From Cornwall To Clean Waves With Kate Richards of RadWax

We meet Cornwall surfer and founder Kate Richards, who builds Radical Wax to cut petrol-based pollution from surfing without sacrificing grip. We walk through her path from early prototypes to community-led growth, and the mindset shift that turns failure into testing. 
• spotting the environmental impact of paraffin surf wax and wanting a cleaner option 
• developing a formula that surfers trust through repeated prototyping and tough feedback 
• building credibility by testing with Surfing England athletes and coaches 
• learning why e-commerce alone rarely works and why events and word of mouth matter 
• choosing a master’s in entrepreneurship for mentorship, pitching skills, and faster learning 
• using the Canopy community for practice, honest critique, and confidence 
• planning UK growth and Australia distribution over the next 12 months 
• founder advice focused on action, experimentation, and reframing failure as learning 

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Transcript

Welcome And Meet Kate

Stewart Noakes 0:01

All right, and welcome to the new series of Founder Friday. I'm absolutely privileged to have Kate with us today. So, Kate, could you share who you are and what you're working on? And let's get into a bit of your backstory.

Kate Richards 0:12

Hi, Stew. Yeah, good morning. My name's Kate Richards. I'm from Cornwall and I'm working on uh Radwax, which is a eco-surf wax which you rub on top of your board and stops you falling off. And at the minute I'm trying to get the business and the brand out into the UK, but also trying to bring it um to surfers all around the world. So looking at Australia next.

Stewart Noakes 0:39

I saw that published recently on LinkedIn now, available in Australia. So I don't know how real that is yet, but it's great to see yourself, Blanche now.

Why Surf Wax Needs To Change

Stewart Noakes 0:48

What's the origin story for this, Kate? What was your inspiration?

Kate Richards 0:52

Yeah, really, it's come from I think a whole commellation of my life coming together potentially, really. When you look back on how have you got here, it's kind of hard to work it out when you're in it. But um, I'm a surfer, grew up in Cornwall, and um worked abroad. I was a teacher, um, always into sports and seeing the world and seeing how our effects here in the UK affect other countries. So, in terms of what products we buy or the pollution we create and surf or like surfing, what impact we have on others, um sort of seeing how what we do here and what we do affects the next generation, and as a surfer, realizing that the products you use are actually pretty damaging to the environment. Um, when I came back to Cornwall and was surfing again over here, seeing that the choices that you could use weren't environmentally friendly, I yeah, went out and tried to find a better way of making it or doing it, or so that surfers could then use a product that wasn't going to be damaging the place that they love to go in, the sea. And uh, yeah, that's where it's all come from.

Stewart Noakes 2:08

No more oil slicks in the water, right? No more paraffin.

Kate Richards 2:12

Yeah, most waxes are unfortunately well, 90% are made of paraffin, which is all petrol based, and yeah, lots of surfers don't realise that they're putting that on their boards, happily going off surfing, and yeah, just once found that out, just couldn't sort of didn't sit with me, uh, having to put that on my board and other people doing it. And um, yeah, that's how we got here today, really.

Stewart Noakes 2:37

So, this is more than an idea now, right? It's in the shops, people are buying it, they're using it on their boards. You're also uh involved with the British surf team and stuff, so it's covered quite a lot of ground. Can you give us a sort of spotted history of how you get from idea to actually being in people's hands and making money out of

Prototyping Until Surfers Believe

Stewart Noakes 2:55

it?

Kate Richards 2:55

Yeah, um, there's a bit of um surfers are quite skeptical of an eco product, uh especially surfwax, if it's gonna make them all off the board. Yeah, previous ones unfortunately have been slippery or not lasted as long as your traditional ones. So um for me it was really important to get the formula right and test it with me and people who are you know surfers that I knew, um, working with a spa product company to get it right, to then be able to then take it to surfers who are, you know, the England team or England coaches to test it as well. And so that was um it was quite a lot of prototyping and getting it right, getting it wrong. That took quite a long time. Um, because I knew that if I was gonna then bring it out to the public, it had to be um had to be good over being, you know, if it if it makes you fall off your board, that is gonna spread much quicker than it's good. Um, so yeah, it was a lot of back and forward. Um the England team, um, the the guys behind it surfing England were so open to trying it, which was really so fantastic, getting it on boards of really good surfers, and for them to say, Hey, this is good, yes. We we you know we've tried a load before, but actually this one's the best one we've ever tried, and that gave me then the confidence to then start trying to roll it out to you know all surfers if you've got that kind of credible yes stamp of approval. Um, so that was kind of my thought. If I could get that first of all on the boards of the pros, then um it kind of trickles down to that confidence for you everyday surfers, too.

