Ep 177: Silver Laus & Siim Raadik
“There’s a Mushroom for Every Problem” – Exploring the Fascinating Productivity Benefits of Mushrooms, Backed by the Latest Research: Grow Your Brain, Boost Performance, and Strengthen Immunity
Silver Laus and Siim Raadik are the founders of Shroomwell, an innovative Estonian company dedicated to harnessing the power of functional mushrooms and fungi to improve human health and the environment. With over a decade of experience in the mushroom industry, Silver and Siim have become pioneers in producing high-quality, scientifically backed mushroom-based wellness products. They are passionate advocates for the potential of mushrooms not only to enhance cognitive function and immunity but also to create sustainable, eco-friendly solutions that could significantly impact industries ranging from agriculture to pharmaceuticals. Shroomwell combines the wisdom of ancestors with modern-day science and run farms in Estonia, Sweden and USA covering an area of over 700 hectares, that’s 2x size of central park in New York.
On this episode we talk about:
The role of mushrooms in enhancing human health and productivity.
The environmental impact of fungi and their potential to address issues like pollution and climate change.
The underappreciated importance of mushrooms in the global ecosystem and why they are gaining popularity.
Key challenges in the functional mushroom industry, including quality control and regulation.
The science behind various types of mushrooms and their specific benefits (e.g., Lion’s Mane, Chaga, Reishi).
Scaling mushroom-based innovations for global environmental sustainability.
Use promo code: POS20 to get 20% off your first purchase at https://shroomwell.com
We are on YouTube and Linkedin as well
Watch select full-length episodes on our YouTube channel > https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCP6ueaLnjS-CQfrMCm2EoTA
Connect with us on Linkedin > https://www.linkedin.com/company/pursuit-of-scrappiness/
Read the full episode transcript below
Janis (00:03.922)
Hello friends, we're back with another episode of Pursuit of Scrappiness podcast. We're building a business, running a team or just starting out in your career. We're here to bring you scrappy and actionable insights to help you become more productive. My name is Janis Zeps and with me today, Mr. Uldis Teraudkalns. Hey.
Uldis (00:19.798)
Surprise! Hi.
Janis (00:21.087)
What a Are you shocked? Before we start, quick reminder, follow us on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. Helps more than you know. In exchange to that, we offer you over 170 episodes already. They're covering all sorts of topics you need to become Scrapier and better version of yourself. There's plenty to explore if this is your first episode and every Tuesday you will be the first one to find out when the new episode drops. So if you click follow, then this will happen. Spotify and Apple Podcasts, please.
And also, if you like video, we are now on YouTube, so go there and look us up by searching for pursuit of scrappiness. You might have noticed that we talk a lot about productivity here. We also talk a lot about our planet and the challenges facing it. And occasionally we can merge those two topics, and today is one of those days.
When it comes to productivity, obviously, you know, there are so many things that going into it. Your sleep, your focus, your mental clarity, your energy, all needs to be in balance. And this isn't, there's an area we haven't discussed in detail. We usually talk about rituals. We talk about routines that people do, but there are also various help, side helps, substances, supplements and products, whatever you call it, that can help you to actually perform better and live a healthier life and, you know, a longer lifespan.
This is something that we're going to touch in today. There's very, I would say, miraculous and still not probably fully understood creations on our planet. Mushrooms and fungi, trending subject or topic. Also in tech, there's a lot of investment going into the field, a lot of discovery being made. There is certain popularity among certain, even tech and Silicon Valley people to...
to microdose on mushrooms and certain substances. There's a bit of that we'll cover. Andrew Huberman, very popular podcaster, I'm sure you all know, did an episode last year on the positive effects of psilocybin. So a lot of things to talk about today. And then there's another perspective that mushrooms can do. And this is the role and importance they play in actually maintaining our planet turning, or if not turning, then actually maintaining our life on the planet.
Janis (02:32.034)
two very deep areas to dig into and we didn't have to look too far to find people who are very knowledgeable about this topic. Turns out in Estonia there's a company who for over 10 years they're producing and exporting various kind of mushroom based products. They're working to help environment to be more sustainable and be there longer, or actually asked to be there longer, environment gonna be there after us anyway.
Exactly the things that we talked about productivity in terms of products they produce. So let's welcome today Silver Laus and Siim Raadik from Schroomwell.
Shroomwell (Silver & Siim) (03:06.64)
Hey guys. Hello guys.
