An idea and a renderfarm. That seems to be what you need for a new company.

"There are no powered spinning propellers in nature." Actually, the spinning propeller evolved several billion years before flapping back and forth evolved. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fFq_MGf3sbk) Bacteria use a protein motor to spin one or more flagella and generate movement.

Answers, schmanswers… all we care about are investment dollars. And you'd be surprised at how many people will throw money at any crazy, hair-brained, "ground-breaking" (pun intended) idea that comes along.

The first statement in the article is wrong. You just have to scale down to very small creatures. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flagellum#Types

The drag on something like this must be insane and thus limiting it to a very low top speed.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sp7MHZY2ADI Let's see: 0:29 , 1:18 (first thought when I saw this), 2:30.

So heavy and cumbersome looking, what’s the equivalent propeller area for this I just wonder.

Flapping is found in Nature...and it it FAR more efficient, quiet, and robust (safer), than other forms of Flight mechanisms.
The limiting factor of flapping mechanisms is top speed and high acceleration levels. This may not be suitable for an Airplane due to the speed limitations... but for Drone and similar craft... it would be a good fit.

I think they should jump right into those factory plans, as fast as possible. They need to get this ball rolling.

I think the designer should jump off the bridge in his new vehicle...