Meet the Innovator: Dawn Musil of HiveLend
Dawn is a member of the Social Innovation Lab’s 2019–20 Cohort. To learn more about SIL and the cohort, click here. Join her at our virtual SIL Impact Forum, available here! Stay tuned: Dawn’s pitch will be released at 3:45 on Monday, May 25th!
SIL: Tell us about yourself. What is HiveLend and what are you trying to do?
DM: HiveLend is connecting beekeepers and farmers to facilitate connections for pollination contracts to increase beekeepers’ income and farmers’ income through better crop yields.
SIL: Why did you decide to start this? Where did the idea come from?
DM: My co-founder Nick Zajciw and I were both passionate beekeepers with a desire to address the issues in the pollination space and the loss of beehives through agricultural innovation.
SIL: What would you consider success for HiveLend and how will the world be different when you are successful?
DM: Smaller, non-commercial beekeepers represent an untapped supply of pollination services for commercial farms in the US. If an additional 1,600 of these “sideline” beekeepers were able to join the current 1,600 commercial beekeepers to meet the needs of pollination for farmers and increase their own income, we would count that a success.
SIL: What have you accomplished so far?
DM: We have completed $80,000 in contracts and have 3200 hives on our platform. With these hives online, we are able to fulfill pollination contracts for blueberry, almond, watermelon and other commercial farmers across the US.
SIL: What have you been most excited about in your time with the Social Innovation Lab?
DM: We are most eager to connect with a community of driven social entrepreneurs in the Baltimore area to help in building and ecosystem that is ever growing, especially in businesses like Agtech that don’t typically start in Baltimore, but have great opportunity here.
SIL: Tell us about yourself. What got you interested in pollination? Any experiences in your professional or personal life which inform your work now?
DM: I grew up beekeeping. Since I grew up on a farm, I have been passionate about agriculture and the food security opportunities that result from the pollination that bees can provide.
SIL: What’s your favorite place or thing to do in Baltimore?
DM: My favorite place in Baltimore is the Baltimore Free Farm that brings fresh cooked food to Hero’s Park each week to provide a reliable, warm meal for the community members there.
SIL: Is there a particular innovator you admire?
DM: Melitta Bentz, who in 1908 created the coffee filter that took us from drinking the mud that coffee was to drinking a lovely, smooth beverage that is simple and delightful.
SIL: What advice do you have for aspiring social entrepreneurs?
DM: Find, build, and nurture a strong community that shares at least some small part of your vision, so even when things are challenging, you have a team to rely on.
SIL: What can we do to help? How can we get involved?
DM: Learning about pollination and educating yourself on agricultural literacy is critical. While only 1% of the population is engaged in agriculture, 99% of us in the US benefit from it every day. You can also support pollinators directly by planting your own pollinator garden!
Join Dawn and HiveLend on the web at www.hivelend.com and through social media on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook. You can connect with Dawn at SIL’s Impact Forum online, starting May 18th! Details available at this link.