Janis (03:08.962)
Yeah, Schumel is an Estonian company, works with functional mushrooms and fungi. They make wellness products. They also do various solutions for environment. As I say, they combine wisdom of our ancestors with modern day science. Thinking about ancestors, know, think about this TV show Vikings where guys used to take mushrooms. I'm just, you know, first thing that comes to mind. But anyway, they have farms in Estonia. They have farms in Sweden, in USA. Actually huge size farms. I read 700 acres, which is
two times the size of Central Park if you need a comparison. So quite big in the area. Needless to say, they know everything there is about mushrooms. So yeah, let's unpack and let's dig into this topic. I actually being fascinated with the world around us and I was thinking you could give us much better insight. What is the interesting fascinating thing about mushrooms, about fungi that most people do not realize? Maybe just give an introduction in that world that most of us don't see on everyday basis.
Shroomwell (Silver & Siim) (04:08.574)
Yeah, sure, Janis. So when we think about fungi and mushrooms, actually, I want to take you back a bit. So let's take you back a bit up to one billion years. So humans and fungi and mushrooms actually have common ancestors dating back one billion years.
Uldis (04:20.203)
You
Janis (04:27.521)
That's about the same age as Joe Biden is, so it's pretty far back.
Shroomwell (Silver & Siim) (04:30.282)
Yeah, I'm spoiled. and fungi itself, they have been on this planet for more than 100 million years. So humans have been only here for a second in that context. So when we're talking about fungi and mushrooms, we are looking at the wider perspective. So we are we have like two visions. One is extending healthy human life through fungi. And the other one is planet in harmony.
And actually these two are combined in a scientific perspective. So in Shrumwell we have like two legs. One is to gather all the scientific data around the world and do science ourselves to understand how fungi can help a planet to thrive. So basically fungi have been known to help trees to grow, plants to thrive, clean pollutions. Actually we managed to...
school fungi to eat motor oil pollution inside our laboratory. So they're really, really capable beings. But at the same time, if you consume them, as we have similar genetic history, fungi are really, really effective on human health. And today a lot of data is supporting that. So extending healthy human life and having planet in harmony are our main goals. So
Let me guys ask you this, can mushrooms kill?
Janis (05:59.886)
I'm sure that, yeah. Occasionally I read in Latvia or Estonia there is also a case where not only ancestor but somebody does the trial there as well. So I think probably, yeah.
Uldis (06:00.136)
Ancestors say yes. Or parents in this case.
Shroomwell (Silver & Siim) (06:16.424)
Yeah, so if you eat a lot of poisonous mushroom, you can go on a trip or you can die. So there are these. But at the same point, can mushrooms heal?
Janis (06:28.612)
Let's hope, I guess.
Uldis (06:29.142)
Sounds like yes.
Shroomwell (Silver & Siim) (06:30.73)
Okay, so actually there is a mushroom that has probably saved more than 100 million lives on this planet. Yes, so when we think about it, there are like 5 million fungi species thought to be living on planet Earth and only 10 % of that is medicinal plants and we know a lot of benefits of medicinal plants, but we know so few about fungi.
Uldis (06:38.389)
penicillin of course, yeah.
Shroomwell (Silver & Siim) (07:00.618)
So it's a matter of time when we will find the next 10 Benizilliums that's going to save more than 100 million lives again. So do you start to cope the perspective that we're talking about? This is not the niche. It's like a global trend. So it's a really, really huge thing. Let me just add to that what Simo was saying. the interesting fact is that
We share a lot of similarities through our DNA with mushrooms because of the fact that we share the same ancestors basically. With plants and other remedies we share about 10 to 20 percent similarities in our DNA. With functional mushrooms we share up to 50 percent of our DNA, which means that the mushrooms are way more potent and functional in our body and bioavailable in our body than any other remedy out there.
to share fact of
Uldis (08:01.42)
I would never guess that 50 % number.
Shroomwell (Silver & Siim) (08:06.11)
Yeah, so what we do here in Shrumwell is that we are currently working on several international science projects with scientists from United States, from Sweden, from Netherlands, from Belgium, from Singapore, of course, locally from Estonia. So we have all this brain power and we do this research to understand how we can increase the planet's health.
but also how to extend human life. And this is the point where we can really act upon it. So we're taking these functional mushrooms and based on scientific work, we are making products out of them that actually help human organism to thrive. So this is like a really, really important point and it has like a really historic background, but also scientific. So the scope of our activities, our global scope,
and its effect is quite wide.
Uldis (09:11.336)
It might be just my perspective, but somehow, like when I think of mushrooms, think of mushroom picking, I think of some kind of getting high, as you said, I think of basically a penicillin, of course you're reminded, but...
