Note: The transcript of this interview provided below has been edited for style and concision. For this reason, it may deviate in part from the video.
Ellie Symes is an 8th year beekeeper and CEO of The Bee Corp, which she co-founded with Chief Marketing Officer Wyatt Wells. As seniors and founders of the beekeeping club at Indiana University, Symes and Wells founded TBC after winning the IU Business Entrepreneurs in Software and Technology Competition in 2016. Four years later, as CEO, Symes does work in many areas for TBC, including fundraising, as well as — in what she described to the HPR as her favorite part of the job — managing her team and helping to create a “company culture.” TBC describes itself as an “Indiana agtech startup developing solutions for commercial pollution.” It offers commercial beekeepers and grows a mobile app called Verifli that uses infrared technology to enable the external monitoring of the health of bee colonies inside the hive. As a Benefit Corporation, TBC’s work is informed by two overall objectives: supporting beekeepers and safeguarding food security. For Symes, this business model preserves the “spirit” of the organization’s founders, who aspire to positively impact society and the environment through their work.
Harvard Political Review: Given growing concerns around colony collapse disorder and the die-off of bee populations, especially in the United States, what role do you see for technology like Verifli in sustaining and maintaining healthy bee populations?
Ellie Symes: So there’s a lot of factors contributing to beehive health. It is really hard right now to keep strong beehives for pollination and honey production. So beekeepers are having to do more than ever to keep those hives alive. Because of all the challenges that they’re currently faced with, [beekeepers are] basically spending a lot more money to get their beehives ready for pollination since they need to be a certain strength to actually pollinate a crop and then also ready for honey production. So because of that, [beekeepers] have had to pass a lot of their costs on to growers through pollination fees … to stay profitable … and that obviously created, you know, an instability in the market where these fees have shot up for growers as well. And so that actually is exactly the part of the problem that Verifli solves. So growers, when these prices started increasing, started ordering inspections. This has now become a really significant input to their operation, especially for almond growers. And so they’ve started to order follow up inspections just to make sure the hives that show up [and] are what [growers] pay for. But really what’s most important to the growers is that the hive is healthy and strong enough to pollinate their crop … so that they have their yields. So it’s a really important appraisal assessment to make sure that crop pollination is going to go okay.
We’re actually solving a problem that’s arisen out of beehive health, but we’re ultimately pretty excited about the secondary impacts of what we’re working on to actually help growers and beekeepers increase the strength [of their beehives] — so [we can] make sure we’re getting strong hives out for pollination, but we can probably also decrease the number of hives. So beekeepers can get higher prices [and] balance out their revenue, but ultimately, they’re able to send fewer hives, which is less straining. … And then really, I think there’s some other impacts on how Verifli can help researchers who are studying impacts on health like, “Are some of the nutrition products actually contributing to hive health? Are there chemical combinations that are contributing negatively?” So we’re quite excited about how Verifli can be used to study some of those impacts so that we can better understand how we keep hives healthy and what needs to be done. … Really, [that] keeps me [feeling] rewarded, especially as somebody who studied environmental science.
HPR: Recently, there have been reports of Asian giant hornets, known for attacking bees, being spotted in the United States. What has your reaction to this news been at TBC? How can beekeepers maintain healthy hives given the threat posed by this hornet now and how should they think about preparing for similar threats that might arise in the future as anthropogenic climate change leads to the migration of more non-native species, potentially including those that harm bees?
ES: I’ve been asked about this from everybody. I mean, even my grandma called me and I talked through this with her. … Now, I mean, I a few years ago watched a video on YouTube of these things … and it’s quite disturbing what these wasps do to bee hives. We have seen in our R&D [research and development] hives we used to have evidence of what I like to call “Battle Royale” between bees and wasps. So these hornets are not the only types of wasps that eat bees. However, they are the only types of hornets that are very effective at actually working together to hunt. So similar to shark species, most of our [wasp] species hunt solitary. They work on their own, but there are some shark species … that actually work together for their hunt. So that’s what’s more dangerous about [these hornets] because together, they can actually fully decimate a hive, versus a couple wasps, a beehive of strong bees can manage against. So that’s why these wasps are pretty scary, and they can rip through a hive very quickly.
Now … the problem when we have invasive insect species is they’re very, very hard to eradicate. So there’s some strategies that scientists can use; they can try to send out sterilized males or sterilized females to decrease reproduction. But it’s very difficult with insects since they reproduce so quickly. Other insect species we’ve had that have come into North America like the emerald ash borer, we were not able to contain, so … I’m not very optimistic that this will be contained. I think we can slow it and allow beekeepers some time to prepare. But I am not confident that we’ll be able to contain it — I will be so happy if I’m proven wrong.
There are some beekeepers in Japan that have developed … a lineage, through breeding, of bees that actually fight against these wasps. … Most bees create heat balls, but [bees of this lineage] particularly target these wasps with [the heat balls] and, you know, burn the wasps without killing themselves. It’s pretty cool. … I would imagine some beekeepers might start to experiment with some of those genetics — actually crossbreed some of those with the species that they’re working with so that they can have bees that are more resistant to [predatory wasps]. And that’s [been] done. I mean, that was done with the varroa mite. … So this is a really good answer that beekeepers use to fight against challenges because bees are extremely innovative. They reproduce quickly, too. So they evolve very quickly to [face] challenges. And this breeding is very similar to dog breeding. It can be done through artificial insemination or even through naturally breeding queens together, or queens and drones together.
