over 350 PLN ✨
Aga Lepka
INSTA: shrm_drink
Aga always knew, somewhere, that she’d end up running a business. She just didn’t know when or what. Then came the pandemic, a lockdown, and Kamila with an idea about mushrooms. A conversation about what she’s learned, what surprised her, and why it’s never too late to start something new.
fot. Natalia Symonowicz
Interview:
Kamila Knap, Shroom: What’s your spirit animal and why?
Aga Lepka: I know you think I’m an otter, but according to the Chinese zodiac I’m a water monkey. I think that’s very accurate.
How do you spend your free time? What do you enjoy when you’re not working?
In nature, ideally. I love the ocean and mountains. I need a lot of physical activity to function well. And art and learning, of course.
What are your favorite physical activities?.
For winter: skiing, from classic alpine to freestyle and freeride. Water sports of various kinds, surfing included, the hardest and the most fun. Beyond that: tennis, trail running, climbing, pole dancing, and yoga.What sports achievement are you most proud of? Something that was hard but you learned it?
For me the biggest achievement is mastering something new. When a trick you’ve been working on for weeks finally clicks, that’s more satisfying than any medal. Pure joy.
I know you think I’m an otter, but according to the Chinese zodiac I’m a water monkey. I think that’s very accurate.
How did you go from set designer to mushroom person? What’s the story?challenge for anyone.
Uncensored. If we want a real profile, no surprises later.
During the pandemic I was working on a Netflix series and they stopped filming and told us to stay home. So I came back to Kraków, stayed home, and met up with my friend Kamila — my co-founder. We decided we had great business ideas. She was fascinated by the chicken-of-the-woods mushroom.
I thought it was a brilliant idea too — our other plans weren’t as great. Not the banana ice cream, not CBD trading before anyone was doing CBD, not the CBD café… The mushroom was the best idea. And chicken-of-the-woods actually tastes like chicken — it’s unprocessed vegan food.
I’ve been on an approximately vegetarian, sometimes vegan diet for years. I don’t need substitutes. If we want vegan meat that isn’t primarily coconut oil with soy powder, this was a new quality. So we met, had a great time, and started looking for funding.
What surprised you most about the startup world?
That there are actually people who do startups because they want to be in the startup world – to say they run a startup and go to startup events. That genuinely shocked me more than someone wanting to work at a corporation. I’d rather work at a party.
Startup world
Photo: Natalia Symonowicz
What was your main motivation for starting your own company?
The vision that — there’s a chance, a small one, but a few percent — that if you succeed you can really scale that success. Working a regular job, there’s no end to it. You do it forever just to survive.
Here there’s a vision: you can sell the company and rest. The chances of going bankrupt are real too. But you learn, you make the decisions, you create your own vision — not everyone else’s.
I was also raised to do something you love. Work that interests you and brings you joy. Not just a job you’re counting down the hours from.
What was your main motivation for starting your own company?
Endurance. Not giving up. Sometimes things are very motivating and sometimes very, very demotivating.
And you generally don’t make money for a long, long time. It’s not easy and not everyone can afford it.
I don’t have loans or small children, so I speak from my own perspective, which is still hard. But statistically — by your fifth company, the bankruptcy rate is very low. I’m not far from my fifth. Or fourth, depending on how you count.
Apparently the optimal age to start a company is 42 – the right combination of energy, knowledge and connections. I’m sometimes 16 and sometimes 70, so maybe we average it out to 42.
The first business has a 90% failure rate, each subsequent one less. Who wins? The person who doesn’t give up and learns from mistakes.
I started with the mindset: we’ll do everything to succeed, but it won’t be a disaster if we don’t – that’s completely normal. The experience is mine forever.
Who supports you in the hard moments? Who would you like to shout out from the Shroom blog?
My brother Tomasz, who handles our money – the only person in our circle who’s interested in finances and can actually count.
And all the people who helped us at the beginning – ordered Shroom, stocked it in their venues, stored our stuff in their warehouses. The list is long.
Family and my partner, of course. Though I’m glad I didn’t have to borrow from my parents – well, there was one loan. Just one month.
If you want to make money, don’t start a business – just get a well-paid job working for someone else.
What’s your role at Shroom?
Operations, marketing, and I’m the Art Director. Very trendy title — I’d just be called Creative Director. But generally I move things around, carry stuff, transport the stand from place to place. I do whatever needs doing. Except debt collection notices – that’s where I draw the line.
What does your typical workday look like?
I wake up in the morning – and this is my main tip for everyone: don’t look at your phone for at least an hour after opening your eyes. There are usually 47 or 50 notifications and you stress immediately. Instead: warm water with lemon, then stretching. Then breakfast. Coffee comes later — and without mushrooms. Coffee should taste like coffee, smell like coffee. That’s when it’s good.
Then I sit down to work or I’m on the move – it depends. We travel a lot, events, meetings across Poland, sometimes abroad.
Do you have a routine or is every day different?
Very moderate routine. Very. I chose film work for a reason – pure chaos during shooting, fires everywhere, extreme pace, constantly changing circumstances. That suits me. Let’s just say there’s some ADHD in the room.
