Small Business: Tackling invasive species starts in your backyard

Craig Bond, co-founder of Goodnature. His mission is to tackle invasive species threatening global biodiversity, one pest trap at a time.

Craig Bond, co-founder of Goodnature, talks to Tom Raynel about his decades-long mission to support global biodiversity, starting with the invasive species right in your backyard.

What is Goodnature?

Goodnature is a product design and manufacturing company. We develop and design automatic traps for invasive species control, pest control and self-resetting traps that are designed to humanely, effectively, and with minimal human intervention, kill large numbers of pests with the goal of reversing biodiversity decline.

What inspired you to start the business back in 2005?

It’s the same goal as what it is today. Robbie [Van Dam] and I founded the business. We were industrial design students and we wanted to make a difference. We wanted to apply our skills for something good and knew there was a massive biodiversity problem in New Zealand. Originally we were a very New Zealand-centric company, focused on ecology in New Zealand and specifically trying to control rats, stoats and possums in the bush. We wanted to develop a product that enabled it to mobilise large numbers of people to get out of the bush and do this really critical work.

Craig Bond, co-founder of Goodnature, has been developing ethical pest management solutions for almost 20 years.

What products do you make, and what’s your new mouse trap?

So we have two main products. Our hero product is the A24, which is a stoat, rat and mouse trap. It was developed for stoat control in New Zealand but also works very well with rats and mice. We also have a squirrel trap which, of course, is not in New Zealand, but is targeting gray squirrels in the UK, Europe and North America.

The mouse trap [retails for $129] is an extension of this technology. We’ve always made pneumatic traps, so traps powered by high-pressure gas. It’s a really efficient and effective way of powering traps and works well out the field. The mouse trap is a bit of a departure from that in that it’s an electromechanical trap. It charges up with a USBC cable and it’s got a battery in it that lasts for 500 shots.

You put it inside your home or your shed or your garage, and it’s got some really clever tech in there that senses the presence of mice, and targets the mouse perfectly, ensuring a really humane kill and an instant kill. The trap then notifies you by the app on your phone so you can go and clear the trap, empty it, put it back where it was, and wait for the next mouse.

Goodnature's mousetrap is automatic and lets the user know when it's been triggered via an app.

What’s wrong with old-fashioned snap-traps and poisons?

The snap trap is a technology from 100 years ago, it was developed in the late 1800s. It’s not particularly effective. You know mice will visit snap traps multiple times and not set them off. Also, when they do set them off, there’s a good chance that they won’t be caught, and if they are caught, there’s a good chance that they won’t be humanely caught. We’ve all heard the anecdotes of people coming back to snap traps and finding mice that are still alive. You have to stay in front of that reproduction cycle as well, and with a single-set snap trap, that’s quite difficult to do. It’s a pretty grim process, both for you as the user and the animal. We don’t think it’s actually morally sound anymore.

The bigger problem is toxins. It’s a very inaccurate tool in that a mouse needs to eat a lot of that toxin. It spreads the toxin around so other animals can eat it, particularly in the New Zealand context, our native species can eat it. The other problem is a mouse could die several days later, or a week later, it could die in your roof space or it could die in your wall. It could die somewhere that you can’t find it. But it also could die outside, where one of our native species could eat it and get sick and potentially die. So they are really problematic.

Goodnature co-founder Craig Bond believes that it's more than just physical solutions, it's about creating a culture of conservation that starts right in our backyards.

What’s been the biggest highlight of the business?

The biggest highlight for me is always seeing people use our products and getting success. We always say our goal is not to make great traps, our goal is to make great trappers. And that’s really important because we’re always thinking about our customers. We’re always thinking about people doing this work. Our goal is always to mobilise as many people as we can.

It’s physical biodiversity as much as it’s cultural as well. Growing cultural biodiversity and awareness can’t be understated. I think we talk about how our big backyard is in the forests of New Zealand, and we don’t talk too much about the backyard that’s outside our door.

What would be your advice to other budding entrepreneurs?

I think to learn fast, get to know your customer and be super clear on the problem you’re trying to solve. I see lots of businesses and startups that are either unclear or not really solving a problem. Get close to your customers, understand their needs, and then learn to iterate really quickly, because the solution we come up with on day one will not be the solution that you continue in my experience.