Hello Mycopreneurs,

Today we’re delighted to present ‘The Fungi Consultant’ as our featured host and programming curator for the Mycopreneur Incubator.

Oli Gen-Bash is an internationally renowned fungi educator and community organizer who is the founder of UK Psychedelic Comedy and more recently The Fungi Consultant, a platform dedicated to bridging traditional fungi wisdom with modern science.

Last week’s Mycopreneur Newsletter featured an exclusive article from Oli titled “What’s Really In Your Functional Mushrooms?” which today’s Incubator will be an extension of in regards to programming. If you didn’t catch it, it’s well worth a read and will help clarify and orientate you in regards to the rapidly expanding and often confusing functional mushroom space. Here’s an excerpt:

“From lion’s mane being touted as the answer to boosting your cognitive function, to reishi having potential benefits for sleep and relaxation, cordyceps assisting us with exercise and endurance, or chaga and turkey tail supporting our immune system, these mushrooms have captured the wellness market and they’re certainly having a moment.

But as demand grows and the range of brands increases, do consumers actually know what they’re buying? Understanding the science behind these supplements - and more importantly, learning to decode their labels - is crucial for both producers and consumers navigating this rapidly expanding market.”

Oli is also one of the foremost advocates for psilocybin mushrooms in the UK and is extremely knowledgeable about UK mushroom culture and local wild psilocybes such as the iconic ‘Liberty Cap’ , the Psilocybe semilanceata. This mushroom is one of the most widely distributed and potent psychoactive mushrooms found in nature, and it’s powerful effects have been documented as far back as 1799 with traditional use likely dating back much further.

Topic: Functional Mushroom Deep Dive with The Fungi Consultant

Time: TODAY, 3 PM ET US, 12 PM PT US, 8 PM UK Time

https://us06web.zoom.us/j/84955120241?pwd=h34eiyaPDZJLGaYZoTmNyIaoqmAjXH.1

Meeting ID: 849 5512 0241 Passcode: 158325

Today’s Mycopreneur Newsletter is brought to you by PsiloSafe, a third-party labeling integrity and product verification service providing watchdog services for the underground mushroom product landscape in the United States. Stay tuned for an upcoming Mycopreneur Incubator hosted by the PsiloSafe Founder.

I’m still in Uganda after the Third Annual African Rising Mushroom Festival and have a lot of insights to offer regarding my experience here, the many African mushroom entrepreneurs I met, opportunities and challenges in the region, and wild mushroom discoveries, but that content is still forthcoming. The internet here is often unreliable or non-existent, and even power sources for charging phones and computers have been surprisingly difficult to come by as of late.

The staggering beauty of the landscapes, the people, the culture, and the mushroom magic here continue to confound and inspire me at every turn - but the severe soecioeconomic issues, abject poverty, environmental challenges and lack of basic infrastructure exist on a scale that I’ve never witnessed before despite decades of international travel. For reference, I’m talking about no running water in many places (people go to a well), holes in the ground for communal toilets, no electricity or very weak current not even capable of charging a phone, phone and internet service dead spots everywhere, and general lack of many of the goods and services that many of us take for granted and even complain about when they’re not up to our highest standards. Now stack on top of this the fact that the average per capita income of people in the region is $986 per year as of 2024. That means the average person in Uganda is earning under $3 a day. In some of the regions I’ve been traveling through lately, it surely appears as though many people are earning $0 a day and living hand to mouth with subsistence farming and assistance from international aid organizations

The potential for mushroom innovation to address many of the most critical needs of both the people and the environment in the region are obvious and already in play across many active projects, but the scale of need and the logistical challenges of effectively implementing and supporting mushroom entrepreneurship in the region present formidable barriers. I haven’t had reliable internet in what feels like two weeks, much less the bandwidth to organize my findings in a coherent and meaningful manner, but there is much hope and ample evidence of success on this front that I’m working to showcase in a compelling and well-documented manner.

One such example is the Rwamwanja Rural Foundation based in East Uganda. Thus foundation is founded by a Congolese refugee named Bemeriki Bisimwa Dusabe who has been in Uganda for 19 years and learned how to grow mushrooms and create mushroom products like Oyster mushroom coffee, mushroom wine and ‘Mushroom Jelly’ skin cream. This organization teaches refugees in the region how to be self-sufficient through learning the craft of mushroom cultivation and mycopreneurship, enabling them to foster economic opportunity and food security in the most adverse of circumstances. I interviewed Bemeriki and learned that with the recent halting of USAID operations in the region - an agency whose fingerprints are everywhere across Uganda and East Africa - mushroom entrepreneurship has filled a much needed void in regards to supporting abjectly impoverished and disaster-affected communities such as the refugees of Uganda.

The Future Is Fungi Award presented their second annual crop of awardees last week. This project solicits mushroom innovators from around the world to submit their projects for substantial cash investment and resource allocation opportunities, and there are some familiar names in the mix for this years winners. Hiro Diapers actually sent my son a bunch of their mycelium diapers a few months ago and I even brought some to Uganda with me to showcase as an example of an outside the box project that mushroom innovators are producing.

The winners of the 2025 Future is Fungi Award are michroma (1st place), Mycolever (2nd place), and HIRO Technologies (3rd place). michroma uses fungi to create natural food colors and flavors, Mycolever develops fungal formulations for personal care and cosmetics, and HIRO Technologies creates plastic-eating fungi for myco-digsetible diapers. 

Check out the winners and the Future Is Fungi Award here

Before we sign off today, check out the Black Friday sale from our partners at Real Mushrooms - and come to today’s Mycopreneur Incubator to learn more about the tradition and science behind functional mushrooms.

Thanks for reading the Mycopreneur Newsletter, and see you at today’s Incubator.

DW