Sustainability without Compromise with Mark Rushmore, Co-founder and CCO of SURI

Mark Rushmore is co-founder and CCO of SURI, a sustainable electric toothbrush company. Mark and his co-founder began their careers at P&G, one of the great incubators of talent within the CPG industry. With a long entrepreneurial track record and some exits, he and his co-founder had the opportunity and the idea to start a consumer product brand that doesn't compromise on effectiveness or performance, produces a product that's more sustainable, and educates consumers about how to use it sustainably throughout the product's life cycle. Hear Mark’s insights about decisions from product design, materials, packaging, and growing direct to consumer and and through retail.

TRANSCRIPT BELOW:
Keith Anderson: Welcome to Decarbonizing Commerce, where we explore what's new, interesting, and actionable at the intersection of climate innovation and commerce. I'm your host, Keith Anderson, and together we'll meet entrepreneurs and innovators reinventing retail, e-commerce, and consumer products through the lenses of low carbon and commercial viability. 

Hello, welcome to another episode of the Decarbonizing Commerce podcast. I'm Keith Anderson. I'm guessing like most of our listeners, you brush your teeth every day. I hope you do. And If you do, I think you're going to enjoy today's episode with Mark Rushmore of a sustainable electric toothbrush company called SURI, which is short for Sustainable Rituals.

Mark and his co-founder began their careers at P&G, which I think many acknowledge is one of the great incubators of talent within the CPG industry. And After a couple exits, you know, long entrepreneurial track record and some exits, he and his co-founder had the opportunity and the idea to start a consumer product brand that didn't make any compromises on effectiveness or performance, but goes a long way towards producing a product that's more sustainable and really educating shoppers and consumers about how to use it sustainably throughout the product's life cycle. And in speaking with Mark, it's clear that he and his team have thought deeply about decisions from product design and ingredients and materials to packaging to distribution strategy through channels like Amazon, along with a direct to consumer and growing retail presence and, having used the product and, you know, going through the unboxing experience and seeing how, in essentially every touch point with the shopper, they are reinforcing the dual messaging of a product that really outperforms along with an approach to product design and usage that is lighter on the planet and, you know, ultimately leads to a business that's profitable, which, unlocks most doors. And economic sustainability really enables environmental sustainability. So I'm eager for you to meet Mark Rushmore, hear about his entrepreneurial journey, and learn from some of the choices they've made at SURI.

Here's Mark.

Mark, welcome to the Decarbonizing Commerce podcast. Thanks so much for joining us.

Mark Rushmore: Keith, thank you so much for having me on. We've had multiple emails to get to this point and I know I've not been available a couple of times, so I'm just super happy to be here and really grateful. Thank you.

Keith Anderson: Well, we're really excited to have you and, I know you've been busy. Congrats on the recent funding. You've actually extended a streak of ours. I think you're the fourth guest to come on the show within a few weeks of announcing fresh capital. So congrats.

Mark Rushmore: Yeah, well, thank you very much. It's, yeah, no, it's really nice to have that done and now to, you know, refocus all of our time and attention back into growing the world's most popular and sustainable electric toothbrush.

Keith Anderson: Well, maybe a great place to start would be a bit about your background and your co-founder's and what led you to this category and starting SURI.

Mark Rushmore: Sure, would you like the, short or the medium version?

Keith Anderson: How about medium?

Mark Rushmore: Okay, medium. So, I grew up in, Scotland and from when I was a child, I was just really interested in business. I set up a rival catering company, to my school, and that grew quite, quite a lot by the time I was like 17. And then when I went to university, I studied history, but I really found my passion became alive when I set up a society for history students.

I managed to get the sponsorship from like the History Channel and, you know, I grew a committee, we raised, thousands of pounds. And I realized like, wow, I feel so alive, like, wouldn't it be great to continue this in my life? But I'm also, you know, conscious that you should, minimize your downside, maximize your upside. So I thought, "what better place to start my career than Procter & Gamble?" You know, the world's largest manufacturer of, fast moving consumer goods.

