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S TA R T U P S Growing mushrooms — and growing a business Maine Cap N' Stem is model for startup growth B y A n n F i s h e r P H O T O / M I C H A E L D. W I L S O N M A R C H 6 , 2 0 2 3 26 VO L . X X I X N O. V § 2 F O C U S M aine Cap N' Stem Mush- room Co. started under what co-founder Erik Lomen calls "funny circumstances." It all began when Lomen and his wife were working and traveling from mushroom farm to mushroom farm in the U.S. in a "kind of a fake-it-till- you-make-it kind of thing," he says with a laugh — and a couple asked them to help start a fungi operation in Arizona. "We built out the entire operation and left them with a fully function- ing farm," Lomen recalls. Lomen and his wife then made their way back to Maine and got in touch with Christopher Camp- bell about starting a formal venture. Campbell was a friend and fellow for- ager who was working at Space Gal- lery in Portland at the time. e last sentence may seem ran- dom, but it's not: e company got its start in a small upstairs lab and the downstairs boiler room at the popu- lar Portland arts venue. "We were all foraging for mush- rooms back then," Lomen says. "We didn't realize how different product is at scale." "Twenty pounds here or 10 pounds there of wild chanterelles or hen-of- the-woods is much different than the cultivation and distribution of 500 pounds of shiitake, king oyster and chestnut mushrooms per week to Port- land restaurants," says Lomen. "It was no longer collecting mush- rooms while venturing into the woods. It was large equipment builds, spe- cialized fruiting room build-outs and everything else that comes with the equipment-heavy side of spore-to- store mushroom production," he adds. At the beginning, Cap 'N Stem sold both foraged wild mushrooms and cultured product they purchased from others. Erik Lomen, founder of Maine Cap N' Stem, a Gardiner-based business that grows substrates and other supplies for mushroom farms nationwide. It's a weird wave and we seem to be riding it. — Erik Lomen Cap N' Stem Maine Cap N' Stem capnstem.com / Gardiner Founded: 2014 Founders: Erik Lomen and Christopher Campbell What it does: Works with farms across the country to supply ready-to-fruit substrate Funding: Maine Technology Institute, Coastal Enterprises Inc.