Thermoslar Hive co-founder Jan Rája

Jan Rája and his co-founder Roman Linhart sell an unusual product. Their company, Thermosolar Hive, won the Innovation Mastermind title in the FedEx Small Business Grant 2021 competition for its beehives which uses heat to kill the destructive varroa mites that threaten bee populations across the world. And like many of the best inventions, the idea behind the hive came about by chance.

While buying lunch at a small local shop, co-founder Roman Linhart noticed a wild bee colony, living beneath the shop’s roof. Wild bee colonies tend to survive up to two years, explains co-founder Jan Rája, after which they are typically overwhelmed by varroa mites. But this wild bee colony had survived for more than 15 years, Linhart learned.

“They were in the insultation under the tin roof, so during the summer the heat killed the mites, which are very sensitive to even slightly higher temperatures, but did not kill the bees or the bee brood [eggs],” explains Rája.

Linhart wondered if he and Rája could design a hive that created similar conditions, using solar energy and insulation to heat the hives to a temperature that would kill the mites but not harm the bees. That idea formed the basis for Thermosolar Hive, which is now sold in seven countries around the world.

Beekeepers are a relatively small market so building a profitable business selling such an innovative and specialised product was a challenge. Here, Rája shares his lessons from the journey.

Rája and Linhart were both experienced beekeepers when they set about developing the hive. Having an in-depth knowledge of the market they would sell was particularly important, Rája says, for a product as specialised as theirs.

Typically, beekeepers use chemical treatments to remove varroa mites and larvae. However, it’s not a perfect solution. Chemical treatments are not 100% effective, for example, and some treatments can harm the bees themselves. Rája says beekeepers still expect to lose around 5% of their colony in a good season; losses can be much greater.

“If you are focussing on such a small market, like beekeeping, you have to know very precisely what beekeepers need, what their problems are, why we are offering them this product,” he says. “The great thing about thermotherapy [heat treatment] is that the efficiency is higher.”

Takeaway

This illustrates the importance of really getting under the skin of the market you are planning to sell into – the authenticity of your business could depend on it.

Rája and Linhart had to be patient. Their hive took almost 10 years to fully develop, as each prototype needed to be tested for a full year. In the early days, the pair developed the prototypes in their spare time around their jobs, investing their own money into the project. “And we slowly – very slowly – left our jobs and migrated to our company,” Rája explains.

By 2016, they were confident they had settled on a system that worked well, so they founded the company, thinking they would soon be ready to take orders and start production. But they discovered an issue with their prototype, just at the beginning of spring as the bees were starting to emerge for a new season. The consistent heat necessary to kill the mites had also meant the bees produced moisture in the hive, which led to mould developing. That meant developing another prototype and beginning another year of testing it.

However, Rája says, it was better to take time getting the product right than have customers complaining about mould in their hives. “It was necessary – even though it was hard sometimes.”

Takeaway

Be prepared to take your time with research and development – and accept that unforeseen problems could crop up and cause delays.

When selling to a niche market, it’s important to understand how to reach enough customers to make the business viable. For Thermosolar Hive, that meant beginning to sell internationally early on.

That has challenges. Due to a historical quirk of beekeeping, for example, there is no single standard size or set of dimensions for beehives, which makes production complicated, Rája says. They must manufacture a wide range of sizes in small volumes, which squeezes the profit margin on each unit. Even so, selling to customers in key markets outside the Czech Republic is essential, he says.

Knowing how important this would be, Rája and Linhart began their preparations to launch Thermosolar Hive internationally early. They identified which markets they wanted to sell to. Once they had finalised a prototype, they patented their design in all their target markets. They now sell to customers in Germany, France, Spain, UK and in the U.S. and Canada – as well as customers at home in the Czech Republic.

Takeaway

Keep an eye on what is lying around the corner for your business. By applying for patents in all the markets they planned to sell in before they were ready to launch, the Thermosolar Hive team set their business on the road to success.