Robina and kick things off there.”

Mr Sheehan said the greatest obstacle to the business has been scepticism from people who perceive the product as “just a sticker”.

“Until they look at the clinical trials and go through that, they just see a sticker,” Mr Sheehan said.

“It is about trying to challenge thinking around the fact that this little sticker can actually have a major effect.

“A lot of that is based around education. We’re trying to teach the world that using SPOT (UV detection stickers) can help you use your sunscreen more effectively. We’re not saying you don’t need sunscreen, or it doesn’t work, but we’re trying to educate people to use it correctly.”

He said there is also reluctance from young, particularly female, consumers, aged 15 to 24 years of age, to wear a sticker at the beach.

“However, they realise that when you are wearing it, you can’t actually see the sticker. It is transperant. When you put sunscreen on it goes clear, you genuinely cannot see it unless you are up close looking at it.”

Mr Sheehan said that reluctance to use the product was not the case for older demographics, many of whom have experienced, or know someone who has, had a mole removed or suffered from skin cancer.

He said he sees the strongest market opportunities in Asia, including China, where he lived for four-and-a-half months. “Living in China was a really great insight into the market. Sunscreen purchases are increasing by 25 per cent there year on year,” he said.