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Description
In 2014, Ellie Symes founded a successful beekeeping club at Indiana University with a mission to develop a pollinator-friendly campus. She never would have guessed that two years later, she and The Bee Corp team would be accepting the $100,000 grand prize at the "Building Entrepreneurs in Science & Technology" competition for their business plan which addressed the dire need for data in the beekeeping industry.
Listen to Ellie's story and find out why she will be moving her business, The Bee Corp, into The Mill.
#DreamBigInBtown
A
We're
doing
our
work
from
Bloomington
our
mentor
and
advisor
network
we're
here.
The
resources
that
are
here
for
starting
a
company
are
fantastic.
It's
been
a
really
good
home
for
us,
as
we've
launched
and
since
we're
a
technology
company,
it
is
very
easy
to
service
customers
all
the
way
out
in
California
or
all
across
the
globe,
from
right
here,
because
everything's
being
done
on
the
cloud
and
sent
to
our
data
centers.
A
A
It
grew
to
three
hundred
members
in
the
first
three
months
and
we
were
encouraged
my
folks
at
the
IU
Foundation
to
dream,
bigger
and
do
something
that's
gonna
affect
these
outside
of
our
hub
here
in
Bloomington,
honeybees
are
responsible
for
a
third
of
the
food
we
eat.
So
that's
one
in
three
bites
over
90
crops,
just
in
the
US
rely
on
honeybee
pollination,
so
they
are
extremely
important
for
our
food
production.
These
honeybees
actually
have
to
be
shipped
all
across
the
country
to
meet
pollination
they're,
unfortunately,
not
always
right
where
we
need
them
to
be.
A
One
good
example
of
that
is
almond
production
in
California,
three-fourths
of
the
country's
hives
are
shipped
from
all
across
the
country.
You
might
see
hives
going
down
I.
Seventy
you
notice
nets
with
bees
flying
around
those
are
bee
hives
setting
off
the
crop
fields,
and
so
it's
a
major
aspect
of
of
Agriculture
when
we
we're
deciding
what
business
model
to
choose.
But
we
found
out
about
this
sort
of
hybrid,
a
benefit
corporation,
which
allows
the
mission
to
be
at
the
focus
of
the
organization.
A
So
in
every
decision
we're
making
as
a
company,
we
take
not
just
the
financial
aspect
into
consideration,
but
the
social
and
environmental
impact
of
everything
we're
doing
so.
We
decided
to
be
P
Corp
and
then
the
name
was
an
obvious
obvious
way
to
go
after
decided
to
be
a
benefit
corporation.
We
decided
to
locate
the
dimension
male,
because
this
is
really
going
to
be
a
hive
of
activity.
We
want
it
to
be
right
in
the
center
of
that
we're
located
right
next
to
cowork,
which
is
becoming
a
part
of
dimension
milk.
A
Currently
we
love
that
added
social
capital
of
running
into
software
developers
or
other
entrepreneurs.
We
didn't
want
to
lose
that,
so
we
wanted
to
follow
cowork
here.
This
is
where
all
the
programming
and
the
resources
are
going
to
be
centered
and
that's
so
important
as
it
started
to
stay
attuned
to
those
things.