“Bees are responsible for one out of every three bites of food you eat,” says Jed R. Poulsen (’25) a BYU marketing major. But nearly a quarter of native bee species in America are at risk of extinction. To help, Jed recently started a beekeeping business with his twin brother, Jake P. Poulsen (BS ’24), a business management grad. “He’s my best friend,” Jake says of working with his twin.
The brothers grew up working on an American bison ranch—a background that inspired them to craft a business that “could combine agriculture with [doing] good in the world,” says Jed. They cofounded The Bee Partner, with a mission to restore native bee habitats in Utah by offering companies and communities a simple way to invest in the environment.
The Bee Partner provides “hands-off beekeeping” by installing and maintaining hives, while the client receives the honey harvested and meets its corporate sustainability goals in a creative way.
“Some companies just pay to plant trees somewhere and check a box,” says Jake. “We check the box, but we make it a whole program that gets all the employees involved.”
The Bee Partner invites clients to come see the hive. “They put on their beekeeping suits and are right arm-in-arm with us, participating in that process,” says Jed. For community groups, they offer a honey-share program where locals can buy a share in a hive.
While BYU professor Corbin B. Church sees many students come and go through his Entrepreneurship 101 class, he could tell Jed and Jake would go far. The twins “were constantly taking the initiative to make one-on-one appointments,” says Church. “That says a lot about two young men who have an above average level of determination.”
From April 2024 to January 2025, The Bee Partner produced 1,012 jars of honey for clients; it all comes down to humans—and bees—working to benefit the community. The average honeybee produces one-12th of a teaspoon of honey over its entire life, says Jake, “but they work together so well to create a very large impact—and a ton of honey.”
