Riding Unicorns episode with Gyve Safavi, Co-Founder & CEO of SURI, the award-winning electric toothbrush company
19 August 2026
1 minute read
How do you build a consumer product that people genuinely love, while still making the economics work?
In this episode of Riding Unicorns, James sits down with Gyve Safavi, Co-Founder & CEO of SURI, the award-winning electric toothbrush company combining design, performance and sustainability.
Before founding SURI, Gyve spent eight years at Procter & Gamble, ultimately leading brand management for the £500m Gillette Female Shave Care business across EMEA. He later worked at AKQA and WPP, including alongside Sir Martin Sorrell, before moving into startups.
The conversation explores how those experiences translated into building SURI and what it really takes to create a modern consumer hardware brand.
Gyve explains how SURI was built around three principles: exceptional design, high-performance cleaning and sustainability. He breaks down how the team used consumer research to determine pricing before launch, why gross margin needs to be engineered into the business early, and how relentless negotiation with suppliers has improved unit economics as the company has scaled.
They also explore customer acquisition, manufacturing, co-founder dynamics and how SURI is using AI internally to build a more efficient organisation.
Listen here: https://open.spotify.com/episode/59TCQUtmyKaZiH1IVqezvW