It feels to me like it has like a bad PR agency working on the mushroom PR overall globally, because the things you say, are just of global importance and of such magnitude. But it doesn't seem like people are taking mushrooms too seriously. It may be just me, but it somehow feels like we invited you and doing the research, was like, wow, such revelations.
what you guys are doing and what are the capabilities and there's like why is it so do you have an idea why is it so under PR'd
Janis (09:58.462)
Yeah, I think in
Janis (10:07.403)
Because in comparison, I'm just thinking what's over, maybe not over PR, but what has a good PR machine is like cannabis. Like so many people would say like, okay, so many products, right? You know, in comparison, think mushrooms are flying under the radar, yeah.
Shroomwell (Silver & Siim) (10:23.956)
But let's go, that's a good comparison actually. Let's go back, look at the cannabis industry when it actually started to thrive. It didn't have a good PR. It went through kind of the same route as the mushrooms are going right now. Like people were afraid of it. People were making up all sorts of stories. There was more bad PR than good PR. So it takes time to break the ground. Same with mushrooms. So the mushrooms like,
Like Sim said, they've been around for like millions, hundreds of millions of years. But we are rediscovering mushrooms today. Like they used to be more popular like 50, 100 years ago, then it got lost and now it's slowly coming back. COVID did a huge favor in that sense where everything natural started to boom again. So did mushrooms. So in the last couple of years, mushroom has kind of become
into the public eye, I would say. We know different names of the mushroom, like Lion's Mane, Chaga, people, they start to recognize that. So I think we're kind of on the verge of like, doesn't have that much of bad publicity, it starts to have more good publicity than bad. So it takes time for something to reintroduce back or people to get familiar with because everything new we're afraid of, right? We're human beings. And also it's a...
I mentioned global trend, what is really shifting in health is that we used to talk about medicine from reactive perspective, but now we are moving into preventive medicine sector. And that's where this food additive sector and pharmaceutical sector is now reaching out to find solutions before people get sick, before mental health, you know.
goes into spiral dive, you So this is the shift that is happening. that's why, because mushrooms have such a powerful effect on human health, that's why mushrooms are the fourth runners of this trend. So it's a really, really huge thing, but we are just grasping the thin layer of it at the moment, but it's gonna be like huge.
Janis (12:46.706)
And so a good point maybe to go into more detail about this, let's unpack two perspectives. talk about like, huge like individuals. So if I'm, you know, working in an office, working in tech, like how mushrooms can help and then let's unpack the global angle as well. You mentioned, you know, they can eat up motor oil, we certainly see applications for that, you know, occasionally oil spills happen quite occasionally and stuff like that. So, you know, you can see huge, huge applications for that.
So about the human side, now a lot of podcasts are on the topic of productivity and they are exploring this, all sorts of ways to use also mushrooms, even like, you know, micro -dosing certain mushrooms and psilocybin and these things. then, know, people are saying that it increases your productivity or your mental health can actually help you to heal, you know, trauma or reduce anxiety.
like a miracle thing almost, right? What is your take on that basically? Are there these properties that can really help people in that sense, just to be more productive and more mentally resilient and stable? Is it exaggerated? Maybe you can give your take on this.
Shroomwell (Silver & Siim) (14:06.302)
Mm.
Uldis (14:06.605)
Maybe healthier also works, not just more productive.
Janis (14:09.174)
Yeah, yeah. Yeah.
Shroomwell (Silver & Siim) (14:10.312)
Yeah. So yeah, let's talk about the general health, like being more productive or supporting your immune system or whatever it is that you want to achieve, right? So one thing that we need to realize is that everything we discuss here today, it's not something vague. Like there is a science to back this up.
There is about, I would say anywhere between five to seven mushrooms right now that are like the popular, the top five, top seven that people are consuming. And that has the most functionality in that sense. combined of those five to seven mushrooms, there's like thousands and thousands of research papers out there that prove their potency on certain functionality. And those are not only like
like on the petri dish, this is like studies on humans, studies on rats, studies on like any other natural substance. So it's getting more popular and more popular, it gets more scientific money is directed into that field. So, and as it is a very kind of like loaded question and we can spend hours on that, like let me just kind of try to simplify it. So.
Mushrooms are very functional, but they all have their peak performance, I would say. So each mushroom that we work with, they have their peak performance. let's say Chaga, which is well known in our region, is an amazing immunomodulator. So it supports your immune system. It has properties to actually activate T cells, which are fighting with cancer and so on and so forth. Then we have Lion's Mane.
probably that's the name that everybody knows these days. It actually has a property of growing, activating your NGF, neural growth factor, which basically restores your brain, actually grows your brain, which I don't know, a couple of years ago, we thought that it's impossible because, know, as you age, you just get dumber and your brain just dies. That was kind of the sentiment, right? And now suddenly we have a mushroom that turns that around.
