Success for me is my health 

A self-described ‘redheaded sun worshipper’, Natalie Jones (Ngā Wairiki Ngāti Apa) says sunscreen is a daily essential.

But, as an ocean conservationist, she found herself disheartened by the sheer amount of pollution the mainstream sunscreen industry produces.

Determined to change this, Jones founded Seasick Sunscreen Co., a sustainable sun care company, from her Wellington kitchen in 2019.

Since its inception, the startup has sold over 5,000 product units and consistently doubled its revenue each year.

For the most part, Seasick Sunscreen Co. has been bootstrapped. However, Jones has just closed a successful crowdfunding round, raising $23,000 of a $20,000 target through PledgeMe.

The funding will go towards upscaling sunscreen production from 100kg to 350kg annually with a New Zealand-based manufacturer, as Jones can no longer meet customer demand from her kitchen. 

It will also assist Seasick Sunscreen Co.’s expansion into new export markets with Jones’ sights set on Indonesia, the UK and Europe. She is working with NZTE to see if there is market potential for the company and assessing regulatory requirements. 

The business has a few other plans in the pipeline, aligning with Jones’ sustainability values. 

She has a goal of becoming B Corp certified by 2025. 

B Corp Certification indicates that a business meets high standards of performance, accountability, and transparency on factors from employee benefits and charitable giving to supply chain practices and input materials. 

Just over 100 companies in New Zealand have the certification.

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She also aims to have Seasick Sunscreen Co. recognised as the country's first 'reef-safe sunscreen’. Only a handful of sunscreen brands globally have the certification, which costs US$20,000.  

Though she is still determining how to raise the funds, she says the certification is important to her.

“It’d be pretty exciting to be able to be the first in New Zealand,” she says.

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What do you wish you knew starting out?

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My mind’s going straight to how important a support network is; I feel lucky because I learnt that one pretty early on.

Before I started Seasick Sunscreen, I started going along to founder meetups and made an effort to go up to other founders and chat and form connections.

If I didn’t have those connections, I would have crashed and burned by now.

I can think of one instance in particular. I call it my dark night of the soul, and there’s some stuff on my Instagram about it. I was seriously close to giving up, and I went out for beers with a bunch of my founder mates, and they dragged me out of the depths of despair.

I get a lot of, ‘You’re a solo founder’, and technically, yes. But I’m not doing it alone. I couldn’t do it alone.

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What went wrong and what did you learn?

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In 2022, I was part of the Kōkiri Māori business accelerator, and they helped me identify my biggest challenges. One of them being that it was time to start looking at outsourcing production.

I spent about six months outsourcing, and I was brand new to that space. I was also wholeheartedly emotionally invested in the business and the success of outsourcing.

It did not go to plan, and I burnt bridges with that manufacturer, which led me to my dark night of the soul and literally ending up in bed.

There’s a photo of me on my Instagram with a swollen face because I had such bad ulcers, and I was just miserable; I couldn’t work.

I had let myself get so wrapped up in what seemed at the time like the failure of what I was trying to do that my Dad had to step in and take over.

I don’t know how I could have handled it differently. But, I learnt that as much as the business is an extension of myself, at the end of the day, it’s work. And my health is my priority.

It even says that in my business plan: number one, success for me is my health. I put that in post that experience.

If I can’t look after myself, I can’t run the business.

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Who did you work with that was helpful for your success?

My two mentors and, of course, a lot of those people in that support network.

I have an unofficial board of people who advise me on different aspects of business, whether it’s strategy or product development.

Really, there are many people that I turn to for help every day.

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And the best piece of advice you ever received?

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Define your own success.

When I was in a really dark space and didn’t feel like I wanted to do it anymore, I called my mentor from Kōkiri.

She reminded me that it’s up to me to ‘define my own success’. Those were her words.

She said, ‘Write down on a piece of paper, what does success look like?’

For a lot of other people, it’s money, it’s sales, it’s revenue, it’s growth, all these things.

But for me, coming from a background where I’ve had serious health issues – endometriosis that put me in a hospital bed and all that – I’ve learnt to value my health.

That’s what I wrote down and how I justify building it into my everyday work life.

I went to the gym today and did some conservation volunteering, and those hours away from the laptop and doing tangible outputs I see as investing in myself.

The advice came in handy recently because I was on my first trade mission to Indonesia, and while it was an amazing experience, I got bad imposter syndrome.

I was looking at everyone else and thinking, ‘Wow, they’re so successful. Why aren’t I doing that? Maybe I should be doing more?’ And I started to not feel great about myself.

I chatted with a few people about it, and they reminded me not to compare myself to others.

Of course, that’s easier said than done, but it reminded me that I have chosen to define my success differently than they might have.

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What advice would you give to a new founder?

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I wouldn't be where I am today without that network. I very rarely come up with an idea myself. Chances are someone has said, ‘Oh, I’m doing this, and it’s worked well for me’. Then I’ll go, ‘cool’, and adapt it to my needs and figure it out myself.

That knowledge sharing fast tracks things; it means you’ve got support, and you can problem solve together. So, build yourself that network. And, if you can, build in time for your mental health and wellbeing – that’s a real privilege that we get as entrepreneurs.

Don’t build a business that will drive you into the ground or into illness; build something that supports the lifestyle that you want.

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Describe your first entrepreneurial moment.

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My first ever entrepreneurial experience was in primary school when I was about six or seven.

I used to take the clothes I’d grown out of, like my favourite sparkly silver dress, and turn them into pillows – if I could still fit that sparkly dress, I would wear it.

I then sold the pillows at my school, which had a cool little marketplace where everyone made the products themselves. We had school money, you could have a stall, and you could go around and shop. Looking back, they were really building little entrepreneurs.

After that, I did all kinds of things like making cookies and fudge and selling them at market days when cruise ships would come into town. And I did lots of gardening – I even started a contract gardening business.

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Founder Feedback is a weekly series asking founders about their startup journeys. If you have a story to share, reach out to mary@caffeinedaily.co

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