A note from Luke F. Walton, founder of Surmado.
At the National Association of Music Merchants (NAMM), I worked extensively on campaigns and industry efforts that helped music businesses, educators, and event professionals survive a brutal transition. We were not dealing with abstract “digital transformation.” We were watching real people lose income, lose venues, lose students, and lose the businesses they had built over decades. NAMM’s public call for COVID-19 relief for event professionals captured the scale of it: 77% of live event professionals had lost 100% of their income, 96% of companies had cut staff, and 97% of independent contractors had lost their jobs.
That experience shaped Surmado. I learned that small businesses do not usually get left behind because they are lazy, unsophisticated, or low quality. They get left behind when the environment changes faster than they can adapt, and when the tools meant to help them are too expensive, too complex, or built for someone else.
COVID made digital presence mandatory. AI is doing it again.
Surmado is my answer to that pattern. We migrate and rebuild websites, optimize them for AI and search, and handle all maintenance, so business owners can make more money with less stress.
I don’t want a world full of big corporate chains. So that’s the why behind what we do.
— Luke F. Walton, Founder, Surmado