Apr 14, 2022
Posted by: Robin Leigh
February 2, 2020
Back in November, we realized (and by “we” we mean “Mitch”) that we’d need an industrial designer before we could go much further with design or make any real decisions about production and costs and materials. We didn’t mention it at the time, but we interviewed a handful of candidates and none of them felt like the right fit.
Then Mitch said he had a connection at Teams. Whoa. What?
OK, we don’t expect you to immediately know who that is or why we were so excited, but just look. Look! COME ON. They’re as good as it gets. They’re also as big as it gets.
When you’re software developers creating a science-based product out of sheer passion and tenacity, pulling in enthusiastic support from leading players in apiology, the EPA, USDA and now, a world-class design firm, you start to wonder if the universe really has your back in this bee-saving adventure.
But an amazing thing happened (again). When Teams learned that we’re trying to create a product to help save the bees, they carved out time in their jam-packed product-creating calendar to set up a strategy session with us!
So while there have been false starts and unanticipated problems at every stage of this, it feels like a charmed journey, too. We’re realizing this has become a theme for us: absolute luminaries in their fields are not only willing to help — they want to help.
That’s been true from the very first tentative email we sent to Dick Rogers to flying every one of us to Chicago in the deep freeze of February for a no-breaks, head-down, day-long concepting session that’ll hopefully take us all the way from “maybe we can” to “we’re creating a real product” to save the bees.
This entire process has been a series of nail-biting asks and generous, overwhelming answers of “yes.”
So anyway, off to Chicago to turn this
Into...well, we’ll see!