We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Maxine Chapman a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Maxine, appreciate you joining us today. Almost every entrepreneur we know has considered donating a portion of their sales to an organization or cause – how did you make the decision of whether to donate? We’d love to hear the backstory if you’re open to sharing the details.

Since pivoting during COVID to put a bigger emphasis on our own E-commerce website we’re very excited to offer all different colored containers which each supports a different non-profit. We’ve been told we should wait to give back until we’re a larger organization that can give bigger balloon payments but this is who we are and want to be as people and as a company. Our mission was always to create something that serves others and our planet and so we really wanted that mission to be ingrained in this company, with every win, in every sale.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

At SurfDurt we only make one thing: sunscreen with the least possible toxicity of any currently known formula. We don’t deviate from this! SurfDurt is definitely a more natural, earthy-paste consistency compared to chemical sunscreens that have a more mayonnaise-like feel and most people would consider it a sunscreen that’s only for real outdoor sports and adventures but when you’re looking for something that’s truly non-toxic for you and for the coral reef, SurfDurt is a product you’ll always be able to count on. We manufacture in-house here in Miramar, San Diego and we keep the Earth in mind for everything we do: low-waste manufacturing, sustainable sourcing, plastic-free packaging, diverse hiring and we even give back a portion of all proceeds to a different organization according to what color container you buy. Because buying a natural, reef-safe sunscreen is already voting with your dollars for the kind of world you want to live in and we want to do that with you.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

Covid massively impacted our business like so many others! We sell to about 150 shops across the country and COVID closed almost all of them down for the better part of a year. This just expediated the plan to eventually strengthen our e-commerce channels. We’ll always serve through small businesses and local stores but we now we’re also working for a stronger online presence. You can now find us on our own online store at www.surfdurt.com where a portion of all your purchases goes back to a non-profit that either uplifts diversity or fights climate change.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

We constantly have to unlearn the concept of perfection. Sometimes it really is the enemy of progress and when we’re trying to write an email to our customers or post something fun for you on our Instagram, we try to just relax about it, speak from the heart and say what we really mean. We want to have fun with our community while sharing valuable information on how we can better protect the planet together. Sometimes there’s a typo or a small edit we could have kept fussing to perfect but the better goal is just to fail faster, get it out there, connect and be vulnerable with you. We’ve enjoyed having to unlearn perfection and ease up so we can get to that. That’s the good part anyways.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.surfdurt.com
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/surfdurt
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/surfdurt/

Image Credits
@tylerwouldgo