Reflecting on Our Journey
As we approach the end of the year, I’m excited to reflect on MycoLogic’s journey and the strides we’ve made. When we incorporated at the end of 2021, we were operating solely out of a mycology lab at Kennesaw State University, under two Georgia Department of Agriculture grants. Our focus was optimizing mushroom growth substrate formulations, the materials mushrooms grow on, and developing control systems for maintaining an optimal mushroom fruiting environment. My time was split between developing software, building control panels, and fabricating mushroom fruiting chambers from 40-foot refrigerated shipping containers (which were subsequently provided to our collaborator mushroom farmers for pilot studies in our grant).
At the time, our 1st generation fruiting module had been operating for 3 years, supporting several master student theses. And while the 2nd generation fruiting modules were still rolling off the line, I was already working on designing and testing the 3rd generation software, control panel, and hardware, which would become our first product offering in 2024. As we reflect on our achievements, it’s essential to understand the evolving landscape of a startup business.
Challenges and Changes
While we made significant progress, we also faced unexpected challenges that tested our resilience and adaptability. We saw our previous CEO, who we brought on the year prior, lead the company to significant achievements in bringing our product closer to launch and winning the Grow-NY pitch competition, before I stepped into the CEO role. The move from in-house fabrication to 3rd party manufacturing was a big but necessary change, though it was not without its challenges. Setbacks and delays pushed our product launch, which I’ve learned is a common story.
Having built a strong foundation, we are now focused on expanding our product offerings to include variations of our Fruiting Module to be more conducive to larger scale farms as well as developing a substrate processing facility, which we’re excited to unveil soon.
Looking Ahead
With taking a look back on our progress, I also wanted to take another look at the specialty mushroom market and see where it’s been going since we started our journey several years ago… Read What’s Special About the Mushroom Market?
We’re enthusiastic about the innovations and opportunities on the horizon and look forward to sharing more updates with you soon. If you’re interested in joining us on this journey or want to learn how our solutions can benefit your mushroom farming, please reach out!
Kyle Gabriel
CEO & Co-Founder