Beehive Industries is movin’ on up … to the fourth floor.
The Lincoln company, now 18 months old, is growing up, in a sense; in May, it moved upstairs one floor in the Haymarket district office building that also houses its parent, Nebraska Global.
We figured the relocation signaled a good time to check in on the company, which we last heard from in December, when Nebraska Global announced its investment in Beehive. As it turns out, the bees are busy these days.
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Founded in March 2011, Beehive helps cities and towns of various sizes track and access data about their infrastructure assets (think power lines and sewers). Beehive helps answer questions like: Where was this manufactured? When was it installed? How has it been maintained?
Far from being able to answer all of these questions with a keyboard stroke, about a third of all cities have no digital data at all, said Tom Chapman (left), who does “all things business” at Beehive. And cities that have entered the information age often have unwieldy systems based on geographic information systems (GIS) and other older technology.
To explain what their company does, members of the Beehive team refer to “the Earl problem.”
“Earl knows everything, but he’s 62 years old,” Chapman said. “What do you do about that?”
Said Beehive product manager Mike Schwab: “They need to get all that information out of those guys’ heads and into somewhere where everybody can use it.”*
Cities of all sizes
Put another way, Chapman said, the goal at Beehive is to “help cities operate well.”
And not just big cities with big budgets (indeed, Chapman says “the Earl problem” is most common with populations between about 3,000 to 15,000). Beehive’s system is priced on a site-license basis, rather than number of users, to keep it accessible to smaller communities that “have the same needs but have been ignored,” said Beehive founder Bill Sheldon.
It’s also cloud-based, with a Google-type search function, and a map feature that is integral to the product.
“For us, the map is core and truly integrated into what we do,” said Chad Michel (right), Beehive’s lead software engineer.
Beehive’s beta testers — Grand Island and Kearney, Neb. — went live last October, and the company’s focus has since turned to sales and marketing.
Beehive has talked to every city in Nebraska that makes sense based on cost and asset numbers, and the company has “pretty good traction,” Chapman said.
“Critical times” ahead
By the end of the third quarter of 2012, Beehive will have 10 to 15 communities onboard, he said. For other states, the company has an “island hopping” strategy, aiming to establish a good relationship and service record with one city, then pitch the product to other cities.
As Beehive continues to persevere through city governments’ slow sales cycles, Chapman said the next six months are “critical times” for Beehive. The company will be producing budgets, beta tests, and staff projections, and working with the Nebraska Global Enterprise Development group to decide how they will move the Beehive asset management platform and model into other vertical markets and industries — for example, oil and gas, hospitals and facilities management, zoos and tracking food sources for locavores. Sheldon said some people from other industries have already approached Beehive, unsolicited.
Good thing they have plenty of room to grow, with their new space of approximately 5,000 square feet. And, “we have beehive-colored carpet,” Sheldon joked, “so we have to succeed.”
Credits: Photo of Chapman courtesy of Chapman. Photo of Michel from twitter.com.
*Update Sept. 7, 3:05 p.m. – Schwab’s first name is Mike. A previous version of the story incorrectly indicated it was Matt.