Shroomwell (Silver & Siim) (16:29.044)
think of what it will do for diseases like Alzheimer, Parkinson, those lifestyle diseases that are today top five killers in the world. And then we have Rayshit, which is amazing for your hormonal balance and stress management. So literally helping people who have sleep disturbances or have had sleep disturbances for years.
who consume Reishi today and they're like, I'm sleeping like a baby and I'm dreaming again. Like I can't remember the last time I was dreaming. So they are powerful. Like Yanis, like you said, or you mentioned that they're almost like wonder drugs. Although I'm very careful saying that, but yeah, but whatever, like we have a saying like there's a mushroom for every problem. So whatever problem you have.
Uldis (17:11.655)
Magical mushrooms
Shroomwell (Silver & Siim) (17:21.758)
there is most likely a mushroom to fix that. yeah, we can spend hours on that, but they are amazing on getting to be a productivity up, enhancing your cognitive abilities, supporting your immune system, bringing people back from illnesses that are basically driving them to the grave.
Uldis (17:21.952)
You
Janis (17:42.577)
That's amazing, those mushrooms from...
Uldis (17:42.998)
But okay, if assuming that, for example, asking for a friend, somebody who, you know, doesn't really know more than chanterelles or something like that in the mushroom world and really wants to
to start. what would you say would be the way to actually get into mushrooms and what's the starter pack, know, who to talk to, where to research and what to do if the goal is not to get high, but the goal is to increase your health.
Shroomwell (Silver & Siim) (18:04.659)
I don't know.
Shroomwell (Silver & Siim) (18:15.432)
be healthier. As it is emerging market, the problem with the emerging markets is that it's not well regulated. I'm not the person who think that everything should be regulated, but at the same time, some regulation or standards needs to be set for the consumers to understand what's okay and what not. Unfortunately, there are a lot of companies out there who are just taking advantage of that. I call them marketeers.
So that's their value offering, their marketeers, but they're sourcing their mushroom from unknown sources, the quality of the mushroom is unknown, and they put into the product that is kind of questionable. So the first thing for the consumer is to understand about the companies. Where is it coming from and what the company is doing, how they're producing the product.
So that's why we're extremely proud of what we do because we grow our mushrooms ourselves, most of them. We grow them in the most cleanest possible environment, which is, you know, Baltics, Estonia, because that matters. They're sponges. They take all the contaminants in. And also the way we process the mushrooms, how we put them into the final product is also
top -notch. We're basically industry leaders, so how we extract from the mushroom making sure that we get the most bioactive components out of the mushroom. For example, we use ultrasonic extraction method, which is far more superior to any other extraction methods, because we know that or we want to offer the best possible quality to our customers.
For customers, like asking those questions, I think it's okay. Like it's okay to contact the company and be like, okay, where are you sourcing your mushrooms? Can you provide documentation for your mushroom to make sure like the quality is there? And then the next step is like understanding what kind of mushrooms you wanna use. The good thing is mushrooms are adaptogens. So what that means is basically that there is no risk of over consuming mushrooms. They're not like...
Shroomwell (Silver & Siim) (20:31.228)
other medicines where you have to be careful, because you can overdose or then your body becomes reluctant consuming it or stuff like that. So their adaptogens, they do the job needed in your body and then they leave the body. So maybe I can expand a bit on the traceability aspect. So when you're comparing these marketeers to producers, then there is a big difference.
What is the ingredient that you're consuming and guys I'm gonna give you an example so for example when we talk to our scientist from Tartu University about How is for example North China the soil and climate different to ours where a lot of mushrooms are grown? So one of the examples was that they have clay sands Which means that they're really thick and all the heavy metals and all the pollution in the environment is dropping into the
top layer of the soil. So for example, we have sandy soils, which means that even if we have pollution in the air, it drops to the really thick layers of the soil. So when we are growing mushrooms or any plants, medicinal plants, trees, or even food as our agriculture product, the product itself does not contain the heavy metals, even radioactive contamination.
There is a huge trend on understanding the full traceability aspects of different ingredients that we consume. And this is where we can put our feet on the ground, tell that all the whole processing and harvesting system and growing system is under our control, which means that we definitely know what is going inside the product.
where it comes from and we even know the place where it was picked, if it was picked outside or if it was picked indoors in our growing facilities. So we are growing mushrooms indoors and outdoors and the customer base that consumes to have an increased health expectancy will understand that this is not BS, it's real thing. It has real background behind it. So this is a really important aspect. There was a...