And so I spent a few wonderful years there learning all about the trade and ultimately I was managing Pringles when it was sold to Kellogg's. So I helped transition that business, which was worth over a hundred million dollars, successfully to Kellogg's. And then I took the opportunity and a rather generous payout to explore some other opportunities, that I wanted to.

In fact, around the same time, unfortunately, an acquaintance of mine from university committed suicide. And I just thought, you know, the combination of having this like Capital for the first time in my life and realizing how short life can be. I thought, you know, I'm not going to wait until I retire to live out my dreams.

I'm going to write a list of them and see if I can do them all now. So I wrote a list and one of those things was to set up a company. The other one was to do it like a physical challenge. And another one was to learn about digital marketing. So I became a ski instructor in Canada briefly, then I cycled from Canada to Mexico unsupported, and then I won a digital media competition to sail around the world as part of the Clipper Round The World Yacht Race.

I actually discovered though on training, I'm not a massive ocean sailing fan, so I decided not to do that, but instead I set up a business. So I set up the UK office of a German experiential marketing agency, for my kitchen table and scaled that through to exit five years later. And during that time I won Oral B as a client as well as BMW and Jaguar.

And so we manage their trade shows and I kind of really understood like how they engage with the dental profession and how important it is and how electric toothbrush sales work. And then during that time, I was invited, very fortunately to attend the Cannes Lions, which is like the Oscars of the advertising industry.

And I had a chance meeting with the Unilever CMO, Keith Weed, who invited me to a party that he was hosting on an island off the coast of Cannes in the South of France. It's kind of like, you couldn't quite believe it. I had to pinch myself. But he said, "if you can get down to this boat at 1:30, you know, you can go across to the Island."

And then when I got there on the boat, it was, my, my now co-founder. So I met him there, and we got chatting at this event and it turned out he'd also used to work for Procter & Gamble. I was in sales and strategy. He was in finance and marketing. I was in UK. He was in Geneva. He managed Venus Razors, so Gillette across EMEA.

And we both just agreed that, you know, consumer products are so important and invaluable in our daily lives, but a lot more could be done to make them more sustainable and not as an afterthought, but from the beginning. But also to use e-commerce as a way to compete more effectively versus some larger FMCG people like Procter & Gamble.

And that also experience was really crucial, you know, since the advent of the iPhone, I think consumer expectations in terms of the unboxing, the advertising, the customer service, have improved. So Yeah, so Keith and I, you know, got chatting, became friends. And then a few years later, once I'd sold my company and he'd sold his company, then we came back together and said, look, it's time we do something about this issue, which is that every year 4 billion toothbrushes are thrown away and end up in landfills and oceans.

Virtually every brush you probably ever used, Keith, since you were a child, probably still exists and will do for a long time because of the materials they're made from. What's more, people don't necessarily love their existing brush. They haven't changed much in shape in 30, 40 years. You know, you get the gunk on the bottom.

People complain about poor battery life and no one's using the Bluetooth apps in the research that we've found. So, we thought, "could we make a brush that's more sustainable and better for the environment? And this is the result.

Keith Anderson: So, I like the medium intro. There's a lot to dive into there. You told me before we hit record that you haven't been to Colorado, but if you like skiing, you've got to visit at some point.

Mark Rushmore: Oh, I would love to come to Colorado. In fact, a lot of people who order SURI in the US are based in Colorado. And I think it just speaks volumes to, you know, there's a lot of people with a shared, a value system and belief in, in the future of our planet and the outdoors.

Keith Anderson: Yeah, Boulder in particular is sort of a, hub for sustainable CPG brands.

Mark Rushmore: Definitely, you know.

Keith Anderson: So, you know, you mentioned at least three areas that I want to get into, one of which was the product design. You know, one of which was the, channel strategy. And so, we'll come back to the third, but why don't we talk about the product design itself, because, you know, you've mentioned both the experience and some of the sustainability attributes.

How did you approach deciding on materials and, you know, designing for both the product's effectiveness and position in the bathroom and its environmental footprint?

