Small Business: A breath of fresh air with Goodair Nosebuds

Dr David White, inventor of Goodair Nosebuds, talks to Tom Raynel about the inspiration behind the idea, and how its applications could go global. Each Monday, we interview a small business owner, which is now a regular feature of NZME’s editorial campaign On The Up, showcasing uplifting stories of success, inspiration and possibilities.

What is Goodair?

Goodair is a startup company and we focus on the development, design and manufacture of fibre acoustic nasal breathing devices. Essentially we’re looking at alternative ways to treat nasal congestion, which is quite a big problem for lots of people, particularly around the allergy season.

We’re also investigating other applications and other new potential markets. It’s quite surprising how nasal breathing can influence so many aspects of wellbeing and health.

What inspired you to make the nosebuds?

The inspiration for the nosebuds came from earlier research with which we developed a new type of continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) machine for treating people with obstructive sleep apnea. One of the side effects or benefits of the machine is we could control the sleep stage that people were in, just by controlling the airflow down the side of the nose and we thought that was rather intriguing.

We started looking into it and we thought it was related to a gas that’s stored in the perinatal sinuses that’s naturally produced by the body called nitric oxide. This is a very interesting gas that has a big influence on how the body operates. The nose is a major storage and delivery system for this, so we thought maybe we could manipulate this to improve people’s wellbeing.

We started playing around with acoustic vibrations using a big loudspeaker, and started playing with different frequencies. We found that there was a gas resonant frequency that augmented the level of inhaled nitric oxide. That was all well and good, but the speaker was sounding like a lawnmower, so we thought how else could we generate the sort of power required in something that’s portable that people would even tolerate? That’s how we landed on nosebuds.

Professor David White, inventor of Goodair Nosebuds, didn’t anticipate entering the $30 billion nasal congestion market, instead originally intending it to be a medical device.

How did you commercialise the idea?

It was through Ventures which is the commercialisation arm of the Auckland University of Technology (AUT). Kerry McMaster (Goodair chief executive) wanted to know more about the technology. I discussed all of the deep science and all of the markets that I saw, but I was focusing on it being a medical device.

Kerry did some research and discovered the nasal congestion market, which is worth $30 billion. Obviously with a start-up, the first thing you’ve got to do is get into market and get some revenue.

Kerry convinced me that the way forward wasn’t to pursue the highbrow science, that could be for later once we’ve established a good business.

The first point of call was to get into the nasal congestion market, get some sales and cash returns and validate the technology in its primary form, and we’ve done that. We sold out within two days, and we’re getting some more stock being made at the moment.

We’re in a market that I didn’t anticipate as the inventor, but I’m very pleased to have Kerry’s leadership in there and the foresight to be able to see that it’s not what the inventor thought, the low hanging fruit lies somewhere else.

Goodair Nosebuds are fibre acoustic nasal breathing devices that increase the level of nitric oxide you breathe in, helping with decongestion.

Do you have any future plans for other technology?

We’re looking to go international, so reaching out to Australia and Northern Hemisphere countries. There’s a lot of interest in distributing the product which is great. We are also looking at augmenting the technology based on the findings of research to open up new markets as well, including for sleep and perhaps mood regulation.

What would be your advice to a budding entrepreneur looking to start a business?

I would say connect with the right people and reach out to the community. It doesn’t matter how good you are at whatever you’re doing, working in isolation is going to constrain you, so reach out to all these enablers.

I’ve discovered that, certainly within the Auckland ecosystem and nationally, there’s many good people who will give you good advice for free that will help you connect. So reach out to the wider community and engage.

Do you have a small business story you want to share? Send your pitches to tom.raynel@nzme.co.nz.

Tom Raynel is a multimedia business journalist for the Herald, covering small business, retail and tourism.