How Disruptor NATPAT Turned Insect Repellent Into a Multimillion-dollar Sticker Business

Small business takeaway:

• NATPAT, the now–multimillion-dollar startup behind kid-friendly insect repellent and wellness stickers, shows how a niche problem—kids needing safer, easier mosquito protection—can scale when the solution is simple, distinctive, and built for multiple distribution channels. Its growth offers three takeaways: quick direct-to-consumer feedback can sharpen the product offering, measured expansion from DTC to independent stores to mass retail can ease cash-flow pressure, and a focused hero product can open the door to broader category growth.

Michael Jankie had worked in the software industry for nearly two decades when a problem his youngest daughter was facing prompted him to pivot.

Mosquitoes were biting Sadie every night in bed and she had an allergic reaction. The family couldn’t keep the bugs from getting into their home, and with summer coming in Australia, the problem was only going to get worse. 

Jankie told his childhood friend and business partner, Gary Tramer, about the family’s dilemma, and they started riffing about better ways to deal with mosquitoes. They wanted to create a fun and effective repellent made with natural ingredients.

“It started from a very real parent problem, solving something for our own kids,” said Jankie, who’s now Co-founder and CEO of NATPAT, along with Tramer and longtime collaborator Andrei Safonau. Their children were among their first testers.

Six months later, NATPAT released its first product: colorful mosquito repellent stickers called BuzzPatch that people place on their clothes, hats, or strollers to deter insects through scent. Their second product, an itch relief sticker, came soon after. Other products—the brand has around 20—range from sleep aids to a sticker that addresses sugar cravings.

Now, the multimillion-dollar company has sold close to 200 million NATPAT stickers across 32 countries, growing every year, and it’s in around 14,000 retail locations. This spring, it expanded its product line with the launch of a repellent spray, marking NATPAT’s continued expansion into the broader baby and toddler wellness category.

Even as the company grows and scales, it continues to behave like a family operation rather than a corporate entity, focused on keeping family involved and eschewing suits, boardrooms, management meetings, or corporate structures. 

“That mindset shows up everywhere: team size, cash flow, tools, management style,” said Jankie. “Every day, we still ask: how would a small business make this decision? We’re very wary of not wanting to manage teams or have hierarchies. We run it like a small family business, we just allow the numbers to think bigger.”

NATPAT spent three years building up to mass retail, and a conversation with Target’s baby buyer led to launching a new product

NATPAT founders first zeroed in on product design, working with an Australian artist who created a NATPAT universe around the theme “stick-on superpowers,” with stickers featuring a series of characters named after the founders’ kids. “My one-eyed cat also made it in there,” Jankie said.

The brand launched direct-to-consumer in the early stages of COVID lockdowns in the United States, when Jankie and his co-founders landed a manufacturing partner and launched a basic website. Direct-to-consumer is a great initial model, Jankie said, because with rapid small sales, founders can get feedback quickly and then tweak and test new marketing messages as needed. 

The next step was to approach small and independent retailers, including secondhand children’s clothing and gear franchise Once Upon a Child, to see if they would stock NATPAT products. Products sold, and still sell, exceptionally well in Once Upon a Child, said Jankie. Amazon came next, and then at year three, the brand set its sights on getting into mass retail.

“We took our time and moved slowly,” he said. “And we’ve tried to avoid being categorized or boxed in to just one section in stores.”

Target stores nationwide currently carry NATPAT products. Initially, the brand launched in Target’s outdoor living section. Then, founders talked to Target’s baby products buyer about getting into the baby section, too. She agreed to test products in the baby aisle, and sales took off. “All of a sudden, we’re selling more product in the baby section than we do in outdoor living,” Jankie said.

By year two in Target, the buyer “had a lot more confidence in us,” he said. She then asked the brand to develop an all-natural spray repellent that would be exclusive to Target. Jankie and his partners did, and the spray launched in spring 2026 as Baby Buzz Spray.

[Read more: How 3 (Very Different) Startups Landed on Target’s Shelves]

Intentional expansion has kept cash flow healthy and growth steady as the brand plans to venture deeper into pet wellness

NATPAT launched in half of CVS stores in May, and “numbers are trending in the right direction,” Jankie said. Being intentional about expansion has helped with cash flow.

For example, moving slowly from direct-to-consumer, where payment happens immediately, to independent retailers, where payment was mostly upfront, positioned the company well to take on mass retail, where payment sometimes happens months later.

“The way we timed our different channels meant that moving into mass retail wasn’t a big financial pressure point for us,” Jankie said. The business is now a three-way distribution split between direct-to-consumer, Amazon, and physical retail, serving around three million customers.

At retail, NATPAT leads with its hero products—the insect repellent and itch relief stickers—and lets customers find the rest. Many encounter NATPAT through social media ads first, then spot the products on a shelf and make the connection. Marketing has taken creative forms beyond paid advertising, too: NATPAT produced its own animated YouTube series, NATPAT Pals, with ten three-and-a-half-minute episodes. 

“We didn’t build it specifically as marketing,” Jankie said. Rather, his kids and other founders’ kids initially rallied for them to create an animated series. “There’s some brand awareness, but it’s not pushing product.” Their preliminary goal was to create 60 episodes, but production costs mounted. “We’re constantly on the hunt for a way to put out more episodes, and I suspect we’ll sort that out by the end of this year,” he said.

[Read more: How Startups Fashionphile, Whatnot, and Ithaca Hummus Convert and Retain Customers Through Personalization]

Pet wellness poised to outpace overall growth

A year and a half ago, the brand branched into pet wellness products, too, with anxiety support for cats and dogs called Pet Zen. Founders see the market as a major growth opportunity. “I would not be at all surprised if in a couple of years our pet products were outselling many of our other products,” said Jankie. Kits featuring multiple products are another new area the brand has been pursuing.

Success has come from working on solutions to real problems, he said, and he expects that to continue. “Don’t build something just because you think it’s clever,” he said. “Build something because you understand the need. And have fun. We enjoy what we’re doing, and I think that attitude flows through everything we do, and the customers at the end of the day also get that fun.”

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