From Beehives to Boardrooms: Biomimicry and the Future of Business Innovation

by Basil Chochla, CPA — Cross-Border Tax Strategist & Tax Dispute Resolution Expert, The Bee Dance CPAs

October 27, 2025

When Cian Robinson, Managing Director of Robinson Ventures, and I sat down to record a podcast about biomimicry and business innovation, nature had another lesson for us: adaptability. The recording didn’t survive — but the ideas did. Like any good hive, we decided to preserve the honey of that conversation and share it here.

🐝 Biomimicry: Innovation by Nature’s Design

Cian began by describing how his passion for beekeeping started in the most organic way possible — noticing a lack of pollinators in his garden. That absence became an invitation to learn. As he nurtured his first hive, he discovered not only the fascinating efficiency of bees but also how much human innovation can learn from natural systems.

For me, this topic resonates deeply with my own heritage. My great-uncle from the foothills of the Carpathian Mountains kept over forty beehives, and people from nearby villages would visit him to buy honey or seek bee therapy — especially veterans struggling with PTSD from war. His bees brought healing, sweetness, and pain — but often pain with purpose.

That story feels alive in my own veins. As a child, my sister was stung by a bee, and her face swelled dramatically. Later, when I was stung, my face only swelled slightly. Two siblings, same venom, completely different reactions — a reminder that nature personalizes its medicine and its lessons.Cian, who is equally fascinated by bee venom therapy, noted that research shows potential benefits for arthritis treatment and even breast cancer cell destruction.

Biomimicry teaches us that nature has already engineered the solutions — we simply need to observe, respect, and translate them.

💼 Investment Insights from the Hive

Cian explained how Robinson Ventures approaches investment evaluation. Each year, the firm reviews 50–75 pre-seed and seed-stage companies, but invests in only 2–4, focusing mainly on digital health. He likened this to “scraping the frame” — inspecting each layer of a hive to assess its health before expansion.

That same disciplined curiosity applies to both investment due diligence and tax strategy. Whether analyzing a startup or a multinational structure, the principle is the same: examine the whole ecosystem — product, people, and purpose — before committing resources.

Cian emphasized persistence, integrity, and professionalism as the hallmarks of sustainable success — qualities that mirror the relentless work ethic of bees.

🤝 Hives, Drones, and Systems Thinking

As our conversation deepened, we explored the parallels between bee colonies and business ecosystems. Beekeepers sometimes merge weak hives with stronger ones to create resilience — and in consulting or investing, the same principle holds true. Integration, when done wisely, produces strength and stability.

Cian outlined three key vectors guiding his firm’s investment thesis:

1. Healthcare,

2. Education, and

3. Drone technology, particularly in applications like medical logistics and defense.

I drew a parallel between those and our work at The Bee Dance CPAs, where our vectors are healthcare, nonprofit collaboration, and financial literacy through education — including our Color Accounting workshops and podcasts.

Cian mentioned Blue Flight, a drone company delivering blood and medical supplies to remote regions. Bees and drones share the same DNA of purpose — multifunctional, intelligent, and collectively oriented.

⚡ From Croatia to the Cosmos: Vision and Discipline

At one point, our conversation took a symbolic turn. We discussed Cian’s trip to Croatia, which struck a personal chord for me because I share ancestry from that region — the birthplace of both Nikola Tesla, the visionary inventor, and Benedikt Kotruljević (Benedict Cortugli), a Renaissance merchant-scholar often credited as one of the earliest pioneers of accounting.

Tesla and Cortugli — two Croatians separated by centuries — embody the same paradox: vision and discipline. One dreamed of electrifying the world, the other of codifying its commerce. Both understood that genius alone is never enough.

Cian captured it perfectly when he said,

“Vision without execution is hallucination.”

That line has stayed with me. It applies to everything — from investment strategy to tax dispute resolution, from beekeeping to business. The magic lies not in the idea itself, but in its consistent, disciplined realization.

🎯 The Dance of Due Diligence

I spoke about what I call “The Dance of the Deceiving Bee.” In nature, a miscommunicated waggle dance sends the entire hive in the wrong direction. In business, the same happens when advisors provide misleading or incomplete guidance. Integrity in communication — in data, advice, or leadership — is what determines whether an enterprise thrives or collapses.

Cian described Robinson Ventures’ “Rule of 10”: invest in ten companies, expecting that one will drive exponential returns, while others may fail. Like a hive, a balanced portfolio thrives on diversity and renewal.

👩‍💼 Investing in Female Founders

Cian’s time as the first gentleman at Coker University reshaped his view on gender and leadership. He’s since become a champion of female founders from non-traditional regions, observing not only moral value but measurable outperformance in resilience, work ethic, and capital efficiency.

He even authored a white paper on investing in female founders, noting, “Women don’t just build companies — they build ecosystems.”His examples — like Dr. Trivia Frazier’s and Hamper — illustrate how inclusivity drives long-term innovation.

🩺 Value-Based Care and Value-Based Business

We turned to healthcare’s transformation — the shift from fee-for-service to value-based care, where providers are rewarded for outcomes, not activity. Cian explained how this model enhances quality while lowering costs, particularly in rural communities via telemedicine and remote monitoring.

I drew a parallel to our work at The Bee Dance CPAs. We embrace value-based pricing, where clients pay for results and clarity rather than hours. Like a hive that measures success in honey, not wingbeats, true value lies in the collective outcome — not the motion.

🌍 Distributed Systems and Adaptive Organizations

We ended by exploring distributed systems — in nature and in business. Bees operate as decentralized yet highly synchronized networks; so do the best organizations. Whether managing drones, data, or tax strategies, the future belongs to those who master coordination without control.

Cian’s final advice for entrepreneurs was both pragmatic and timeless:

“Do your market research. Surround yourself with good advisors. And be ready to adapt.”

🍯 Final Reflection

Our conversation reaffirmed that biomimicry isn’t about imitation — it’s about integration. My great-uncle’s hives in the Carpathian foothills weren’t only about honey or therapy; they were about community and continuity.

Every hive, every company, and every partnership runs on the same principle: communication, trust, and disciplined follow-through. Whether you’re a beekeeper, an investor, or a strategist, success depends on aligning vision with execution — the sweet spot where innovation becomes legacy.

The next time you see a bee, remember: its sting and its honey come from the same source. Growth always includes both — pain that purifies, and sweetness that sustains.