Smallhold

Smallhold is an American specialty mushroom company headquartered in Brooklyn, New York. Founded in 2017 by Andrew Carter and Adam DeMartino, it grows organic gourmet mushrooms — yellow oyster, blue oyster, lion's mane, maitake, shiitake and trumpet — and sells them to grocery retailers and restaurants, alongside home cultivation kits. In 2023 the company added a mushroom pesto product.

The company operates two farm formats. "Macrofarms" are larger indoor production facilities: the original Brooklyn site, described on the company's site as roughly 5,000 sq ft and the only Certified Organic mushroom farm in New York City (reported elsewhere as an approximately 9,000-square-foot Brooklyn Navy Yard outpost); a Los Angeles facility south of downtown, described as its largest and most advanced and as the first Certified Organic mushroom farm in LA County, opened in May 2022 at 34,000 square feet; and Austin, Texas, which houses the company's R&D lab for new varietals and cultivation methods, plus warehouse-scale operations in Buda. "Minifarms" are climate-controlled, free-standing growing units, roughly refrigerator-sized, installed inside grocery stores, restaurants and other venues, producing around 60 lbs of mushrooms per week (earlier described as 30–120 pounds weekly) and equipped with misters, LED lighting and 4G connectivity. Farms are digitally linked by the company's FarmLinc climate-control technology.

Smallhold states it is a B Corp. Its Los Angeles farm is described as composting 100% of spent mushroom substrate and paying staff above a living wage. The company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on February 18, 2024 and emerged from bankruptcy in September 2024, introducing a partner farm network.

Founding story

Co-founder and CEO Andrew Carter worked at multiple indoor farming ventures and grew microgreens before shifting focus to mushrooms. The company began in 2017 with mushrooms grown in a shipping container near the Williamsburg Bridge at Domino Park in Brooklyn, later moving to a larger farm off the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway.

Business model

Smallhold grows mushrooms at its own indoor macrofarms and through distributed minifarm units placed on customer premises, selling fresh packaged mushrooms into grocery retail and to restaurants, plus direct-to-consumer products such as grow kits and mushroom pesto. Minifarms are offered to businesses along with the tools and technology to grow onsite.

Revenue comes from sales of fresh specialty mushrooms to supermarkets and restaurants, direct online/consumer sales including home grow kits (sold at $34 during the pandemic) and value-added products such as upcycled mushroom pesto, and from placement of minifarm units at partner businesses.

Traction

Mushrooms distributed in hundreds of grocery stores as of 2022; ten minifarms operating in Central Market stores in Texas; installations at Whole Foods Market Gowanus, The Standard Hotel and Jubilee Marketplace; supply relationships with restaurants including Eleven Madison Park and with Brooklyn Grange's CSA program.

Latest developments

Smallhold emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy in September 2024 and introduced a partner farm network, following its February 2024 filing. In 2023 it began producing and selling mushroom pesto.