Sartaj Singh
For the majority, mushrooms and the craft behind growing them have been an esoteric mystery, with the secrets seemingly hidden under a damp wooden log in a mossy forest. However, Terrashroom and its founder, Jared Steele, aim to give people an incredibly easy, grime-free solution to growing mushrooms at home. Their wonder product is a smart, computer-powered mushroom grow chamber that does all the work. All one needs to do is place their mushroom cake inside, adjust the settings, pour some water, and a healthy harvest of fungi will be ready within a week. Steele appeared on ABC’s ‘Shark Tank’ season 16, episode 4, inciting curiosity from the panel of investors and earning appreciation for his invention.
Terrashroom: Who Are They and What Do They Do?
Terrashroom was established by Jared Steele as its sole founder and CEO in May 2022. Hailing from a non-technical background with a focus on marketing, business management, and entrepreneurship, Steele had already attempted to make an electronic invention before founding Terrashroom. He started the company Pombox in 2019, receiving a $28,000 federal funding grant to create a timed smartphone lock box that would help with digital minimization and deep work by reducing phone time. Without a product or technical co-founder, he was badly burnt out after two years of managing all functions of the business by himself and decided to wrap up operations.
Steele worked for a couple of years in sales and business development before taking on the project of creating a mushroom growing chamber. The idea originated from his passion for mycology and his experiments with interior decor and incense. He built the first prototype in his apartment, teaching himself CAD and using 3D printers. When he felt that he had an entrepreneurial venture on his hands, Steele ran a Facebook advertising campaign to gauge the interest in his concept product. He received thousands of customers who paid him despite the final product being years away from completion. With a healthy infusion of funds from an angel investor, Steele began the next stage of product development, now with a focus on mass manufacturing, given the massive demand.
However, by early 2023, the product hadn’t made much progress, and the core electrical system suffered frequent malfunctions. Steele had already spent $80,000 on technical expertise working with a product development agency, and he was on the verge of giving up. He posted a job for an electrical engineer online as a Hail Mary, which was answered by James Elliott, a freshly graduated electrical engineer. Elliott recognized Steele’s drive and stepped on board as the head of product. The former then built a new prototype in three days, carrying out basic firmware programming and redoing the electrical wiring. Steele credits Elliott with saving the business and 18 months of his time, effort, and investments.
With the foundation ready, their growing team focused on customer appeal and finishing through industrial design, graphic design, customer support, and mechanical engineering. Still, significant and unforeseen challenges remained on their path. Terrashroom outsourced its mass production to China, but COVID-19 restrictions delayed the setup of its manufacturing process. They faced problems with Meta platforms and had to recreate accounts, losing a part of their following. Terrashroom launched a crowdfunding campaign in March 2024 and raised a total of $135K.
The market-ready Terrashroom model of the Austin-based company can grow a variety of mushrooms with its smart system, which can be connected to one’s phone to input commands or check status. The transparent cover over the mushroom is a polycarbonate dome, which is very light yet resistant to damage. An attached time-lapse camera captures the entire lifecycle of the growing fungi. Customers can buy pre-inoculated mushroom cakes with blue oysters, lion’s mane, reishi, pink oysters, or shiitake mushrooms. They can also grow their own cultures and feed the relevant data into the system, which will then create the ideal conditions for the variety being grown.
Terrashroom: Where Are They Now?
In October 2024, Terrashroom started mass-producing in China and has more than 6,500 pre-orders to fulfill. Their first mass-produced batch, containing 130 units, will arrive in their Austin warehouse on November 13, 2024. The second batch, with 1040 units, will arrive on December 15, 2024. Orders for the Terrashroom can be made on their website, but there is a long waitlist at the time of writing. A single mushroom growing chamber can be ordered for $499, with a launch discount bringing the price down to $399. It also comes with one free ready-to-grow mushroom cake. An add-on of a HEPA Filter Pack for TS-01 (2 Pack) can be purchased for $24.99.
The team is also working on a new website buildout, and Jared Steele personally keeps customers in the loop with a weekly update video on their website or YouTube channel. The company has also promised to remain open source with its technology, allowing access to its source code, CAD models, and detailed assembly instructions to let anyone build their own chamber at home and truly democratize mushroom growing. With its first finalized version of the product ready and mass production underway, the team can now focus more on marketing and customer satisfaction.
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