Here's how I lost $500K starting Critical.
Fresh out of design school, I landed my first interior design project — and thought I’d made it.
Until I realised every surface I was specifying was imported, toxic, and destined for landfill in 5–7 years. Nothing was made to last. Nothing was made here.
So I asked myself:
What if we could make our own materials?
Ones that looked good.
That felt right.
That told a better story.
We started in a spare room.
No engineering degree. No fancy lab.
Just a small team, recycled plastic, and a big dream.
After four years of tinkering, we finally opened our first Cleanstone factory.
And the day after we opened…
A tornado flattened it.
Not a metaphor.
A literal tornado.
Ripped the roof clean off.
We lost everything.
But our community showed up.
We rebuilt it. From scratch.
With under $30,000.
Since then, we’ve helped hundreds of architects and designers swap out fast-fitout junk for low-carbon surfaces that are built to last.
We've raised $3M, scaled our tech, and diverted tonnes of plastic from landfill — and carbon from the sky.
And it’s just the start.
If you're working on a space that matters, we’d love to support you.
You can build something beautiful, local, and less wasteful.
Critical. exists because people like you gave a damn.
Let’s kōrero.
criticaldesign.nz