Te’Lario Watkins II, the founder of Tiger Mushroom Farms, has been growing and selling gourmet mushrooms since boyhood.
The young entrepreneur from Blacklick, Ohio began his farm business at the age of seven, when he returned home after his first Cub Scouts project and was inspired to start his own. With the help of his parents, he purchased a few kits to begin his first mushroom harvests, which would become Tiger Mushroom Farms.
“Eventually we had too many mushrooms to eat, so instead of letting them go to waste, we decided to sell at farmers’ markets, and that snowballed into having my own mushroom farm business,” Watkins told Point Of Light in the beginning of the year. “Right now, I’m working on my seasoning, so I don’t have any mushrooms, but before COVID, I had about 100 pounds per week.”
Watkins’ parents were impressed with their son’s work and retired from teaching to assist in the early phases as things began to take off. He then met Ava Johnson, a fellow grower and health department official, who became one of his mentors when he sought to branch out from mushrooms.
In 2015, his mushrooms got him on Steve Harvey’s daytime talk program. Harvey and Watkins formed a bond. Te’Lario informed the host about his mushroom farm and requested “a zillion dollars” to launch it.
Watkins is also the founder of the Garden Club Project, a non-profit that provides food to those in his community who are food insecure. His entrepreneurial moves piqued the interest of Shark Tank investor Daymond John, who met him at Disney Dreamers Academy at Walt Disney World Resort and invited him to the Shark Tank taping.
Watkins considers this surprise gesture a dream come true.
“I’m quite excited about the possibility; I’m amazed and happy. “There are so many emotions, I can’t really put them all into words,” Watkins remarked during a Disney Dreamers Academy interview.
The surprise visit by Daymond John showcases Disney Dreamers Academy’s outstanding mentoring program. The Academy, now in its 17th year, is a yearly educational mentorship program offered at Walt Disney World Resort that provides hope and opportunities to 100 black high school children and teens from poor communities.