Shroomwell (Silver & Siim) (22:57.002)
Just one more comment. There was one research done in London regarding reishi food additive producers and they did a laboratory test for these different food additive products and more than 90 % of them did not fit the description, which means that many of them didn't even have reishi inside of them. So, you know, you understand it.
Uldis (23:23.378)
you
Shroomwell (Silver & Siim) (23:24.99)
you're getting the best price, you're not getting even the mushroom that you're buying. So this is really, really tricky field and you have to really trust the producer that you're getting your product from. So yeah, I'll go back to the fact that ask the questions from the producer. That's the first step and the best step that you can do.
Janis (23:36.248)
Yeah.
Uldis (23:42.08)
But is it easy to understand? it sounds to me like it's quite challenging to actually for you guys to convince and to show somebody who doesn't know. for example, asking for a friend for me or for a friend, it's known that, you know, you can get into serious trouble with mushrooms, right? You can have like liver problems and like it's dangerous stuff. then, you know, it's not something that you would just go on internet, you know, order and buy and put in your body without
Janis (23:42.36)
Yeah, I think...
Uldis (24:12.235)
any kind of understanding. So how big of a challenge is this kind of educational part?
Shroomwell (Silver & Siim) (24:16.298)
So from the first perspective, I invite you, Ullis and Janis, to visit our factories. So this is the first thing that we do. But we have had a lot of delegations all over from the world, European Council members, parliamentary members, even from Latvian ministries. We have a lot of delegations all over the world. Günther Paulis, unfortunately, Paul Stemmertz hasn't yet visited our factory.
But all these important persons who also help legislation to improve in this field that the real producers would be differentiated from the others. So I think showing what we do gives a lot of trust. But from the other side, it's quite... From the consumer perspective, I would say that if you follow the trend, you're OK.
because the trend right now supports those mushrooms that are okay for your body. So we're talking about like Chaga, Reishi, Lion's Mane, Shiitake, Cordyceps, so on. So you can't go wrong with that. So they're not heavy on your body. They're not doing any damage. They're uplifting you in certain ways.
Uldis (25:24.076)
you
Shroomwell (Silver & Siim) (25:40.98)
Following the trend is okay because those popular mushrooms that are out there are actually good for your body. And I can say that hands down, this is okay if you do that. But now it's a question of the mushroom and the quality of the supplement itself, which we kind of like a bit covered as well. understanding like what to take and when to take. Now it's the question of like what kind of problem you wanna solve.
Do want to increase your cognitive abilities? Do you want to support your immune system? Do you, I don't know, want to release the stress? Stuff like that. So there is a kind of a guide that I have put together as well that I can easily share with our customers. But I'll put it in this way. You can stack them. You can put all of them together and consume it as one. So we have one of our most popular product is, let me see. So it's Alliance Main Tincture.
So it's a triple extracted with water, alcohol and ultrasonic. So it's extremely potent. And I put that into my morning coffee together with five other tinctures that we have. So, you know, there's a mushroom and there's a tiny bit of coffee as well on top. so you can stack them together. There is no danger in that, or you can consume them in the different times during a day where, for example, in the morning you do Lion's mane to get your
Uldis (26:51.037)
you
Shroomwell (Silver & Siim) (27:02.634)
cognitive abilities up, deal with mental stress better. You do Chaga to support your immune system in the beginning of a day. Then midday you do Cordyceps to get your energy levels up again because Cordyceps is amazing on improving the energy levels naturally. And then in the evening you do Reishi to kind of like load, unload the stress from your body to prepare yourself for a good night's sleep.
So like you can adjust based on time of the day or if you say that I don't have time for that, I don't have the mental capacity to do that, you can stack everything in one in the morning and be done with it. So either way is fine.
Janis (27:44.499)
That's a good maybe a cold icebreaker when you go into meetings and say like, I took five mushrooms this morning with my coffee, it's like all together.
Shroomwell (Silver & Siim) (27:52.26)
Yes. Well, let's do this.
Uldis (27:53.286)
you
Janis (27:55.135)
And one last thing on this, mean, like people are very familiar with in this space with like various supplements. And when you talk about quality problems, I think it resonates so well, meaning that, you know, you have so many producers and yeah, China and these big markets and whatever they're doing, they're probably producing like such quantities, the quality is unknown and whatnot. But let's take it as a field. If you compare supplements.
if that can be called a field, all sorts of these pills that people take for performance, all the things you mentioned, pretty much they are also covering, right? And fungi, like not maybe, you know, exactly products you have or you can use it, but like what are the main differences and also, I don't know, like side effects, negative things, positive things, just that could provide a reference point for a lot of people.
