We were lucky to catch up with Jose Aguirre recently and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Jose thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’d love to hear from you about what you think Corporate America gets wrong in your industry and why it matters.

The mushroom industry has been getting a lot of attention lately, which is a good thing, but when corporate investors get involved, there’s a tendency to prioritize profits over other things like the community and the environment. Of course, a business exists to make money, but when we fixate on things like market share & ROI, we also create the conditions that may reward or incentivize shortsighted thinking.

This doesn’t just happen in our industry, but seeing it from the perspective of a small mushroom cultivator, there are many examples of ways that a business may try to cut costs or even cut corners. For example, a mushroom company may decide to use a cheaper type of substrate or they may outsource their cultivation entirely if it makes them more competitive. But these decisions usually come with a trade-off, and we don’t think about what is lost as much because we don’t have a good way to assign value to these things.

So just to be clear, not saying there’s anything wrong with making a profit or expecting a return on your investment, but all too often these corporate interests are not aligned with the interests of the local community, and as a result, many of the intended benefits (such as food security, soil health, jobs & economic activity) do not fully materialize.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

Ramiro Villarreal was working in the oil industry back in 2017. The pay was decent, but he had to spend a lot of time away from home (and his young son), and at the end of the day he was working for an industry that is pretty harmful for the environment. Then his work contract was abruptly terminated, and he found himself at a crossroads: he could either find similar work and return to the oil fields, or he could do something entirely different. He decided he would learn to cultivate mushrooms. He got the idea from a friend who’s a chef & owns a restaurant, as he would often complain about how hard it is to get good quality mushrooms in our area. He was currently buying them and shipping them here from out of state, and by the time they arrived, the freshness and the quality of these delicate gourmet mushrooms was gone (fresh mushrooms do not really ship well).

So after reading some books and watching a few online videos, he began a small operation in his garage, selling gourmet mushrooms to local restaurants and farmer’s markets. Originally called The Mushroom Source, things were going well, but eventually he realized he would need some help. And he found his business partners after a few conversations with good friends José and Andres Aguirre (brothers) who had seen the operation and were interested in participating. The three share a passion for working with mushrooms and learning more about the fungi kingdom, and they have pretty different skill sets and temperaments, so it’s a solid team! The business re-branded as One Up Mushroom Products in 2020 and expanded the range of operations to include new products and other mushroom varieties. Soon after, we moved into the current location in downtown Mission TX. Ramiro is in charge of operations, while Andres leads the marketing efforts, and Jose does the finance/administrative stuff.

Today, our products are available for sale online from our website and also at a number of retail shops throughout South & Central Texas. Our most popular products are the mushroom jerky and the dual-extract mushroom tinctures, but we’re always experimenting and coming up with new stuff!

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

It was early 2020: José, Andres, & Ramiro had just created their LLC and had officially become business partners. We were in the process of setting up our new grow operation, and the plan was to start by selling fresh mushrooms (for cooking) to local restaurants and farmer’s markets – let’s call this phase 1 of the project.

Just then, the pandemic began and everything went into lockdown. With the restaurants and the markets closed, our only sources of revenue had suddenly vanished, and there was a lot of uncertainty about when things would return to normal. So we had to step back and assess the situation, and we realized that we had to change our strategic plans for the business.

We were aware of the medicinal properties of mushrooms and their benefits for the immune system, and we had always intended to work with these mushrooms to make extracts, but this was seen as phase 2 – something we would eventually do, after the sales from the fresh mushrooms had grown enough to support the operation.

So we basically pivoted from phase 1 straight into phase 2, and put all the focus into the development of our dual-extract mushroom tinctures. These products could be sold online and shipped anywhere, so they didn’t have the same constraints as the fresh mushrooms and it really helped us to keep things moving during that difficult year.

What’s worked well for you in terms of a source for new clients?

For us, the farmer’s markets have always been the best source of new clients. Our fresh mushrooms usually get a lot of attention because they’re pretty striking, visually. Many people stop out of curiosity to take pictures or ask questions, and having the opportunity to talk to them directly is a great way to meet our customers and tell them about our products.

We get a lot of great questions and we’re able to discuss in detail the properties of each mushroom variety, and the benefits of the mushroom extracts. So it’s a great way to connect with the community and build trust, and it generates word-of-mouth recommendations. The downside to this is that attending farmer’s markets can be time-consuming and is difficult to scale outside of our local area.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.oneupmushroomproducts.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/oneupmushroomproducts/