Meet Mark Roell

 

Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Mark Roell. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Mark, thanks so much for taking the time to share your insights and lessons with us today. We’re particularly interested in hearing about how you became such a resilient person. Where do you get your resilience from?

I think my resilience comes from my passion for what I do and the challenges that come with running a mushroom farm. Mushrooms teach you the importance of working with nature rather than against it. Every contaminated block or over production is a lesson in resilience—sometimes things don’t go as planned, but you learn and keep moving forward. Also, the support from the community, customers, and local chefs who believe in Sunshine Fungi keeps me motivated. Seeing people enjoy and appreciate what we grow reminds us why we started this journey in the first place.

Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?

At Sunshine Fungi we cultivate mushrooms and produce mushroom products. I think what makes us special is that we are completely vertically integrated as a business. We do 100% of the cultivation process in-house. From culture work in the laboratory, all the way up to fresh mushrooms and beyond. We even partner with a local compost company that makes mushroom compost with our spent substrate. This allows Sunshine Fungi to produce extremely high quality products to bring to our local community at a truly affordable price.

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?

I think determination is a quality that any small business owner or entrepreneur has to have to be successful. There will always be bumps and bruises on the path to success and without determination it can be very easy to give up and lose sight of the dream.

Areas of knowledge that have been impactful on my journey would have to come from my degree in Microbiology. Some parts of the mushroom cultivation process require sterile technique and proper lab procedure to be successful on a consistent basis. I think that a prior knowledge and experience of how to operate and maintain a clean lab has saved us from a lot of problems that new mushroom farms face.

Okay, so before we go, is there anyone you’d like to shoutout for the role they’ve played in helping you develop the essential skills or overcome challenges along the way?

Our Friends and Families are what motivate us! We wouldn’t be Sunshine Fungi without them. Helping us with truck loads or handfuls our friends and family have been there at a drop of a hat for us. Their support and belief in our company and our dreams for the future keep us going everyday!

Contact Info:

Image Credits

Audrey Bennett – Seemly & Spruce Co.
Tori Glucker – Sunshine Fungi

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