Shroomwell (Silver & Siim) (28:47.498)
Yeah, this is an excellent question. and this comes from a person who consumes a lot of supplements. So don't get me wrong. I'm not only like 100 % mushroom, like I do vitamins, I dig minerals as well. So the shelf is packed with all of that stuff in my home. But why I've been believing into mushrooms and why I've been using mushrooms as kind of the number one option is because mushrooms are complex. So first of all,
Uldis (29:03.27)
you
Shroomwell (Silver & Siim) (29:16.842)
They have a wide range of functionality that they do in your body. So Reishi does not only relieve stress from your body, but also supports your immune system as a secondary option or as a background. Chaga does not only improve your immune system, but also gives you energy because of the mechanisms how it acts in your body, right? So cordyceps, although it gives you a lot of energy through the natural process,
it increases the oxygen level in your body, which also means that now your immune system is more stronger, like there are other things that start to work in your body. So there are always multiple things, but we like to focus on the one peak functionality because it's easier to understand. And don't forget sexuality. We have a greenhouse named sexuality in our factory.
based on one of the cordyceps functions. Yeah, so yeah, cordyceps is one of the functions that is well studied as well as it actually increases your sexual abilities, your more long lasting and so on and so forth. you know, it has multiple levels.
Janis (30:22.916)
Given that 80, I think 70 % of listeners are men or what when we checked in Spotify. So it's a perfect, perfect like you say no more.
Uldis (30:28.688)
you
Shroomwell (Silver & Siim) (30:29.363)
You
Ideals take way into that. Yes. It's like one product to take to a dinner date. So, and yeah, as we know, take industry long days. So here we go. But so this is kind of like that they're very complex in that sense, whereas like if we're talking about the vitamins and minerals, they're very usually very narrow pathways, what they do. And also you have to be very careful with vitamins and minerals because
Uldis (30:32.702)
Making notes, making notes.
Shroomwell (Silver & Siim) (31:00.466)
A lot of vitamins, minerals, you have the upper limit to work with. You have the lower limit, you have the upper limit. And you need to know kind of the both because if you go below the lower limit, it doesn't do the function in your body because it acts as a call factor for so many other things and those things will not start to work. And then there is upper limit. If you bypass that, you put yourself in some sort of danger, like something is not functioning properly.
And I've done both, like I've done the below the lower limit where like things are not working. And trust me, I've done the above the upper limit as well, where like you feel that, okay, like now it's spinning off and like I am not functioning properly, right? So you had to be very careful. And also if you really want to get the full spectrum of like, of your full health, like you need 30, 40 different supplements in your home. And like, you have to know what to take, when to take throughout the day and so on. Whereas mushrooms.
I'm not saying that they wave out the minerals and vitamins, but they also do include the minerals and vitamins in them. So, and they're way more complex in terms of like how you consume them and then you don't have that risk of like over consuming and stuff like that. So I would say they are in a different league of their own plus the factor that the bioavailability is much higher because the DNA fact that we shared in the beginning and
how it's much easier to consume them as well. So that's the main kind of a difference that I would say that people who are like, okay, I'm looking this one, two or three things to use or consume throughout the day, I would kind of support them to look towards mushrooms.
Uldis (32:44.404)
And there's no risk of becoming a zombie like in Last of Us, yes, if you consume too much mushrooms.
Janis (32:44.944)
Hmm.
Shroomwell (Silver & Siim) (32:48.23)
Actually, of us in this company has actually turned zombies yet. We are not zombies, but from scientific perspective, actually, the last of us type mushrooms have been found in the deserts that can transfer to humans. So it is a but the scientists say the possibility is really, really low. So the movie has its origins, let's say.
Janis (32:50.938)
That's it.
Uldis (33:05.534)
Hmm.
Uldis (33:13.374)
you
Uldis (33:17.534)
Not complete fiction.
Shroomwell (Silver & Siim) (33:19.164)
Yeah, that's for sure.
Janis (33:19.344)
Yeah, yeah, low probability, don't worry.
Uldis (33:24.468)
I think it's a perfect segue into saving the world, If we don't destroy it with zombies.
Janis (33:29.434)
Yeah.
Shroomwell (Silver & Siim) (33:32.446)
Yeah, we're going to have a product to fix this even if it happens. There's a mushroom for every problem.
Janis (33:32.58)
So,
Janis (33:36.814)
So step number one, how to save the world. Let's not destroy it. What are steps number two and three? So yeah, if we zoom out to the global things, what are some of the practical applications that you have discovered where like, you know.
