Four Star Mushroom

This article details Four Star Mushroom, a company growing mushrooms indoors commercially in the US. The interview is with Joe Weber, founder and President of Four Star Mushroom.

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What is the origin story of Four Star Mushrooms?

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I have always had a deep fascination and attraction to ecosystems and habitats. Some of my fondest memories are from my childhood, catching turtles and toads in the local forest preserves and ponds, bringing them home and building terrariums for short term keeping. Ecology, paired with my bend towards design lead me to study landscape architecture for two years before transferring to study and earn a degree in integrative biology from UIUC in 2018.

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During an ecology course, I was made aware of the devastation done to ecosystems by mono crop industrial agriculture. This was the first pivotal moment that put me on the path towards a career in sustainable agriculture. The second pivotal moment was listening to a podcast with Paul Stamets where I learned about the roll that mushrooms and fungi play in ecosystems and their potential for being an ideal candidate for sustainable agriculture.

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Further, the engineering challenges presented by controlled environment agriculture fascinated me were immediately engaging. The idea of building CEA facilities to grow perfect mushrooms to the specifications of our customers is endlessly fascinating and challenging. After creating a business plan and doing market research I was ready to take the leap of faith and start Four Star Mushrooms.

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I launched in 2019 and bootstrapped a proof of concept grow room in 400 square feet of industrial warehouse space. After multiple smaller expansions to meet demand, we scaled our operation in 2023 to 11,000 square feet and now have the capacity to grow north of 10,000 lbs of mushrooms per week.‍

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What are some of the biggest challenges facing Four Star Mushrooms in the future?

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‍Our biggest challenge is effectively scaling the production of gourmet mushrooms. This means maintaining the highest quality of mushrooms while also increasing yield and decreasing the time that it takes for the mushrooms to maturity. By maximizing efficiency of these two levers, we will be able to grow more mushrooms at a lower cost which will increase access.

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Currently we serve many high end restaurants and retailers due to cost to produce. As is the goal with scale, we are aiming to decrease our cost and pass along that savings to the consumer while increasing volume.

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‍What is unique about Four Star Mushrooms compared to competitors? How do you measure the impact of your company so far? (Revenue, Employees, Customer Quantity, Production Volume) etc?

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Four Star Mushrooms has multiple differentiating factors with the most important being our Why. Why do we do what we do? Our mission is to advance our transition to sustainable food systems. We are not worried about competitors because we are grounded in this mission and we work hard each day to improve our quality, customer experience, and sustainability.

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On another level, we designed robust equipment and technology that is novel to CEA and mushroom growing specifically. We create unique environmental conditions that produce high quality gourmet mushrooms with long shelf lives, delicious flavor, and striking visual appearances.

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This robust technology puts us in a position to scale the production of multiple varieties of gourmet mushrooms effectively. As we develop these environmental recipes we will be able to open new facilities that can produce these mushrooms at scale, locally.

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Additionally, we have a roadmap for true sustainability, removing single use polypropylene plastic bags from our production process entirely. The use of plastic bags is a major shortcoming of the promise of sustainability In mushroom cultivations.

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We have a solution to this and will implement at scale in the next few years. This new process will also allow us to source a wider variety of waste streams to upcycle as substrate from agriculture, beer, coffee, and food industries.

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We also utilize our spent mushroom as a catalytic input into regenerative agriculture operations, urban farms, and community gardens. In the long term, we will scale small scale, community based regenerative agriculture across our country and the world.

What have you learned that you wish you knew when you joined or started the company?‍

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I have learned more than I could have ever imagined. I would say that being ignorant to the challenges I would faces a founder was a blessing. If I had known how challenging every aspect of starting a company would be, I may not have even started. I am thankful for all of the learning opportunities because I quickly gained the mindset that all problems have solutions and all jobs are simply limited by the tools on hand. Anything is achievable if you put the effort that is required in.

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Hindsight is 20:20 and it is easy enough to say that I wish I had known X,Y,Z about growing mushrooms or running a business. Truly, I am thankful for the many failures I have had because they have all been valuable learning experiences. I view failures as armor and I have fortified our future through the experiences of the past.  
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How can people connect with you or learn more about Four Star Mushrooms?‍

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Four Star Mushrooms is most active on Instagram. You can also go onto our website and stay-up-to-date. I am also on LinkedIn and open to meaningful connections.

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