And this is just one more thing, one more challenge, beekeepers have to deal with. So if this actually starts to wipe out hives, [beekeepers] are going to have to do the same thing: They’ll spend more money to basically split the strong hives to be able to meet their pollination contract. And all of that … is going to get rolled back on to the grower. … But I would just say … there’s going to be more and more effects, you know, for bee populations. Climate change absolutely has impacts on the species for sure.
HPR: Your co-founder, Wyatt Wells, wrote on the TBC website last month about how COVID-19 is impacting bees and almonds. Can you describe in more depth how the current coronavirus pandemic is impacting your business specifically, as well as more broadly how it is impacting commercial beekeepers and growers?
ES: Almond production is stable. When we’ve talked to our almond growers, you know, to actually produce almonds, it’s pretty automated, meaning you can use a lot of tractors and equipment. There aren’t a lot of groups of people that have to work together … so the labor risk right now is not a concern for almonds. … I think there’s a market risk. Some almond growers have had trouble in the last couple months getting their almonds into certain countries that are locking down borders. Luckily, almonds are shelf stable products so they can last about three years. So this isn’t as big of an impact as it is on fresh produce — that if [it] doesn’t get into the port, it’s going to rot right there in the shipping container. … That’s a shorter term impact.
I think longer term … we’re not sure what’s going to happen with almond harvest and almond production. In processing plants … there are some areas where people have to work together … close by each other to serve their almonds as they’re moving down the line. … That won’t be [happening] until October. Hopefully, they can get some guidance from some of the other factories that are starting to open back up on how to do this safely.
And then on the commercial beekeeping side, you know, like a lot of areas of agriculture, they’re having trouble getting labor in the country. A lot of folks come in from other countries to work bees seasonally, and I’ve read some reports about issues sourcing. … That’s certainly a challenge some beekeepers are faced with and then … this is central work, pollination. So they’re still pollinating and moving bees into different crops right now. … As for market impacts, we’re very fortunate to have minimal impacts in our market. And then as a startup, I mean, our market’s stable. We finished pollination season before all this happened [with the COVID-19 outbreak]. … We’re working from home, and [we’re] able to do that really easily. … So we’ll be one of the last companies in Indiana to come back online or come back in the office because all or most of what we do is online, and we can do it pretty effectively that way, although, you know, we miss each other and we miss our office.
Lastly, it’s just a crazy time right now for funding in the startup environment. Startup is part of the risk capital market, and the risk capital market gets impacted when we’re in a recession. … I know a lot of fellow startups that are struggling to get funding. Luckily, there [are] some asks to get Congress to help [these businesses] out. Our granting agency, the National Science Foundation, has been excellent. Our investors have been excellent. And I think we’re seeing more of that as this is starting to become normal.
HPR: Do you see the effects of COVID-19 on commercial pollination and the agricultural sectors it impacts like almonds playing out differently in the U.S. than in other countries or parts of the world? Do you have an idea of where in the U.S. is being hit the hardest?
ES: I’d have to think pretty deeply about, you know, what [is] each country’s approach, what are they deeming essential, [and] what is being shut down. So I don’t think I’m fully qualified to answer that. But of course, everything I’ve said is going to depend on whether agriculture production is still happening in those countries, including beehives as a part of that production. And I think probably a lot of countries are keeping [beehive production] open. Specifically, I’ve not heard of any disasters right now. I think if anything, folks want to keep food security, clean and secure.
[In the United States] … just making sure [growers] can secure enough labor is the biggest issue — beekeepers as well. [Commercial pollinators] work in teams, they have to work pretty closely together. But these aren’t very large teams. It’s usually teams of two guys, sometimes four. So they’re probably able to [keep interpersonal contact] pretty well contained. And usually, [the same] teams are working together every day. … Typically, they like to do that because once you work bees with somebody, you get a sixth sense of what they’re doing. … So that’s probably helping with not cross-contaminating, especially at some of the really big operations. … Otherwise, from what we’ve seen, things are pretty normal.
HPR: Finally, what advice do you have for current students in beekeeping clubs or more broadly, people who are passionate about this line of work?
ES: Come work for The Bee Corp! I’m kidding, but I’m not kidding. You can reach out, look at our careers page, if you’re interested in being a part of what we’re working on. … If you’re working on a beekeeping club, what you’re doing is amazing and incredible. You are being a part of educating the next generation going into the workforce that’s going to better understand the important role that pollinators are playing in our ecosystem and economy.
If you want to stay in the bee space, there’s so many avenues you can take. You can go on an entomology route and help be a part of researching one thing we’ve mentioned — some of those genetics that are more resistant to some of the problems. You can work in the nutrition space and actually help develop better enzymes and better combinations to keep bees healthy. … If you are interested in the agriculture side, commercial operations would love to have you, and they need business experts. They need people, you know, not just working bees, but helping me manage the logistics or crazy operations of bees getting shipped across the country several times throughout the year. If you want to work on the technology and innovation side, obviously our company’s working on solutions. There’s a lot of companies out there solving different aspects of this problem and doing really good work.
So there’s a lot of room for different disciplines in this space. And I would say people, especially in [agriculture], are very excited about young people coming in and solving these problems because that’s the next generation to take on a big task, which is feeding 9 billion people in 30 years.
Image Credits: Deftly Creative
Note: All images depict Verifli at work in California almonds.