Back to the Roots

In 2009, Nikhil Arora and Alejandro Velez were students at the University of California, Berkeley, and were set up to go their separate ways after graduation that spring. Their plans drastically changed when they heard a fascinating lecture regarding the growth of mushrooms in recycled coffee grounds. Although this would have meant nothing to the average student, these two men took this idea and ran with it. Their idea began to take shape in there fraternity house using 10 paint buckets and some used coffee grounds with mushroom spawn. In just a few days, they saw the fruits of their work, the first crop.

Using jsut $5,000 from a business plan competition, Arora and Velez purchased a small warehouse and began “Back to the Roots,” that year. Although it didnt seem like much, this money, they claimed, was like giving them “a million dollars.” After selling their first products to fresh markets, they expanded their business into the manufacturing of “do it yourself” mushroom growing kits.

Now an international business, Back to the Roots distributes their mushroom kits to 2,500 retailers across the globe. Annually, their company recycles around 3 million pounds of coffee grounds, keeping them out of landfills. They used this statistic to prompt large companies to use their product in order to promote an environmentally friendly advertisement. Their business continues to grow today, with about 5 million dollars of profit last year, and an expected increase in profit this year. When asked about their company, Arora said “We’re all growing together. We really want to build a lifetime, generational brand.” It’s interesting that Arora and Velez were able to use an idea from a single lecture they heard as college seniors, and turn it into a “lifetime, generational brand.”