I don’t flex my ADHD – meaning I don’t mention it every other sentence. But I’m not ashamed of it either. People’s brains work differently, many people are neurodivergent, and awareness matters.
I could never be an accountant because of ADHD — simple as that. I chose work where a lot happens and you operate at a different intensity. And that’s okay. We need both kinds of people.
When I do have hyperfocus I can work for very long stretches without a break. But sometimes I simply cannot make myself do something. I try to accept that — sometimes skip it, do it four times faster the next day, and not rely only on medication. Meds exist, but a lot can also be done on your own.
Random
An artistic life is a life lived from project to project.
Any self-management tips?
Writing things on paper and crossing them out. Simplest tip. There are so many tools now and they can be helpful – but too many and I get lost. I end up back at paper. It’s absolute. It doesn’t send me notifications.
What’s your favorite Shroom product?
Definitely Relax. I often run out at home, so I end up drinking expired Shrooms from old batches I forgot somewhere – but they’ve been tested to 18 months, so still safe.
I think we made Shroom for ourselves and our own needs. After my second or third coffee I start feeling anxious and shaky – not good. So I wanted something that would concentrate and energize me without caffeine and without the stress feeling. That’s how Power came about.
And Relax – I’m slow in the mornings, I warm up gradually, then get faster and faster. By evening I really need to come down. So Relax is perfect: sit down, evening drink, decompress.
Diva is also great and it’s the party drink. I barely party anymore, but for going out or even a date, Diva is fantastic. Finally, you don’t have to drink alcohol or pay 40 zł for a juice mix they call a mocktail.
Alcohol – is it the new tobacco?
Alcohol causes harm. Culturally it’s been with us forever — even in church. We’re trained to reach for it on every occasion.
But it’s also been a very powerful tool for pacifying and controlling society. It’s legal – the state isn’t worried we’ll smoke a joint and end up destitute, but it doesn’t worry about every 5 meters having a bottle of vodka for almost nothing. The logic is strange.
On the other hand; minimal amounts, red wine has some properties… and the mood-lifting effect is real. We’re stressed, we drink, we’re less stressed briefly. But chronic stress is worse than the drinking. So it’s complicated.
I do think alcohol is currently on the same trajectory as tobacco in the 80s–90s. There will be more and more restrictions. I wish that for the alcohol industry and for our society – a lot of tragedy comes from it.
I personally stopped drinking a while ago. And honestly I didn’t even realize what the big deal was. Now you can just say you don’t drink without needing an excuse — “I have the car parked” or “I’m five months pregnant.” That’s progress.
Gen Z’s relationship with alcohol is very different from Boomers. Things are changing, slowly.
What do you recommend then?
Shroom, a balanced diet, limiting blue light — nothing groundbreaking. Movement, above all. Connection between body and mind. The ancient Greeks already knew this — take care of both. Neglect one and you’re out of balance.
There are so many forms of movement that anyone can find something. I’m not naturally sporty. I like sitting, eating, reading. But I built the habit. Partly inspired by my roommate being able to do pull-ups while I was in the negatives.
Upper body strength correlates with longevity, apparently. But honestly, I just want to be able to surprise my body. I feel significantly happier when I exercise regularly. When you stop stretching you feel it immediately – everything just tightens up.
You don’t have to prove anything to anyone. Just try something, be okay with it, and you’ll feel better.
Where do you see yourself in 5 years?
On an island, on a beach. A millionaire, hopefully, doing some artistic project for fun. Ceramics — I’ve been doing it since childhood. Or making a film I actually want to make, not one I have to make. The dream is the psychological comfort of knowing you won’t starve if you take a break. Small chance, but I’d be happy if it happened.
Any advice for people thinking about starting a business?
If you want to make money – get a well-paid job working for someone else. That doesn’t mean you won’t succeed in business, but don’t count on getting rich quickly.
And I really dislike when people say: “Oh, they were lucky — right time, right place.” No. The successes we see have very little to do with luck. They’re incredibly hard work and above all, not giving up.
Look at any big company’s history. Count how many times the founders heard “no,” “that makes no sense,” “nobody will buy it,” “we’re not giving you money.” How many times they faced rejection.
Knowledge is at everyone’s fingertips now. The question is who uses it smarter. It’s competitive in every field.
And finally — what’s your message to the world?
Leave everyone around you alone and first think about yourself.
I’d also appeal for world peace, but that doesn’t seem very likely right now.
Just — don’t do what annoys others. Think about yourself first rather than being bothered by what everyone else is doing. If someone’s causing harm, intervene. But if they’re not hurting anyone…
And drink Shroom. Obviously.
Thank you for the conversation, Aga
Interview by: Kamila Knap
About Aga
Aga Lepka
Aga Lepka went from decorating interiors to designing film sets to building a wellness brand out of mushrooms — a trajectory that only makes sense in retrospect. She studied architecture at TU Berlin, worked as a film set designer, and has always been drawn to things that look good and feel intentional. She’s most alive on a snowy slope or in the ocean, surfing badly and not caring at all. Obsessed with lionesses.
Co-founder of Shroom, creative director, and the person who moves the stand from venue to venue — she builds things from scratch and doesn’t stop until they work.