Getting Sales Beyond A Website

Stewart Noakes 4:51

Okay, and was it as easy as just putting it up on an e-commerce site and people started buying it?

Kate Richards 4:57

Uh no, no, no, you just feel like you're shouting into a massive cave and it's just echoing back at you. Um, it's taken a lot of word of mouth being at events, being out there. You really need to go and put yourself in those kind of uncomfortable positions where you're just going to meet people, and actually, that's the best way you get these connections, or you know, you you try and get the wax on the boards as much as I can, you know. People aren't going to just come and buy it off a website or find it and go Google Eco Surf Wax. You've got to be kind of everywhere for people to then when they're thinking about potentially buying it, you're kind of on their mind. Um, or at least they're thinking about you when they're thinking about buying. So it's very conscious to be at um events or if there's any gatherings or community around anything around surfing.

Stewart Noakes 5:55

Um, to just there's obviously quite a lot of that in Cornwall, right? Things like boardmasters and stuff are super famous around here.

Kate Richards 6:01

Yeah, and the surf communities, although it's small, it's very, you know, it's very well connected. So if there's ever surf films on, you know, you go along. I like going along to all of those things, see who's there as well, and just sort of getting to know the surf industry. Um, yeah, it's a real community, which is nice, and going to surf events, supporting the juniors. Um, you can't just be sat waiting to be found. You have to get out there and yeah, meet people.

Studying Entrepreneurship To Grow Faster

Stewart Noakes 6:32

So, um, I mean, was there any entrepreneurship or business experience in your family before you started off on this venture?

Kate Richards 6:39

Not as in entrepreneurship, I guess, but my my dad used to work for a surf company. Um, so he's got some good inside knowledge of the surf industry. Um, potentially well, my brother actually saying that he did start his own, he started his own business. Um but not really, not really sort of having an idea and sort of taking it to the world. I think we all do things slightly differently. Um, but yeah, I've always wanted to start a business or yeah, always been very much, although I was a teacher before, I always loved the side of being a coach where you could sort of manage your own time and you're trying to create not business, but you know, create your own timetable, and yeah, really like the flexibility of a structural employed role compared, but and a self-employed, and I've always been sort of drawn towards that doing your own thing, um, side of work.

Stewart Noakes 7:43

Setting your own course, right?

Kate Richards 7:45

Yeah.

Stewart Noakes 7:46

And obviously, we met at Farmworth when you were studying on the master's course there on entrepreneurship. Why did you choose to to spend a year like that studying on a level seven course about entrepreneurship? It seems some people they say studying maybe is the wrong thing to do because you want to do it rather than study it, right? So why would why did you make that choice?

Kate Richards 8:08

Yeah, I had lots of people tell me not to do the masters. Um yeah, the people around me, the closest people or best friends, they're like, You're mad to do this. Um, but I had a just I tried to follow my gut instinct, and I had this little voice in my head saying, Going on this course could change your life, and I think I've as I get older I start to listen to my intuition much more, and even though on paper it sounded like yeah, you're gonna spend you know thousands of pounds to do a master's, and you're gonna be your time is gonna be taken away from your business. But for me, I thought this is a great way to meet other founders. Um, I came down and met the team, um, you and Marcus down at Fanworth University, and hearing that you were both actually had run your own businesses, and I was looking for mentorship and networking and being sort of connected with people as I did it. I thought I could potentially lose a bit of time, spend a bit of money, but I thought that was investing on myself to then speed up where I was. I thought I knew that I'm reflected that I knew that I had got to a point of having some prototypes, but what my vision was was going internationally being much bigger, and I was wanted to just slow down to fast track growth from you know when you actually had a finished product as well. So yeah, I like the idea of going into Falmouth and the university and meeting all these people and um maybe shortcutting some mistakes long term.

Stewart Noakes 10:02

Okay. I mean, do you feel in retrospect that that level of education and that level of sort of reflecting and thinking through things has helped or hurt what you've been doing as a journey?

