When Gyve Safavi and Mark Rushmore set out to disrupt the oral care industry with their company SURI, they faced a challenge: convincing consumers that brushing teeth is part of a morning wellness ritual tied in with environmental concerns. Yet in just two years, they scaled to $30 million in sales, and secured partnerships with major retailers like Boots in the UK and Erewhon in the United States.
SURI got there by focusing relentlessly on solving consumer pain points and having a compelling brand story that reimagines twice daily teeth brushing as a time for wellness. Gyve and Mark knew creating an innovative product was only the first step. To succeed, SURI needed to convince consumers to give its toothbrush a try. Ahead, the founders share advice for scaling any product-based brand that requires a shift in consumer preferences.
Finding solutions to common pain points
SURI’s journey began with extensive consumer research so the founders could understand the biggest pain points with the current electric toothbrushes on the market. “We asked people what they dislike about their current product or routines and really listened to them. Then we designed a product to solve those problems,” Mark explains.
This research revealed several key issues: batteries that died frequently, clunky travel cases that discouraged on-the-go use, buildup of gunk on brushes, and difficulty recycling brush heads. Armed with these insights, the SURI team set out to create an innovative electric toothbrush that would address each of these pain points.
The result was a sleek, minimalist toothbrush with features designed to enhance the user experience and promote sustainability. “We have a 40-day battery life, we have a travel case with UV light, and it’s USB-C charged,” Mark says. “You don’t need this random charger that only works with your toothbrush.”
Leveraging expert endorsements
“Only by speaking to dentists that we would reach out to get their feedback were we able to get real insights, like a lighter brush actually is better because people don’t have to strain holding it, and having a softer mode for people who are just getting started on it,” Gyve says.
In addition to getting industry feedback, they also work with dental experts to create engaging social media content for its channels like Instagram and LinkedIn.
Hearing from experts helped validate SURI’s claims and persuaded consumers to give the product a try. But, the SURI founders knew speaking to individual dentists wasn’t enough and that they needed to use industry research to increase credibility. “We found the Clinical Research Center, which is the leading place for clinical research in oral care globally, and has worked on every electric toothbrush for the last sort of 20 to 30 years and we did our clinical trials there,” Mark says. It’s vital to gain a stamp of approval from as many experts as you can in your field of work.
“In the end there, when we asked what are you going to do with the brushes? They were like, ‘Oh, our technical engineers would like to keep them, they want to use them.’ And so it was like … wow, the leading clinical center wants to use our brushes for personal use,” Gyve says.
Crafting a compelling brand story
SURI stands for sustainable rituals. It’s a name that gives the brand a standout story, repositioning teeth brushing as a wellness ritual rather than a chore.
We want to talk about how it’s a forgotten ritual, you do it twice a day, it’s the first thing you do when you wake up, and maybe your last thing before you sign off and get into bed,” Gyve explains. This reframe helped the founders shift the brand into a well-being category and share it that way rather than in the usual clinical branding environments of other oral care products.
SURI’s product copy emphasizes the environmental impact of the disposable toothbrush industry with a cheeky reference to climate action: “Keep the planet as clean as your teeth.” In this way, oral hygiene wellness and planet Earth wellness are linked within SURI’s brand identity.
Using post-purchase surveys for ongoing insights
The SURI team is constantly working to improve the design and communications strategy. They leverage Fairing for post-purchase surveys to learn better ways to market and sell the existing benefits of SURI, as well as make improvements over time. These surveys provide valuable data on customer acquisition channels and satisfaction, allowing SURI to continuously refine their omnichannel approach.
“We started getting feedback from our customers, like, where did you first hear about SURI,” Mark says. “And it’s really interesting from an attribution perspective, and to also see the comments that people make.”
While pursuing their vision, Gyve and Mark stayed grounded in business basics.“It comes back to Business 101,” Mark says. “You buy a product at this price, sell it at that price, make sure that the profit margin more than covers your costs, and you make a profit, right?”
This focus on unit economics allowed SURI to scale sustainably, even as it expanded from its initial ecommerce launch to partnerships with major retailers. SURI has shown that as long as you work with industry experts and your initial customer base to collect ongoing insights, and you share those results in your marketing communications, you can shift consumers’ perception.
By following these principles, SURI was able to make brushing teeth cool and rapidly scale its business. To hear the two-part series on the SURI founders, tune in to the Shopify Masters podcast.
