Zach Dorsett launched Wonderbags in November 2022, immediately following the passage of Colorado’s Natural Medicine Health Act. He spent the first year experimenting and perfecting a mycelium substrate that could be pre-colonized in grow bags and sent successfully through the mail, and has since built a growing and profitable customer base.
Dorsett recent explained how he got the idea for the company, the legal issues that had to be overcome, and the results and feedback he’s getting from customers.
What inspired you to start a mushroom grow-kit business?
I’ve worked in the health and fitness industry for most of my career. About 6 years ago, I started a company in hemp and cannabis doing product-development manufacturing. Then I had a life-changing experience with psychedelic medicine, and saw for myself its huge potential for healing. So when Denver decriminalized psilocybin mushrooms, I wanted to get involved somehow. I had friends working in the space, and started looking for ways to add value. Initially, I thought I would just start cultivating mushrooms myself.
I ordered a bunch of DIY grow kits that you inoculate yourself with spores at home. I was very excited about it, but had a really hard time getting success. Then I learned that most of these kinds of kits have an 80% failure rate. So I was talking to a friend who grows culinary mushrooms for Whole Foods and different restaurant groups, and he explained how he pre-colonizes his bags and then mails them to clients. All the customer has to do is maybe give it some moisture or fresh air, but most of the time just leave it on a counter and let the mycelium do its thing. I thought, “Why isn’t anybody doing this with other types of mushrooms?”
And of course, the first thing you come up against are the federal laws that regulate these types of products. There’s obviously the Controlled Substances Act, which forbids producing any Schedule 1 substance. With psilocybin, only the mushrooms themselves are illegal, not the spores or mycelium. But then there’s the Rider Act, which basically classifies anything that’s sold for the purpose of producing a Schedule 1 substance as “drug paraphernalia” and also illegal.
And how did you navigate that?
I had some talks with my attorney about ways we could sell pre-colonized bags and still stay in compliance with federal laws. We decided essentially to offer a research-only product. And that’s how we market it. The only true, intended purpose of our kits, the only authorized purpose, is to look at them under a microscope and observe the mycelium and its structure.
To make sure we’re in compliance with the Controlled Substance Act, we compliance test our kits with a third party to ensure that they don’t contain any detectable psilocybin. Then we ship them to the customer, and whatever the customer does with their kit after that is their own business. We don’t authorize or encourage people to use them for cultivation. We really abide by those two rules.
I’m a big believer in microscopic research of mycelium. And our product, pre-colonized mycelium within a transparent bag, has legitimate advantages over other grow kits. So people who buy from us have an easier method of studying these life forms.
What’s the failure rate of pre-colonized bags?
Based on feedback we get from customers, our bags succeed over 95% of the time. That’s with our current substrate of coco coir, which is super, super clean. We only use OMRI-rated ingredients (Organic Materials Review Institute), which includes the minerals, vermiculite, activated charcoal, etc.
But it took us quite a long time to get there. We experimented with a lot of different substrates in our early days, and last year tried a food-grade manure-based substrate, which was a real challenging process. We saw pretty big drop in performance into like the low 80% range. But even our worst batches were still significantly outperforming the other types of injectable grow kits. There’s just a major advantage to having a fully colonized kit. They’re much more resilient.
That said, we do have a blanket 100% satisfaction guarantees which basically means that if someone’s not happy with our product for any reason whatsoever we are always willing to offer you know a replacement or refund.
How many flushes do the kits typically produce?
We always tell customers two to three flushes, and that’s what we base our yield expectations on. It’s definitely possible to get many more. One customer saw a record nine flushes out of one kit, which is unbelievable. But he lives in a great area for mushrooms, is very detail-oriented and super passionate about the medicine. In fact, he and I talk all the time, sharing tips and feedback and things he’s learned. I love those types of interactions. They enable us to be more successful with the work we’re doing.
And what’s the average yield in terms of weight?
The yields can vary pretty dramatically between varieties and fruiting environments. Some of our lowest-yielding varieties might produce around 200-300 grams wet, which is 20-30 grams dry. And then some of our really high-yielding varieties can do as much as like 60 to 70 dry from just the first flush. It’s definitely impressive when you compare to average yields of grow kits where the customer has to inoculate the bag. I would say from a performance standpoint, we are in the top class of our product category.
You sell a range of both culinary/gourmet and Cubensis mycelium. I saw on your site that customers who buy Cubensis can request specific strains. What are the most popular ones?
There are five that really come up most. But the No. 1 gets requested more than 50% of the time. It’s Golden Teacher. It’s the most well-known, it’s pretty middle-of-the-road for yields, but it’s very mild in potency, which is appealing for many people. Penis Envy is definitely the second most popular, and is on the other side of coin: high yields and high potency.
You’ve been in market for about a year and a half. How’s business going? Are you profitable?
We bring in more each month than we spend, so in that respect, yes, we’re profitable. But we’re putting everything back into growth and reinvestment. We also don’t pay anyone on the team less than $25 an hour, which is important to me because that’s where the real livable wage starts. We also do things in the community that support the values we have as a company. But I don’t pay myself a salary currently, I get my income from other work. I do this because I’m very excited about it and passionate about this field. Selling mycology supplies is not a huge industry, it’s a pretty small niche. But for me, working in it is very, very enjoyable.
