Need Customers to Try a New, Unfamiliar Product? Give it Away for Free.
How this mushroom-beverage entrepreneur got hesitant passersby to try his mushroom-based drinks.
One summer night in 2017, a friend texted me at 1 a.m. with some news. A chocolate company she knew was leaving its retail space on Abbot Kinney Boulevard in Venice, Calif. Did I want to take over the remaining three years of the lease? she asked. I replied instantly: Yes!
The next morning, I told my team about my decision …sort of. “We’re doing a fun little thing,” to operate a “Shroom Room,” a sort of a café where everyone gets complimentary ’shrooms.
