Not Your Average Myco Bros: 15 Entrepreneurs Building The Future Of Mushrooms Around The World

When I launched Mycopreneur Podcast in 2020, I set out to cover the makers, doers, and unsung heroes driving the global mushroom space forward one bootstrapped product and macrodose-inspired service at a time. I wanted to platform and amplify the people driving fungal innovation through sheer vision, stubbornness, and diligent execution, creating real-world value for real people – often doing so in spite of favorable odds or societal norms. Along the way, I discovered that a healthy dose of humor and irony goes a long way in moving beyond the “Psychedelic Bro” archetype and escaping the insufferable orbit of those who take themselves too seriously while trying to get the moolah out of the multiverse.

Five years later, the Mycopreneur movement has exploded globally alongside skyrocketing public interest in psilocybin mushrooms and applied mycology via a phenomenon colloquially known as the “Shroom Boom.” I know it sounds like a spiritualized Al Queda reference, but the name has serious traction, so we’ll use it here.

After more than 200 long-form interviews with mushroom entrepreneurs from 40 countries and collaborations with dozens of communities and brands all over the world, it’s become clear to me that mushrooms lend themselves to decentralization and community benefit far more so than hierarchy and regulatory capture. Sorry Chad. I’m so glad that people everywhere are embracing mushrooms, because as a society, we’ve lost our Morel compass (I just became a dad, had to).

At the vanguard of the “Shroom Boom” are the mushroom entrepreneurs who drive meaningful change by offering valuable services and creating useful products that get adopted and embraced by everyday people before gatekeepers, profiteers and regulators even know what’s happening. After all, you can’t tariff the trap.

I want to be clear that this is not a “Top 15 List,” and given the context of prohibition in the majority of the world, there are many essential contributors to this field who by default are largely unable to accept public praise and appropriate recognition for their seminal contributions. I will continue to thank them privately for their work by loading up on the various mushroom chocolates, exotic spores, and fungal accoutrements that they offer – I’m like a patron of the arts, but for tripping.

This spotlight on a precious few of the Mycopreneurs shaping the global mushroom movement is a representative token of appreciation for those advancing the mushroom community and industry forward, one batch of liquid culture (for microscopy research only!) and wook science breakthrough at a time.

Ezequiel Cruz (Mexico)

Ezequiel is the founder of Fungaria, a community of mushroom entrepreneurs and educators dedicated to rekindling the ancestral knowledge of wild mushrooms in his native state of Chiapas, Mexico. Mexico is home to at least 50 known species of psilocybe mushrooms, making it host to one of the densest concentrations of wild psychoactive mushrooms of any region on the planet. What you do with this information is up to you, but please don’t share it with the Tuluminati.

The state of Chiapas itself has an estimated 50,000 mushroom species across its extremely biodiverse ecosystems, with only roughly 2% having been identified. Ezequiel and his team at Fungaria organize mycotourism treks and multi-day workshops that feature forays into the highland cloud forests and steaming lowland jungles to collect identify, and categorize wild mushrooms, as well as culinary workshops and festivals like the 2nd Yuy Fest mushroom festival in collaboration with the brilliant Aleacion FUN and Symbioses organizations that just took place July 18-20. He is actively producing a documentary titled “Los Moní del Nangaño” about the culturally and ecologically vital Moní mushroom (Lactifluus chiapanensis) and the people who forage it in the Nangaño forests of Chiapas.

Cullen Clark (South Africa)

Cullen Clark is a citizen mycologist from South Africa who has devoted the last 5 years to documenting the lost traditions of psilocybin mushroom use in Africa. He made headlines internationally last year for helping document and contribute two new species of psilocybe mushrooms to science – Psilocybe ingeli and Psilocybe maluti – as part of his research for the forthcoming documentary titled The Lost Muti.

Through his meticulous analysis of over 300 cave paintings across South Africa and Lesotho alongside exclusive interviews with traditional healers and diviners, Clark continues to play an invaluable role in bridging the ancient and unheralded traditions of magic mushroom use across Southern Africa with the world beyond. I wonder if future generations will look back on our TikTok brain rot doomscroll content in the same way Cullen looks to cave paintings to piece together the lost traditions of our ancestors. Good luck with that, future civilization.

