At one point during our conversation with Four Sigmatic founder and CEO Tero Isokauppila, he recounts a story about playing golf with the CEO of a large and well-known U.S. retailer. The executive told Tero that Four Sigmatic wouldn’t be successful because of its esoteric brand name.

It’s fair to say that the CEO underestimated the trailblazing company.

Founded in 2012, Four Sigmatic pioneered the now thriving category of mushroom-centric food and beverages. The brand markets a platform of organic ground coffee, protein powders, creamers and supplements that are infused with functional fungi, including reishi, lion’s mane and chaga. 

Four Sigmatic’s flagship mushroom coffee is the leading ground coffee on Amazon, and is the anchor for its significant e-commerce business, which represents more than half of its sales. The brand is also represented at major retail chains, including Walmart, Whole Foods, Target, GNC, Albertsons and The Vitamin Shoppe and generates tens of millions of dollars annually.

In this episode, Tero talks about how his personal background as part of the 13th generation of a Finnish farming family influenced his decision to launch Four Sigmatic, navigating an ahead-of-its-time trend, how he overcame “making every mistake a founder can make,” and how the company aligns category insights and innovation.

Show notes:

0:35: Tero Isokauppila, Founder & CEO, Four Sigmatic – Tero and Ray kick things off with a brief chat about Kalsarikännit, a Finnish word with a very strange definition, before the entrepreneur talks about his family’s farm, the reason why children generally avoid mushrooms and whether “sigma” will show up more often in Four Sigmatic social posts. Tero also explains how his parents’ professions influenced his education and created a foundation for his foray into entrepreneurship, why he says “mushrooms chose me,” and how Four Sigmatic addresses consumer skepticism about fungi. He also talks about how the company planned and participated in sampling demos and events early into its development, the impact of sponsoring podcasts in the development of the brand, and how a boom in mushroom-infused food and beverages has affected awareness and misinformation about functional mushrooms. Tero also discusses the evolution of Four Sigmatic’s package design and why the brand emphasizes functionality more than it has in the past, why he doesn’t believe that great packaging is an indicator of potential success for early-stage brands, and why he views his brand’s name as “part of our journey.” He also talks about Four Sigmatic’s success on e-commerce and why the company needs to evaluate its strategy every 6-12 months, his perspective on investing time and resources on Amazon vs. DTC, why he advises new entrepreneurs that when it comes to product development “just do the one thing,” and why he describes category management as “both an art and a science.” Tero also explains how Amazon and Whole Foods are creating a synergistic omnichannel platform and talks about his funding strategy as an angel investor and how price and taste influence his perspective.

Brands in this episode: Four Sigmatic, Annie’s, Once Upon A Farm