Uldis (33:39.692)
you
Janis (33:51.966)
it can really have a revolutionary impact on our planet. We're facing so many problems from climate change to pollution with all sorts of things, right? Loss of biodiversity, you know, the list is so long, so yeah.
Uldis (34:06.538)
dictators.
Shroomwell (Silver & Siim) (34:08.202)
So, Janis, that's a really good question. So I think I would point out two projects that we are running. One is, Ulis mentioned chanterelles before, the yellow mushrooms that are really gourmet mushrooms. So we have a project running that is called chanterelle tree. So it's not the tree like a Christmas tree that where chanterelles are growing, but basically we have inoculated the seedling.
Uldis (34:31.07)
you
Shroomwell (Silver & Siim) (34:37.63)
the tree seedling roots with the chanterelle culture. And our partners have planted these outdoors in a forest where trees have been cut down. So a new forest is now growing already where it is expected to have a chanterelle growing under the trees around them. So it's like a natural way to grow mushrooms industrially. So this is like...
Nobody has ever done that before successfully and we're working with several universities to do that. And it's going to be huge. It's not going to stop with chanterelles. It's going to have different gourmet mushrooms and functional mushrooms there growing as well. But it's a really, really dramatic change. So whenever somebody is planting a tree in the world, they could implement the fungi with them. So the trees grow faster, get their nutrients faster.
and you get like a side benefit of having edible mushrooms growing around them as well. So it's from an environmental perspective, it's a huge. You have to look at the mushroom as an internet network. So if you break apart the soil, then you have the trees, you have the plants, you have the living organisms on top of the soil that are visible. And then underneath you have actually the mycelium, fungi network. The fungi network
plays a very important role. If you take that away, nothing on top would exist because the fungi connects the trees and the plants. This is how they talk to each other. This is how they transfer nutrients from one another. And also the mycelium breaks down the nutrients and then exchange that with the trees and the plants for them to survive. So they play a crucial role. So this chanterelle tree as well, well...
It's a gourmet mushroom and we're all happy because we're getting more mushrooms, but they play an extremely important role in that ecosystem. And some scientific discoveries say that the fungal network beneath the soil actually can absorb tens or hundreds times more carbon than the trees that are growing on top of the soil. So this is a dramatic perspective change for the whole industry.
Shroomwell (Silver & Siim) (37:00.498)
So, funky in the ground when the soil is healthy are the game changers. And chanterelle tree is the project name because everybody then understands that, but there are so huge, even larger side benefits to the chanterelles that we're getting from this perspective. And this can be implemented globally as well. So, there have been several projects in Asia and in Africa that they wanted to plant trees to desert.
but most of them died because there wasn't enough healthy bacteria and fungal life in the soil. So now it's changing. We are trying to help also them to understand that there should be something extra. Let me just rewind real quick back where this innovation side actually started. So we were selling our end consumer product, which was a Chaga elixir. That was the only product that we have back at the day, which is to support your immune system.
And it was very popular here in Estonia. I think it gained some popularity in Latvia and Lithuania at that time as well. And we realized that if we keep on growing in that rate, there is not enough chaga to go around in the forest because chaga actually grows on a live host tree. You can't duplicate that indoors. And we started to grow chaga. So we created a program to inoculate the trees to grow chaga in the forest.
But there was a side effect to that that we didn't counter in. And that side effect was the fact that the forest owners became interested in growing chaga because they didn't have to cut down their forest. So they had income, side income, compared to the 100 or 1000 year old industry, which was clear cutting the forest. Now there was win, win, win in that. We have a win because we can grow chaga. The forest owner has a win because they can earn money without cutting down the trees.
And the entire ecosystem has a win because now we're not cutting down the trees. So that was the first thing where we realized it was like, okay, we can change the industry and with that, we can actually change the ecosystem around it. So now we're building the same kind of projects around it and trying to figure out, so, okay, if there's a forest, what can we do in the forest? If there is a clear cut, how can we use the tree stumps to go in and maybe grow mushrooms and...
Shroomwell (Silver & Siim) (39:25.866)
support the ecosystem in there. So this is what we play around and try to figure out. So there always has to be a minimum three wins in every project.
Uldis (39:36.401)
That's a good KPI, minimum three wins. How scalable is this? Like how easy it is for you? Is it very local or is it somehow that you can have like, let's say, what is the scale of your impact today and what you expect it to be?