Kate Richards 10:14

I think it's helped so much. We did um all the pitch practicing. I think when I first went there, I couldn't speak in front of anybody. Um, and it's just getting you put yourself in those uncomfortable positions where you're talking and you're learning, and for me, it was knowing how to learn to a pitch or how I look how my memory works with how to create storytelling of your business, which I think is really important, and I don't think I had that skill before. Um, and that and doing it so so much, it set me up for when there was opportunities to um apply for funding or be in front of um investors that I had I knew how to prepare myself for that situation. So when the opportunities come up, I felt like that year had meant that I would I would seize them and be confident in that situation rather than doing it and you know the masters was almost like a practice to the real thing, and um yeah, that was really beneficial.

Canopy Community And Demo Night Lessons

Stewart Noakes 11:25

And this is obviously where your uh masters and canopy world started to overlap through my presence and both, right? So what what have you gained from Canopy since you've been involved in different things?

Kate Richards 11:38

Yes, Canopy community. Um going to the demo night, um, the one in Cornwall, that was the first real test of being in front of strangers and telling and having a four-minute know and love you, right? And just yeah, so people who are just never met you before, you get up there, you're being very vulnerable and open, and you just say, This is who I am, take it or leave it almost, and uh or this is what I'm trying to create, and then you get the feedback, and you um yeah, it was a really good way of doing it for real. So canopy community was that gateway from you know, masters to real world, and you know, just knowing that you can ask for support with Canopy. So I've I scheduled a sales talk um with one of the um mentors in there, and they you know they give you that honest feedback again from never seen you before. So you just know that if you've got a question or you'd like some support, that that is available.

Stewart Noakes 12:44

And you obviously uh took things on pretty well because you became a people's choice winner, didn't you, as a Cornwall Demonite? Yeah. So you know part of that very exclusive group of people who've become voted for favorites and demonites around the world.

Kate Richards 12:58

Yeah, that was a big surprise. Um but yeah, it was lovely to be joined, I shared it with another lady as well, and it was um nice to hear all everybody's goals and aims and dreams, and um yeah, it was really special.

Australia Plans And Founder Advice

Stewart Noakes 13:16

So, what what's next for you, Kate? What's gonna happen with Radical Wax in the next sort of 12 months? If we're interviewing you again next summer, what what will we hear from you?

Kate Richards 13:27

I would love to say in 12 months that we are established in Australia. Um, we've just got a small distribution getting set up right now, and that we are successfully in different surf shops over there. We've got our online store, which is sort of set up now, but it's actually you know generating sales, and that the UK market has been sort of established. And we're just yeah, we're just growing as a team, and it's the product is getting on as many boards as possible.

Stewart Noakes 14:02

That's the joy, right? Seeing people riding around without the oil slick coming out the back of their boards because they've got your stuff rather than the others.

Kate Richards 14:09

Making an impact. I think that's what I'd love to see is yeah, having a real would be a real different choice for surfers. I think that's that would be my great to go somewhere if say have I travelled over to Australia and seeing it as an option. That would be, you know, I'm not trying to kick out the others, I'm just trying to give another option to people.

Stewart Noakes 14:33

Yeah, okay. Now, uh this series is obviously targeted for first-time founders, and you as a people's choice winner are a role model within the community. So I'd be like to ask you at the end is um, what's your best advice for somebody who's thinking about starting and maybe not quite sure what to do?

Kate Richards 14:51

I think you just gotta do it. I think that's the key. I think um if you worry about failing, you're already you don't know, you just gotta fail to succeed. And what being part of Canical community and Falmouth and meeting with other founders is actually failure, isn't a failure. It's I've re-jigged it as is a test, or like it's a theory, and everything you say or believe like what you say, Stu, is everything you believe is probably wrong, and that's fine. You just want to find out if it's wrong or right, and um keep just doing just doing anything, you know, getting out there and doing it, I think is the key. If you don't do anything, you don't know if it's right or wrong. So um yeah, embrace the testing and the theory.

Stewart Noakes 15:45

Fantastic, fantastic. Well, congratulations to you, Kate. Well done for everything you've achieved so far in uh radical wax, and thank you so much for taking the time to share your story today. Is there anything else you want to share with everybody before we go?

Kate Richards 15:56

I just think good luck to everybody, and yeah, dream big. I think you know, why not? It can happen.

Stewart Noakes 16:05

Yeah, thanks, Kate. Thanks for being here.

Kate Richards 16:09

Thanks very much to you.