Milica Radovic-Mandic (Serbia)

Milica is a serial entrepreneur who draws from her extensive background in the tech and event production world to organize world-class conferences connecting the mushroom and psychedelic communities. Her global psychedelics database at Bizdelics consolidates more than 1,000 companies, organizations, people and media properties active in the emergent psychedelic space to enable rapid communications and cross-pollination among industry stakeholders. It’s the second-best thing to just tripping with another person and exploring the vibe synergy. This database has been instrumental in shaping the launch of her latest venture, Global Psychedelic Week, forthcoming November 3-9, 2025, which features representatives from 100 countries sharing globalized perspectives on traditional mushroom practices, cutting-edge research, and psychedelic advocacy among other topics.

Robert Johnson (USA)

Robert Johnson is the Founder of Mycroboost functional mushroom supplements and a leader in the psychedelic advocacy space who brings a rare combination of high-profile business acumen and selfless community spirit to the table. That he manages to do so without succumbing to the frequent perils of bat country is remarkable. Through his contributions to supporting the broader mushroom entrepreneurial ecosystem development via product formulation, business mentorship, and a collaborative ethos, he has cemented himself as a fixture in the mushroom space and a benefactor to many involved in it.

Shontelle Pinch (Jamaica)

Shontelle Pinch is a luminary in the world’s only nationally legal psilocybin mushroom industry. She is the founder of the CPG psilocybin mushroom brand Choose Happy and the co-founder of Serenade Negril, a legal psilocybin mushroom retreat in Jamaica. Shontelle brings over 20 years of entrepreneurial experience across multiple industries to the forefront of the growing legal psilocybin mushroom market in Jamaica and is engaged in numerous education and advocacy efforts underpinning the rise of the industry on the island and internationally. This is a fancy way of saying she likes to trip and help other people trip.

Maddalen Pasini (Canada)

Maddalen Pasini is the Vancouver-based founder of YAWN, a psychedelic lifestyle and educational movement that launched the first psychedelic card game WARPED. WARPED is now sold in over 200 Urban Outfitters locations across the US. Maddalen has shared that it was in part her experiences with psilocybin mushrooms that helped her envision and launch this card game, and in doing so she has helped to bridge the gap between mushroom education and pop culture in a fun and meaningful way. I’d go to a WARPED game night over a white-linen ceremonial soiree gate kept by thousand-yard stare spaceholders any night.

Caine Barlow (Australia)

Caine Barlow is the Founder of Guerrilla Mycology, a platform dedicated to mushroom cultivation, conservation and ethnomycology. Caine has made significant contributions towards the advancement of the mushroom community in Australia and globally through his journalism and advocacy, and is a co-founder of The Entheome Foundation, which compiles a genetic database of entheogenic fungi and plants around the world. When every other form of wildlife in Australia seems hell-bent on killing you, it’s wonderful to know that various psychoactive mushrooms are primarily there to kill your ego and not your whole self.

Reggie Harris (USA)

Reggie Harris is the founder of Oakland Hyphae and the godfather of psilocybin mushroom potency testing. He continues to produce high-profile mushroom events from coast to coast and internationally while maintaining a fierce independence and pronounced sense of social justice advocacy in the face of all haters. Reggie is also a brilliant journalist who produces the HyphaeLeaks newsletter and podcast, which provides refreshingly authentic and honest analysis of the mushroom space and the growing psychedelic industry. Is it really an industry though? More like an expensive hobby for most of the jokers out there who burn through seed rounds and Series A’s faster than I handle a spliff after the peak of a Hyphae Cup-winning cubensis strain.

Santiago Ongay (USA)

Santiago Ongay is the Co-founder of Full Canopy Genetics, a leader in the mushroom genetics space. With effortless business savvy and active collaborations on multiple continents, Full Canopy raises the bar on mushroom entrepreneurship from their homebase in Colorado while providing prize-winning mushroom genetics and turnkey grow bags to anyone interested in leveling up their yields and advancing their own home mycology craft. Full Canopy swept multiple category wins at the Colorado Psychedelic Cup last year, which I definitely would have also placed first in had there been a category for growing Tricholoma.

Moudou Baqui (USA)

Moudou Baqui is a scholar of ancient mushroom traditions and a leader of the Per Ankh entheogenic church in Detroit. He draws from an extensive apprenticeship with the late Kilindi Iyi and his own wealth of experience to guide people through high dose mushroom trips as a means of connecting with their personal power and sense of purpose in the world. Moudou has undertaken numerous research trips to the African continent to learn about initiatory rites involving psychoactive fungi and related practices there, and lectures internationally about mushrooms and the cultures that traditionally use them.