Shroomwell (Silver & Siim) (39:55.466)
So now we have implemented different growing models outdoor on approximately more than 700 hectares, which for growing perspective is quite quite okay. But our goal is to have in the next five years to have it increased up to 10 ,000 hectares. With the Chanterelle tree project and similars, it is scalable. So the application is intellectual property and solution as well.
how it is implemented. But in a medium term future, we see it implemented on millions of hectares around the world. what is the difference there is that we need to take the local cultures, multiply them and apply them in each environment. So we don't want to bring in foreign cultures so that ecology is disturbed.
But basically it is implementable on millions of vectors. And it is our goal and I think we are going for it. We're succeeding.
Janis (41:05.752)
Last but not least, always interesting business, scalable, huge demand, obvious benefits. In terms of funding such business, how do investors look at it? Do they understand it? Is there a lot of investors who are looking into it? you need to look into various funds? How you guys see growth in terms of financing in this field?
Shroomwell (Silver & Siim) (41:29.002)
So when we're talking about innovation side, it is OK. When we get the chanterelles, then it is like a private interest. But when it sequences carbon, then it is more like a public interest. So many of these projects that we are going forward with have a really large public interest behind them. And maybe the private investor in
interest is like more conservative, which means that it is logical that public, you know, gets behind it. So what we now are having is that some of our projects are also state funded or grant based. And we are trying to use as much public money for the projects that have real global or public interest in them, because
Private investors cannot really compete with public interest and they're not willing to fund also like at the really large scale. so it's like a tricky thing and mushrooms are quite the newcomers in the field. So we are trying to educate also the public sector representatives that fungi are here, have been here before us and they're going to be here after us.
Uldis (42:52.743)
you
Shroomwell (Silver & Siim) (42:54.194)
So we need to invest in this sector to have environmental benefits, carbon sequestrations and all these activities that help this planet to be in harmony. So public money is quite important. So like just to add to that, so obviously...
It's not the end consumer product that is sexy for the investors. So that's a very conventional business. Yes, we're doing it in a different way in terms of the quality and how like the sector itself and stuff like that. So, but by the end of the day, it's a very classical business. So what is gaining a lot of traction interest is actually the R &D side and the innovation that we do because that is new and that solves like every project we have on the table is
billion euro project of its own if it succeeds. So that is definitely something that gains attention and traction. But that said, since the industry is new, the mushrooms like shrooming is booming, there is a saying. So there is a lot of interest from the consumer as well. We are expanding in a very
Uldis (43:59.742)
You
Shroomwell (Silver & Siim) (44:07.146)
rapid rate, fast rate entering to states right now. We're all over Europe selling our products. have exporting our products to like 20 countries at the moment. So that is something that's interesting for investors as well, because they want to be part of that growth. They want to dip into that and be like, okay, so like this is almost once in a lifetime opportunity for them as well. So putting those two things together, like we have
brought in investors into our company to fuel the growth, to fuel the mushroom growth facility, building the mushroom growth facility, stuff like that. So we've been doing that and we keep on doing that because it's a very capital heavy sector, the R &D itself.
Janis (44:57.419)
Thank you guys. This was like a really interesting insight in the sphere field world of mushrooms. You have me convinced in a few things that I will now order. No, it's really interesting.
Uldis (45:09.906)
I'm already on the shop of your website.
Shroomwell (Silver & Siim) (45:13.866)
So on that note, also I would love to offer the listeners our gratitude. So, and we have created a code as well, which is POS 20. So short from pursuit of happiness. So POS 20 will give 20 % off to the listeners all over Europe. So we ship Europe wide, they get 20 % off.
Janis (45:23.099)
awesome.
Shroomwell (Silver & Siim) (45:37.81)
And I also urge the customers, potential customers, everybody who are listening, if they have questions, feel free to contact us. Like we're here to educate. We are the pioneers, which is the difficult job, the difficult work, but we are willing to do that. I will personally be in contact with every customer who writes us.
Uldis (46:01.334)
What's the channel the best to reach out to you?
Janis (46:01.525)
That is so super.
Shroomwell (Silver & Siim) (46:04.062)
So there are two ways. One is just to email us. The email is available on our website or if you're on our e -commerce, there's always also a chat box you can write into there and then we'll answer in days.
Uldis (46:15.072)
Hmm.
Uldis (46:19.432)
Okay, perfect. Awesome, awesome guys.
Janis (46:21.409)
tremendous. So POS20, go to Shroomwell and yeah, we see you next week when you are going to be more productive because you have used a lot of Shrooms. no, like this is, Shrooming is booming. Thank you guys. Bye.
Uldis (46:34.164)
Roaming is booming.
Shroomwell (Silver & Siim) (46:37.738)
Okay, thank you so much guys. Thank you.
Please note that the transcript text is AI-generated. We apologize for any potential errors or inaccuracies. Thank you for your understanding.