Mark Rushmore: Sure. So we, we started with the premise that we didn't think sustainability should come with a compromise. I think in like, I don't know, let's call it sustainability 1.0, you know, you might have a product, but it wouldn't necessarily give you a great performance. You know, you were kind of compromising, "okay, this isn't going to wash my clothes as effectively as a regular detergent."

And two, you might compromise on the design, on how it looks, on the weight or, or how it, you know, how it feels. And so when we set out on this, we thought, we just don't think that because something's made more sustainably, it should come with any compromise on performance or design. So that was the starting premise.

But then when it came to like, "okay, how can we make a more sustainable brush?" So we, you know, we looked firstly at materials, you know, are there better materials than the multitude of plastics which are currently made in electric brushes? And one of the points we started with was with the heads. So obviously the heads get thrown out and you replace them.

Dentists recommend every three months. So whilst billions of toothbrushes get thrown out. You know, the quantity of heads the even more enormous. So our head is made from cornstarch and our bristles are made from castor oil. Both plant-based materials that when they degrade, won't degrade in the same sort of quantity of microplastics as say, like traditional toothbrush heads.

We also offer free recycling, in the US and the UK. We have this prepaid mailer bag, which in itself is compostable. So once you're done with the head, you just pop it in. We ask people to put four heads in, you put it into the post and it'll come back to us. We're working with the University of Exeter here in the UK at the moment on like how we're making new products out of the recycled material.

But to your question, like how do we do that? Well, we looked at lots of different academic papers, lots of different, you know, research into different materials and this is what we determined was going to be the most effective way. Now, if you go to a factory, as we did, in fact, I think we went to 24 factories roughly, 23 of them told us that's not possible, you know, or just straight out laughed at us on the phone.

They said, you know, "why don't you just take the ones that we have? Like, they're tested." We were told that this material wouldn't be strong enough, that it wouldn't pass certain tests. There's no point in even trying. Now, I think the thing is, most factories are, you know, are optimized for efficiency. So they want to turn out more of what they already have.

And so it's, it's rare to find a factory that wants to experiment and test, but fortunately, Gibb is the most stubborn person I've ever met. I mean, he, he will, he just kept saying "it's possible, it's possible, like we will have to find someone else." I'll admit, like at various points, I thought, Maybe it's not, like, you know, maybe it's just not possible.

It's like, "we can't do it. We have to look into other solutions." But fortunately, you know, he kept going. On the 24th one we found someone who was like, "okay, well, I'll do the test. If it doesn't work, it doesn't work." We said, "of course, like, if it doesn't, we're not going to try and push a product that doesn't work."

And, fortunately, you know, after multiple iterations, we found a way of using these materials, which no one had done previously. And then additionally, our brush you'll see is about, it's about half the width of traditional electric toothbrushes. So it actually means we're using less material as well, which is another sort of fundamental part for reducing your footprint.

The handle's made from aluminium, which is highly, recyclable, as you'll be aware. And then we also included this tiny screw on the bottom that enables us, unlike 99 percent of brushes, which are fully sealed, to be able to remove, you know, the battery and either replace it or to be able to strip it and then ensure that everything gets recycled appropriately, or that we can reuse certain components that we can either, you know, reuse the motor or different elements.

So that's been an important part. But then also, you know, we thought about packaging. So our packaging is 100 percent plastic-free. You'll also notice about half the size of traditional packaging in our category. 

And it's been thoughtfully designed with FSC approved materials so that it's, you know, as sustainable as possible.

But I'm going to put my hands up, Keith. Could we be better? Absolutely we could. And we are constantly looking. In fact, I've just come from a meeting right now. We found a way to, I think, reduce packaging, in our next iteration of the packaging by I think we're seeing 23 percent and we found some innovative space, you know, savings, but I mean, this is also a world exclusive for your podcast, but we've also got a better way of doing the insides with a new material which is even more sustainable than what we have currently.

Keith Anderson: Inside of the packaging?

Mark Rushmore: Inside of the packaging and also improves efficiency on the line. So like it's actually going to be faster, for packing, but it's also more sustainable and it's also a better experience for the consumer. So we are far from perfect. But we have this sustainability in our DNA, you know, we, we kind of, we'll constantly strive to see if there's ways we can do things better.

