how natpat wellness stickers reached 10,000 stores globally

Michael Jankie, an Australia-based e-⁠resident, started his natural wellness company NATPAT to solve real-world problems his family faced. Within just four weeks, NATPAT’s stickers went from an idea to their first sales. A few months later, their products went international. Now, just a few years in, they are carried in over 10,000 stores worldwide including Woolworths and Target.

Estonian e-⁠resident Michael Jankie likes to have fun. He's always had a knack for business. When his brothers were taking part in sports competitions, he was the teenager working diligently in a nearby cafe serving hot dogs and coffees to spectators. He translated this business sense into a string of companies offering software-as-a-service. Then a few things happened that upended his life and led him on a new adventure, one that would see him start a business in a completely new market and result in him running it from Estonia. That was certainly unexpected. Before Jankie discovered e-⁠Residency, he wouldn't have even considered visiting this comparably small land perched on the northern shores of the Baltic Sea. 

And to think, the whole story started with an unhappy child and some nasty mosquito bites.

A fun alternative

Jankie had been involved in the software business for nearly two decades when the COVID-19 pandemic hit. Many of the solutions he and his partners had dreamed up were created to address internal needs. While these platforms were adopted by users, particularly in the hospitality sector, sales cycles were lengthy, and Jankie and his partners wanted to try out something in the direct-to-consumer business. One day in the office, while they were kicking around ideas, Jankie complained about his daughter's mosquito bites and how most of the repellents out, such as sprays, were not ideal. Stickers, though, seemed like a fun alternative. Imagine a sticker infused with citronella, one a child could put on a shirt to keep the bugs away.

A citronella-infused mosquito repellent sticker could be a compelling product. It was an idea.

"We were solving a real problem," Jankie says. "It was a good market."

The first conversations around what would become a new venture called NATPAT started in the fall of 2019, but when Australia went into lockdown at the start of the pandemic, and sales to the company's hospitality clients dropped off, Jankie and his partners intensified their new direction. Within weeks, they registered NATPAT, worked with suppliers to create the citronella-infused stickers and set up a website. They obtained their first samples, created the packaging and set up distribution. "It took us about four weeks to be ready to sell our first stickers," said Jankie. The first product was the one that his daughter had inspired. NATPAT mosquito patches for kids. By mid-April, they had launched the product in the US, where summer was about to start.

NATPAT’s stick-on superpowers

NATPAT's menu of stickers has increased over time. In addition to their NATPAT mosquito patches, the firm now sells stickers to help with sugar cravings, allergies, focus, sleep and to repel fleas and ticks from pets. "We sell stick-on superpowers," says Jankie. The essential oils contained in the stickers diffuse from the material to the wearer, keeping insects away or making it easier for them to breathe. "It's a modern alternative to pills, sprays, or anything synthetic," Jankie says.

The success of sticker sales has led NATPAT to expand to 32 countries. Its largest markets are English-speaking countries: the US, Canada, the UK, and, of course, Australia. You can find their stickers in over 10,000 stores worldwide, including Target, a major department store with nearly 2,000 US locations, and 7,000 Woolworths supermarkets globally. 

Discovering e-⁠Residency

But European markets, including Estonia, and the Middle East are not far behind. In order to sell into European markets though, NATPAT has needed to register its products with EU regulators. Typically, firms external to the EU rely on local representatives to manage these submissions. But NATPAT wanted to take care of regulatory submissions itself. At first, it considered setting up a German company to manage its European regulatory submissions. This turned out to be too cumbersome a process for a band of startup-minded entrepreneurs who do things quickly. 

Undaunted, Jankie started to look into other places to set up a European company. That was how he discovered Estonian e-⁠Residency. Since 2014, Estonia has allowed entrepreneurs anywhere to register as e-⁠residents after a thorough vetting process, giving them access to the country's ecosystem of digital services and, most importantly, allowing them to operate a European company as if they were domiciled within the EU. Jankie applied immediately.

"I just filled out some forms, filled in some details," he says. A few weeks later, he went to the Australian capital Canberra, visited the joint Finnish-Estonian embassy, and picked up his digital identity card. "I turned on my laptop, plugged in the reader, and it was amazing," he recalled.

"It was an amazing gateway to Europe."

The top of the world

Jankie picked up his e-⁠Residency card in early 2024. Since then, he has been a strong supporter of the program and encouraged Australian entrepreneurs interested in the European market to make the pilgrimage to Canberra to pick up their e-⁠Residency cards. Recently, he got the opportunity to make another pilgrimage: one to his new digital homeland. 

Jankie won a free trip to Estonia after receiving an e-Revolutionaries award last year. The competition for e-residents is organized by e-Residency and Xolo, a platform that offers digital business administration services to e-residents and other entrepreneurs. He was given the choice to attend the annual sTARTUp Day conference in Tartu in January or to come to Tallinn in May to attend its Latitude59 startup conference. He opted for the latter.

Latitude59 and exploring Tallinn

At Latitude59, held annually in the Tallinn Creative Hub near the waterfront, he fit right in. Remarking on its intimate, laidback, cultured vibe, "This was not something held in an exhibition center with plenaries," he says. "I've told my cofounders we should all come back next year." 

The AI focus at this year's Latitude59 conference was also of interest because NATPAT just launched an AI-aided animated series called NATPAT Pals. The series builds on the idea of using stick-on superpowers, and the characters are based on the children of the company's founders. 

And as for Tallinn, Jankie said that it felt like home. While the medieval architecture was decidedly un-Australian, Tallinn's cafe culture and restaurants very much reminded him of Melbourne. Estonia’s white nights did take some getting used to, but other than that, Jankie's family tucked into Tallinn as if they had always been there. "It's very beautiful," he said. Jankie also decided to explore the city on a Bolt scooter and hired a car to explore the picturesque lighthouses along the coast. 

"I want to show my kids, it's good to be worldly," he said, "it's good to get out of the classroom and learn."