The Small Business Project: Frustrations inspire drink bottle company
Monday, 23 February 2026
The Small Business Project is a weekly series that shines the spotlight on Kiwi small businesses doing interesting and unusual things in their industries.
Entrepreneur and graphic designer by trade, Natasha Burger, owner of Kiwi drink bottle company Mode & Opal, started a business from home out of frustration a year ago, seeking to create a product that she was looking for but couldn’t find on the market. Burger tells Aimee Shaw it wasn’t until after the birth of her second son that Mode & Opal was born, and she now has big plans to begin exporting.
What has your venture set out to achieve?
I didn't plan to start a business. After my second son was born last year, I had my own water bottle frustrations, and my current water bottle at that time grew mould, it was leaking; there were a lot of things wrong with it, and the carry handle snapped, so I was really frustrated.
I've always had some sort of business on the side, and I've got a lot of corporate experience, ranging from marketing to operations, management and services-based teams. Because I got so frustrated, I resolved to do it myself and create something better and that ticks all the boxes for me. In the end, I created Mode & Opal because I knew from my conversations with others that they too were frustrated. They were annoyed by similar things to me, such as not having an option that was dishwasher safe or leak proof, and it still needed to be aesthetic.
Since the end of last year, when we launched, we have sold more than 100 bottles, and people are giving me good feedback.
How much time and money have you invested?
I had to dip into my savings at the time to start the business; I spent less than $20,000. The amount of time spent on this has been significant too. I’ve built this with my husband, who is a software engineer, as well. We’re putting all the money we earn back into the business, to expand our range.
What’s the biggest challenge your business is facing?
I knew people were going to react positively, but I wasn’t ready for how big the reaction was, and it’s been a challenge to manage expectations from customers like when we hear they want bigger and different sizes, and different colours. We want to do that, but also be intentional with how we move forward, so that we don't outgrow our current operations. If you don't have that groundwork, then everything can just crumble. Managing growth without letting our systems stay behind is the biggest challenge.
What’s next for Mode & Opal?
This year, I'm working on expanding my product range. We currently have the two drink bottles, and they’re one size. We've got 940 ml bottles in a powder blue and a soft cream, and they've both been equally popular. Now we want to expand the range to be a little bit more accessible to people who want a smaller bottle. We're going to do 770ml bottles towards the middle of the year, and the colours will also be slightly different. We’re designing bottles for adults and school-aged children currently.
In three years’ time you will be …
In three years time, I see Mode & Opal being a trustworthy brand, and physically available in more stores. We've already stocked in a couple of businesses in Hamilton, Mt Maunganui and the likes of a personal training business in Auckland, as well as available online at boutiques. In three years’ time, I'd like to see momentum has continued to build, we have good systems so that we can see Mode & Opal in bigger branded stores across New Zealand and in Australia.
Being able to expand across Australia and New Zealand is my three-year plan, I’d also like to see how it does in the UK and other countries.
What’s one thing you wish you’d known before starting the business?
I wish I knew how to manage that early demand better. In the beginning I kept thinking ‘I need to expand, people are looking for this’, but actually I needed to go at pace and have a strong base. If you bring in more product from the start, it's more difficult to market, and it's more difficult to sell. And it's more difficult to manage cash flow.
Most helpful piece of advice you have ever received?
Fail fast. That means, never be afraid to try or give something a go. You need to fail to learn and iterate and grow. The more you push towards a goal and you fail, let it happen earlier, because then you can learn, change your experience and then iterate and move forward again. That agile mindset of working in small iterations, failing, but then turning around and changing whatever needs changing. That piece of advice made me comfortable with failure.
If you would like your business to feature in The Small Business Project, email Aimee Shaw at aimee.shaw@stuff.co.nz