BACKGROUND
THE BEE CORP IS AN INDIANA AGTECH STARTUP
DEVELOPING SOLUTIONS FOR COMMERCIAL POLLINATION
WHAT WE SEEK TO SOLVE
Pollination prices are up 300% since the turn of the century. In fact, pollination has become one of the 3 most expensive inputs to produce almonds. The necessity of a strong colony to get the most out of production requires a significant investment of time and money, along with a bit of good luck from the weather. Open communication between growers and bee keepers can only go so far in verifying colony value.
OUR SOLUTION
Verifli is a digital hive grading service powered by infrared (IR) image analysis. Our team grades your hives overnight when IR is most accurate. Wake up to results on your Verifli.com dashboard, where you can compare hive strengths between different sites and beekeepers. Use the mapping tool to pinpoint the location of weak bees and dispatch your beekeepers to fix the issues.
WHO WE ARE
TBC was founded by Indiana University students Ellie Symes and Wyatt Wells following their 2014 creation of the Beekeeping Club at IU. After entering a student business competition with a plan to introduce hive monitoring technology to commercial beekeeping, they walked away with a healthy investment and an experienced advisory group. The rest, as they say, is history.
ELLIE SYMES
Chief Executive Officer, 9th year beekeeper
Ellie earned her M.P.A. in Information Systems and a B.S. in Environmental Management from the Indiana University School of Public and Environmental Affairs.
WYATT WELLS
Chief Marketing Officer, 8th year beekeeper
Wyatt graduated from Indiana University with a B.S. in Kinesiology from the School of Public Health, with minors in Business, Marketing, and Law and Public Policy from the Kelley School of Business and the School of Public and Environmental Affairs.
ROB LONG
Director of Operations
Rob spent a year with us as an intern prior to joining the team full-time. He earned his master’s degree in Informatics from Indiana University in 2020.
JEFF WALKER
Sales Representative
Jeff joins our team with nearly 20 years in sales experience, spending the last 7 years selling irrigation products to Central Valley growers.
MICHAEL MEYER
Software Engineer
Mike graduated from IUPUI with a B.S. in Computer Information Technology. Having spent 9 months as an intern prior to joining The Bee Corp full-time, Mike has extensive knowledge of the Verifli platform.
GRETCHEN RIGGS
Data Scientist
After a 17-year career as a geophysicist, Gretchen saw an opportunity to shift gears and apply her skills to data science. Gretchen teaches part-time at Galvanize Data Science Institute in Denver.
DIPAK RIMAL
Research Scientist
Born and raised in Nepal, Dipak came to the states in
2007 to earn his Ph.D. in Physics from Florida International University.
WE'LL BEE AROUND...
BOOK ELLIE FOR YOUR NEXT EVENT
Invite CEO Ellie Symes to speak at your upcoming event
SUPPORTING BEEKEEPERS
SAFEGUARDING FOOD SECURITY
We develop technology to help beekeepers maximize pollination revenue per hive. By helping beekeepers measure and communicate the value of their bees, we aim to create a transparent marketplace that rewards excellent bees.
We protect food security by helping growers understand how to manage a critical input: pollination. By educating growers about pollination value, we aim to reduce the strain on bees and beekeepers during major pollination events.
OUR BENEFIT
As a benefit corporation, our company is guided by the pursuit of meaningful goals.
Our team identified two core objectives that we use to focus our long-term strategy.
These goals serve as a reminder that our work is important and impactful.
WHAT'S A BENEFIT CORPORATION?
Benefit Corporations strive to achieve higher levels of
purpose, accountability and transparency
Our company exists
to pursue meaningful goals beyond profitability
We don't make
excuses when it comes to corporate social responsibility
CAREERS
Our team thrives through trust, communication and mutual respect. We're looking for candidates who share our passion not only for bees, but for developing a genuine and collaborative workplace culture as well.
We want leaders who have the confidence to own their achievements and the humility to take responsibility for their failures.
