Have you tried a magic mushroom vape?

I did once in 2021 in a Las Vegas hotel suite. It was a former NASA engineer who had designed the product himself. Or maybe he was lying to me and it was just a random guy from Fremont Street, but it was a baller corner suite with a commanding view and a bunch of well dressed people inside - we’ll never know at this point, but one thing I can say for sure is there are no ‘mushrooms’ in a “magic mushroom vape”

Let’s check out the copy from one of the largest sellers of ‘mushroom vapes’ -

_{“With their mind-melting, fruit-flavored formulas, these disposable vapes offer fast-acting effects that are perfect for microdosing the triptastic feels of shrooms”}

Notice the ‘triptastic feels of shrooms’ part - and the fact that heat will destroy the active compounds in actual psilocybin-containing mushrooms - and what you actually have is an ‘NPS’ compound, or a ‘New Psychedelic Substance’. This category includes a broad range of novel tryptamines - there thousands, if not millions of possible molecular combinations that can produce ‘similar effects’ to the psilocybin molecule, which even in it’s organic form is but one isolated component of the complex synergistic equation of compounds that make up a ‘magic mushroom’.

Apparently ‘Psilocybin Vapes’ are very popular with young, unmarried male adults in Malaysia.

To cut right to the chase: Magic mushroom / Psilocybin vapes don’t actually have mushrooms of any kind in them, and there’s no research or data on long-term effects from using them. I’m not saying I’d never hit one again if the time and place were right, but I’d strongly advise against using this type of product. As a cognitive libertarian, I believe it’s fundamentally your right to vape as many research chemicals as you want. Just be aware that that’s what you’re doing.

Have you listened to the latest episode of Mycopreneur Podcast?

This is a wild one - the interview is with the founder of Minnesota Nice Ethnobotanicals - The largest bulk importer of Amanita muscaria mushrooms in the U.S. ; They offer a ton of other products as well, such as Blue Lotus Flower, Shilajit, and Kanna.

A week after we scheduled this podcast, and just days before recording, the FDA issued a warning letter to companies selling Amanita muscaria and associated products saying that this mushroom and it’s isolated extracts ‘are not fit for human consumption’

This is what the podcast is all about: Deep dives with founders in the mushroom space who outline on the ground strategies for dealing with the challenges and opportunities of mushroom entrepreneurism.

And for the record…yes you can still get Amanita muscaria from them. Do your due diligence and check out their website, blog, and the podcast as well as other sources of information beyond what I’m stating here - as you should do before blindly buying any kind of mushroom or mushroom product from anyone.

Alright, let’s dive into the 25 Mushroom Companies to Watch in 2025 Part 2

This list is being released 5 companies at a time, and today we’re covering companies 6-10.

6.  Entheome Foundation

   Entheogen Genome Foundation is home of the mushroom genome project, which is an open source genetic database of psychedelic fungi that is tracing the lineage of different psilocybe species (as well as other plants and fungi) around the world.

They’ve published their work in peer-reviewed journals and have made multiple trips to Mexico to DNA barcaode and sequence the genome of various mushroom species in collaboration with local mycologists in the areas they visit.

Two of the lead researchers for Entheome Foundation - Ian Bollinger and Christopher Pauli - are both regular attendees of the weekly Mycopreneur Incubator.

7. MycoSphere

Mycosphere is a mycelium materials company based in Dubai which caught my attention this year for their contributions to the ReRoot emergency housing & 'Mushroom Houses For Gaza project showcased at Dubai Design Week. They are one of the few mushroom startups homegrown in the United Arab Emirates, and have caught international attention for good reason with this innovative and bold use of mushrooms to address a humanitarian crisis.

8. Full Canopy Genetics

Next up we have Full Canopy Genetics, one of the leading mushroom genetics and consultancy ventures in North America who scooped up several of the top awards at the Colorado Psychedelic Cup I hosted in November 2024. They’ve got multiple international connections to heavy hitters in the global mushroom business ecosystem and are widely respected in the mushroom genetics and entrepreneurial game, and to top it off they’re some of the nicest people you’ll ever meet.

9. Nuvedo®

Nuvedo is the leading mushroom startup in India and they had a monster year in 2024 with an appearance on Shark Tank India, as well as numerous other breakthroughs in the mycopreneurial ecosystem in India. They were featured in such mainstream publications as Conde Nast, clocked 10 million views on one of the podcasts they were on, and hosted their second annual Shroom Sabha mushroom festival - the first mushroom festival in India - among many other notable accomplishments.

10. MycoFutures

MycoFutures is a mycelium materials company based in Canada that is scaling the future of sustainable design and the circular economy. They currently have a preorder for 3,000 mushroom leather ‘travel bags’, and have managed to finesse the pricing per unit down to a ridiculously affordable $99 - for this type of breakthrough design product with sustainability and innovation at tis core, that’s an incredible offer.

Here’s a link to the preorder page for the bags:

Here’s a video breakdown of 25 Mushroom Companies to Watch in 2025 (Part 2) covering these companies - definitely worth a watch, if only to see Ian Bollinger of Entheome Foundation breakdown the fungal genome sequence of a psilocybe species:

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Alright, here’s the invitation to today’s Mycopreneur Incubator 😀 

Mycopreneur Incubator - A low-key, cost-free mentorship and networking event for mushroom entrepreneurs, researchers, activists, and enthusiasts. We hold this incubator weekly and you never know who will drop in, what you’ll learn, or where the group energy will take us. We’ve had hundreds, if not 1000 + mushroom entrepreneurs from dozens of countries join since we kicked off the incubator in June of 2023.

Time: Jan 23, 2025 04:00 PM East Coast U.S. / 1 PM West Coast U.S.

https://us06web.zoom.us/j/82693549167?pwd=ohZ2ZhLKpS7cY5SVCLPfmaEIaobPe9.1

Meeting ID: 826 9354 9167 Passcode: 474214

Please consider making a financial contribution in the amount of your choice to

Venmo: @mycopreneur

PayPal: [email protected]

To be clear, I haven’t received $1 in contributions for the incubator since November 20th, and the one donation before that came in September 3rd - interestingly, both contributors have never attended an incubator. They totaled $37 between them.

In lieu of any crowdsourced contributions for this service, I want to extend a sincere thank you to this week’s Incubator sponsor Full Send OrgaNicks. This company is one of the most reputable and innovative vendors of mushroom research supplies that’s currently on the market, and they are constantly adapting, innovating, and helping cultivate the mushroom entrepreneurial ecosystem. Check out their website below and snag some mycology supplies, then follow them on social media: @fullsendfungi on X, @fullsendorganicks101 on IG.

Hit up the Full Send OrgaNicks website below, and tell ‘em I sent ya.

If you’re interested in sponsoring a future incubator, please reply to this email. At this time, I’m primarily interested in financial sponsorship rather than product trade, but shoot your shot if you have something that might contribute to helping sustain the Mycopreneur platform (for example, I don’t have a Flow hood…)

Thanks for checking out the Mycopreneur Newsletter, and remember to check out the podcast - a new Mycopreneur Podcast comes out every Friday, and this week’s episode is with the founders of mushroom materials startup MycoFutures, one of our 25 Mushroom Companies to Watch in 2025

Spoiler: They share the behind the scenes story of how they narrowly avoided entering an oversaturated area of the mycopreneurial space, and pivoted to another area instead - and almost immediately after doing so, how they secured $100,000 in investment.

Cheers,

Dennis