This week’s Psychedelic Groundbreaker is Silo Wellness . Silo Wellness is a growth-oriented holding company focused on functional mushroom and psychedelic opportunities that benefit from a unified ecosystem and exceptional leadership. Silo Wellness offers a diverse and growing portfolio of functional mushroom products, psychedelic wellness retreats in Jamaica and Oregon, cultivation of psychedelic mushrooms and truffles in Jamaica, development of a brick-and-mortar smart shop in Jamaica, and intellectual property, focused initially on the commercialization of its metered-dosing psilocybin nasal spray.
What’s this article series about? Psychedelic Groundbreakers is a get-to-know-you-style blog series highlighting prominent and groundbreaking companies in the psychedelics industry.
What’s your company vision?
Our vision is to make psychedelics available today, wherever possible, to help people reduce trauma and enhance performance. We do this by bridging modern science with Indigenous traditions to remove barriers to access psychedelics and make them easier to administer and ingest.
We’re passionate about exploring ways in which we can help people more safely and effectively access psychedelic treatments. We believe in the wide range of psychedelics and their powerful ability to impact mental health and presently work with psilocybin, ketamine and 5-MeO-DMT in our wellness retreats.
Why was your company started?
Silo Wellness was created to bring the tremendous health benefits of functional and psychedelic mushrooms to the widest possible audience, through our Marley One global mushroom brand, created in collaboration with the family of legendary musician Bob Marley; our global psychedelic wellness retreats in Jamaica and Oregon; our cultivation of psychedelic mushrooms and truffles in Jamaica; and the development of our intellectual property, i.e. a commercial metered-dosing psilocybin nasal spray.
What’s been the biggest challenge so far?
Misconceptions around psychedelics and mushrooms at large have been most challenging to overcome, though it is a task we take on with passion. Common misconceptions tend to stem from one of two extremes – fear and fanaticism. There are those who fear psychedelics due to decades of stigma and lack of education, and those who have extrapolated, oversold or miscommunicated psychedelics’ potential to address and treat mental health illnesses.
What excites you most?
I am excited by the opportunity psychedelics present in helping us address decades of ineffective and underwhelming results from a host of pharmaceutical drugs that many health experts admit are ineffective for those suffering from mental health challenges. It’s incredibly exciting that psychedelics are finally being recognized by both traditional holistic medicine practitioners and modern scientific researchers and medical practitioners.
The research being done to reveal how various psychedelics work is vast and quite revealing. It’s our hope that psychedelics will offer a convergence of science and nature, creating solutions that will allow so many to live more fulsome and expansive lives.
What is your biggest lesson learned when raising capital?
It is critical to have a reasonable capital structure and a strong shareholder base of investors that will support the company. You will need shareholders that are good investment partners.
Did you notice any type of investor differences while raising money?
While there are many sophisticated investors who fund start-up ventures or early-stage companies, in psychedelics, there are a notable number of investors who are personally passionate about wellness and the business of psychedelics. There are many who understand the promise inherent in the treatment of mental health that psychedelics offer. They can be considered impact investors.
Describe your business model in 10 words or less
We are a growth-oriented holding company focused on global opportunities in functional mushroom, wellness and psychedelics industries.
What tips would you give founders entering fundraising?
It’s important to have access to the talent and expertise that comes from a multi-disciplinary team with fundraising experience. If you decide to go public, it is very important that you have people on your team with capital markets experience. I would also suggest that founders allocate extra time and resources when fundraising, as the process will most likely take longer and incur more fees than in your initial projections.
We’d like to thank Silo Wellness for being a part of the Psychedelic Groundbreaker series. Stay tuned for more profiles on leaders in the psychedelic industry, and click here to learn more about Silo Wellness .
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