And you know, it's, it's an ongoing journey that will, will never end.

 So yeah, that, that kind of covers some of the, the green credentials that have gone into the design of the brush and the packaging.

Keith Anderson: It's, it's definitely a moving target and maybe it's a nice segue to some of the e-commerce discussion because as I listened to you describe even some of these more recent discoveries and potential enhancements, it calls to mind programs like Amazon Compact by Design and, you know, Amazon's own certification that basically incentivizes, lightweighting and reducing the package to product ratio. You've worked, with Amazon programs like that.

Do you find that some of your channel strategies have led you to some of these decisions that are, are more space efficient and end up yielding economic benefits?

Mark Rushmore: So it's a great question. And I must say from the outset, like I'm a, I'm a big fan of what Amazon did. They actually approached us pre-launch and said, "Hey, we're going to be running this accelerator. Would you like to be part of it?" And, you know, I'll throw my hands up when Amazon came to us saying, "Oh, we've got this sustainability accelerator."

I was thinking Amazon and sustainability are not two words that you necessarily immediately kind of put two and two together. But as we sort of assess whether we thought, you know, "could we do the program?" You know, change in our opinion will require everyone to, you know, take part, not just small companies, but, you know, the potential impact that Amazon can make by influencing, you know, their supply chain decisions, et cetera, is so enormous.

And then when we joined the program, we learned about all sorts of different initiatives that they're sort of taking part in. But also, you know, things like you, like you mentioned, Compact by Design, which then forms part of their Climate Pledge Friendly badge and certification, is really important.

And what it enables, I think, lots of different brands to do is like At least have guidance towards making more sustainable decisions, and yeah, just kind of making that awareness. In the same respect, when we went through the B Corp certification, a lot of people say like, "oh, is it so great being a B Corp because, you know, you get the recognition with consumers?"

But that's only really one part of it. The main thing that B Corp helped us with was it kind of steered us towards improving policies that we hadn't even considered, like in, in all honesty, and like to think about ways we could improve our business and methodologies. And it kind of provides a framework for how you could do things a little bit better.

So, so yeah, so I mean, for us, our mission is to kind of constantly improve the sustainable nature of our product. In fact, SURI is short for Sustainable Rituals. And so we, we sort of grasp with both hands, any, any kind of framework or anything that people suggest, you know, might be useful and we assess it, work out whether it's something that we think will make a difference and then go from there.

Keith Anderson: Well, and you, you mentioned, you know, some of the efficiencies that you're finding as, you continue learning and iterating. I think one of the pieces of, I'll use air quotes, "conventional wisdom" that I think sustainability 1.0 has sort of left as a legacy is the idea that even if the more sustainable product is on parity in terms of effectiveness, it tends to be, more expensive.

And I think there's great data. In fact, you know, just, you know, 10 days ago or so, New York University Stern, School of Business did their annual conference on sustainability where, along with Cercana, they often report out, you know, "here's the share of products that are marketed as sustainable and willingness to pay a premium."

But, you know, in terms of the competitive dynamic, what are you finding in oral care and how have you had to approach some of those choices about product design?

Mark Rushmore: Totally. It's a really great question. And I think I would say from the outset, like, you know, ideally, you want to make more sustainable options available to everyone, you know, to absolutely everyone that, that's got to be the goal moving forwards. I think our product sits at a more premium end of the category.

However, it does sit amongst a group of competitors who are charging the same or a lot more. I think some of our competitors, their products now are 500, 600, 700, 800 dollars. And we're competing, you know, ours is just over a hundred dollars. So, you know, it's, it's an interesting sort of point. Now, we would love to make a products which are more cost effective, you know, so that we can hit like a wider range of consumers at a different price point. Right now, we don't have that product, but you know, that's firmly in our, in our targets, you know? So I think we have a competitively priced product, which offers much more sustainable features as well as like great performance features, you know, so our battery lasts 40 days on a single charge, whereas a lot of toothbrushes last maybe three to five days.