Darren Le Baron (UK / Barbados)

Darren Le Baron is a singular voice in the mushroom world – through his internationally renowned “Shroomshop” mushroom cultivation workshop, he has taught people all over the world how to grow mushrooms while simultaneously educating them in a light-hearted and humor-driven container about the folklore and traditions of psilocybin mushroom use in various cultures. Watching Darren in his element is an experience that everyone should have in their life, and when the show is over, you’ve learned how to cultivate your own medicine. If you’re ever in London and are lucky enough to meet him, see if you can get him to take you to the best bagel shop around.

Aixarret Hernandez and Maximilian Esparza (USA)

This young and extraordinarily dynamic duo behind Myceliumatters has had an outsized impact in the mushroom entrepreneurial space despite still being in their early twenties. I have macrodose stories older than these two and they’re lapping me on the myco business front. They are the mavericks behind the Texas Mushroom Conference, the Santa Monica Psychedelic Summit, the El Paso Fungi Fest and more while also managing to run a CPG functional mushroom brand and engaging in psilocybin mushroom policy reform advocacy in multiple states. Even with seemingly endless irons in the fire, they somehow maintain an extremely relaxed and approachable demeanor and always seem to have a new project on the horizon – must be the mushrooms.

Giuliana Furci (Chile)

Giuliana Furci has earned her title as “La Reina de Fungi” through decades of advocacy efforts starting in her native Chile. She launched Fungi Foundation in 2012, establishing the first fungi-focused NGO in the world. Among the many achievements of the organization have been the successful implementation of mycologically-inclusive language in Chilean governmental frameworks that recognize Fungi as a distinct and separate life form than Fauna and Flora (Fauna, Flora, Funga), the roll out of mushroom education curriculums in numerous schools worldwide, and ongoing collaborations with multiple environmental research and conservation organizations globally. Fungi, so hot in Chile right now.

Jacob Tell (USA)

Jacob Tell is the founder of District216, a membership-driven psychedelic social club. The District216 family has produced numerous sold-out events in multiple cities and made a huge statement by drawing 1500 people to the recent Psychedelic Playhouse event in June of this year. In a space that is largely still in legal limbo thanks to a disjointed patchwork of policy and regulations across various cities and states in the U.S., social clubs like District216 offer a way for people to connect with other mushroom entrepreneurs and psychedelic activists in a safe and highly curated setting that includes live music, expert presenters, and an impeccable atmosphere. I even once thought I saw Tom Waits at a District216 event in a decrim city, but then I remembered the Neutropics mushroom chocolate I ate and realized it was just me looking in the mirror.

Christian Rasmussen (USA)

Christian Rasmussen is the founder of Minnesota Nice Ethnobotanicals, the leading Amanita muscaria mushroom purveyor in the United States. He’s like a reverse version of Mario in the mushroom kingdom – instead of consuming all the shape-shifting inducing fungi himself, he passes them along to others so they can experience the sensation of feeling powerful and ready to take on some Goombas.

The iconic red and white “Fly Agaric” mushroom has long suffered from misrepresentation and misinformation in even the headiest of psychonaut circles; Christian and his team have made big waves in successfully destigmatizing and demystifying the enigmatic Amanita muscaria mushroom to a broad audience through diligent sourcing, careful preparation, and relentless education on how to maximize benefit and mitigate discomfort with ‘the other magic mushroom.’ I love Amanita muscaria microdoses — sometimes I’ll take 10 or 15 of them simultaneously. Don’t try to keep up; proceed with caution and know your own limits.

In the five years that Mycopreneur has been around, I’ve witnessed an infiltration of the nascent mushroom and psychedelic spaces by monied interests and powerful actors intent on extracting the maximum amount of value out of this growing industry without paying respects to the legacies of traditional use and the broader potential of mushroom entrepreneurship to improve quality of life for untold numbers of people around the planet regardless of their social status or purchasing power. Whereas the success of the Mycopreneur platform has been built on serving community interests and providing value to people through nuanced and independent coverage of mushroom entrepreneurship best practices framed in a healthy dose of satire, the growing psychedelic industry oftentimes looks more like a cash grab by a coterie of Johnny-Come-Lately’s who prioritize hierarchy over decentralization and profit over public benefit. It’s my life’s mission to continue building out the infrastructure for a truly decentralized and mutual aid-driven mushroom entrepreneurial community – because when the resources and knowledge base for effective mushroom entrepreneurship are made available to everyone, the value that can be created knows no bounds. And as far as the jokes go – I’m here for funny business, not funny business.

Lead photo by Leon Wu on Unsplash. All other pictures provided by the respective people featured.

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