We recently connected with Maricruz Carrillo and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Maricruz thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Risk taking is something we’re really interested in and we’d love to hear the story of a risk you’ve taken.

I quit my safe 6-figure job to dedicate my entire energy to my unprofitable business. I had been in my product development engineering job for over 2 and half years, making good money, receiving a paycheck every two weeks but SUNMUD started asking for more of my attention. We were starting to say no to certain opportunities because we did not have the bandwidth and I realized that we, the founders, were the ones holding back the business from growing. My husband and I had just gotten married and we had been granted legal guardianship for our 8 year old niece. Definitely not the “quit your stable job right now” scenario but I decided this was best for me, my health, my family and, of course, my business.

I have now been working fulltime on my business for 3 months and we have grown our revenue by five times compared to the first quarter of last year. We are able to take on and explore more opportunities which have helped not just sales but also has helped me build closer relationships with our community, customers and non-profits we work with. SUNMUD, like many start up businesses, is not profitable yet. So, I’m not paying myself yet but I know the risk I took will be worthwhile and will build a thriving profitable business this year.

Maricruz, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I grew up in Mexico spending every single day at the beach, and we never wore sunscreen. It just wasn’t part of my culture. But as an adult, when I started surfing, my skin chemistry changed. I started getting completely fried—peeling, red, itchy skin.

I needed a natural sunscreen, but everything on the market would wash off the second I took a wipeout. At one point, I was just smearing pure white zinc all over my face. It worked, but I looked crazy, and it would get stuck in the crevices of my nose and ears. At the time, I was working on my Master’s and PhD—I was in higher education for 12 years straight—so I had places to be and couldn’t be walking around looking like that! Because I was already making my own products, I decided to just try making my own sunscreen in my kitchen. I started giving my homemade sunscreen to Charles (then boyfriend now husband and co-founder) for his surf trips. He took it to Puerto Escondido in mainland Mexico—which is notorious for brutal sunburns—and he didn’t burn at all. Our friend Miles (our third co-founder) caught on and said, “Hey, this is actually really good. Let’s make it a real thing.”

The real turning point was when Miles suggested adding natural clay to the formula. Clay is amazing for your skin, and it eliminated that greasy, oily, sticky feeling that most natural sunscreens have. Then, Miles spent hundreds of hours mixing different shades of iron oxide so the sunscreen would actually blend into your skin’s natural undertones instead of just leaving a white cast. Once we had a formula that stayed on during heavy wipeouts, matched our skin tones, and felt great, we knew we had something special.

We created something truly clean and actually reef-safe. Our formula is a shea butter base with sustainably sourced beeswax to help it stay on in the water. We use non-nano zinc oxide (so the particles aren’t small enough to enter your bloodstream) and powerful oils like raspberry seed, carrot seed, and Tamanu oil. We also completely left out coconut oil, because dermatologists told us it actually clogs pores and causes breakouts! Every single ingredient is intentional.

Our goal is to become an epic mix of Patagonia and Redbull but for sunscreens. We want to be the go-to mineral sunscreen for all high-performance sports and lifestyle while creating a positive impact on the planet and its people.

We’d love to hear the story of how you turned a side-hustle into a something much bigger.

We started SUNMUD when I was finishing my doctoral degree in Material Science, Charles (co-founder) was running his consulting business and Miles (co-founder) was running his own business full-time. So, this was a side hustle for all of us. Less than a year in, Charles and I got full time 9-5, in person engineering jobs. Miles continued his business full-time. We were able to grow the business revenue generation by working nights and weekends! Three major milestones I want to share here: completion of testing, first manufacturing run and Safari Park partneship. Once we completed the very cash intensive testing, we were in business and needing to make sales! Once we got a co-packer to make the sunscreen for us, we were a legit business and when the San Diego Zoo Safari Park reached out to us for a partnership, we felt like a true key player in the community. All of these leading to me taking the leap, quitting my full time job and dedicating myself to SUNMUD.

Have any books or other resources had a big impact on you?

Yes! Please go read Four Thousand Weeks by Oliver Burkeman. He argues that the average human life is only about 4,000 weeks long, so trying to do everything and maximize productivity is ultimately impossible. Instead, the book encourages accepting our limited time and focusing on what truly matters rather than constantly chasing efficiency and endless to-do lists.This completely shifted my viewpoint on time management and productivity.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://sunmudsunscreen.com
• Instagram: @sunmudsunscreen
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/p/Sun-Mud-100095057541290/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/maricruz-carrillo-phd-8226a864/