You know, we have 33 000 sonic vibrations. We were tested in Sallis Research in the US, which do the the clinical trials of a lot of big brands and ours was proven to be, you know, as effective or more effective. So yeah, so I think it is possible to create a competitively priced product, which is sustainable.

Keith Anderson: And is there any messaging to shoppers around total lifetime cost of ownership? You know, I've seen in some categories that have a similar, you know, sort of handle and cartridge model, shaving in particular, some of the emerging brands that are plastic-free, actually, talk about, you know, yes, the handle may be more than the, just to use an example, Venus or MACH3, you know, that you're using today, but it'll last forever.

And because the blades are so low cost, it'll pay back in 18 months, for example. Is that a conversation happening with products like yours?

Mark Rushmore: You know what, Keith, it's a, it's a conversation that I'm going to re bring to the team, following what you're saying, because this is one of our major benefits. We don't talk about it enough, you know, because our price is actually already competitively priced versus these, like, throwaway products that you're going to need multiple of in the same time that you need one SURI.

It's a real competitive advantage of ours, and I don't think we, we probably make enough of it.

Keith Anderson: And I imagine, you know, with some of the potential repair characteristics, I don't know how big a component of the value prop that is, but if your product is designed for repairability and basically others are designed, to make it impossible, you know, that planned obsolescence has a cost also.

Mark Rushmore: Definitely, definitely. And that's the thing, it's like, it's not just more economic, it's not just more sustainable, it's also much more economical, you know, to, to buy a SURI. 

Keith Anderson: Hey folks, this is the part of the show where we say thank you and see you soon to the general audience, plus and higher tier members of decarbonize.co, stay tuned for the rest of the episode.

Hey, it's Keith Anderson from decarbonize.co inviting you to join our brand new Slack community for retail, e-commerce, and consumer product professionals that want to keep up with what's new, interesting, and actionable in industry, climate, and sustainability action, and connect with your peers. As I got into this work, one of the things that I found so invigorating is how passionate and willing to help everyone is.

But I haven't found a community composed of people across functions in the industry that are working in or want to work in climate and sustainability. And so we're launching the community to connect both sustainability experts and practitioners, and people in conventional roles like product design, packaging, supply chain, marketing, and merchandising to share their work, ask for help, connect about career opportunities, keep up with the latest industry development and we'll be previewing who our upcoming guests on the podcast will be and giving you an opportunity to pose questions to our guests. So I can't wait to meet you and have you meet some of the other members of the community. To join us, you can visit decarbonize.co. You'll see a call to action on the homepage or use the intelligence menu at the top of the page where you'll also see a link to join. 

Well, I'll set the calendar reminder now and I'll, I'll check back in about a year.

Mark Rushmore: Look forward to it. Maybe we could do it in Boston.

Keith Anderson: That'd be nice. Or maybe on the slopes out in Colorado.

Mark Rushmore: Yeah, love it.

Keith Anderson: Well, Mark, if folks want to learn more about SURI or get in touch, where should they head?

Mark Rushmore: Sure. So if you go to our website, www.trysuri.Com, or you can search for us on Amazon, or you can just type in "SURI Electric Toothbrush into Google and that'll give you some more info. And if you want to get in touch with me, my name is Mark Rushmore and you know, by all means, you know, send me, send me a hello on LinkedIn, mention the podcast and I'll give you a discount if you want to purchase the brush.

Keith Anderson: Fantastic. Well, Mark, thanks so much for joining us.

Mark Rushmore: You're very welcome. Thanks for having me. 

Keith Anderson: Thanks for listening. I'm Keith Anderson, the executive producer and host of Decarbonizing Commerce. Sonic Futures handles audio, music, and video production. If you enjoyed the show, we'd really appreciate it if you took a moment to subscribe and leave a review or share it with a colleague. For the full episode and more member exclusive insight and analysis, join the Decarbonizing Commerce community at decarbonize.co. Thanks for listening and we'll see you on the next episode of Decarbonizing Commerce. 

Have a question or feedback about Decarbonizing Commerce. Record an audio message https://s.castplus.fm/decarbonizing-commerce?episode=6nrk0my8