The Beyond Microgreens Story

 Our founder, Stephen Cowan, grew up in Chicago. He enjoyed a wooded community filled with lots of large trees, surrounded by forest preserves that he explored in his youth and found nature to be something he always enjoyed. 

Attending Calvin University brought him to Michigan, where he studied communications and business.  He's from a family of sales professionals, so a sales career seemed to be a natural fit for him. 

Upon graduating in 2008, Stephen started a 10-year career in software sales selling enterprise solutions to companies across the US. It was a great job and he excelled at it, though he felt like there was more he could do for others. In a time of reflection, he found that he wanted to give back and help lower peoples’ anxiety and improve their overall health. 

Travelling to Peru, he was surprised to see how happy, healthy and connected to nature the indigenous lived. Finding himself renewed personally and professionally, he returned to the states with a new mission – to connect people with powerful plants to help fill the nutritional gaps in their diet. 

Turning his Colorado apartment into a hydroponic farm, he began growing all types of herbs and leafy greens, and that’s when he stumbled upon the unexplored power of microgreens. 

Microgreens are a phase in the plant's life when it’s about 10-14 days old.  This is when a plant is the most concentrated with all of the good things like – vitamins, minerals, antioxidants and other medicinal compounds, like sulforaphane.  Sulforaphane is a powerful antioxidant and activator of many biological pathways, like Nrf2. 

 

Seeing a need to get more nutrients into our western diets, Stephen moved to the mountains, near the ski resorts and started a hydroponic farm selling microgreens to high-end resorts, restaurants and at farmers markets.

In order to improve their shelf life, he began freeze-drying and mixing them in with different products and sampling at local farmers markets. The most popular product was loose leaf teas and in November of 2018, Microtea was born. Moving to Boulder, Colorado, which is the Silicon Valley of the natural products industry, he was able to make more connections and garner support that helped him launch more nutritious and delicious products. 

Beyond Microgreens is the next phase of his all things microgreens vision.  Backed by 3rd party science and research, his goal is to make it easier for anyone to fill the nutritional gaps in their diet with organic tea blends and seasonings. The new website launched in the summer of 2020 with its flagship product, Broccoli Booster. Customers can now buy the original Microtea, and other microgreens products.

Beyond Microgreens is a proud affiliate of 1% For the Planet. Our mission is to create truly delicious and nutritious products, while using all organic, whole food, plant based ingredients and eco friendly packaging.

Learn more about all of our products here.

Currently, Stephen serves as the Founder and CEO of Beyond Microgreens, co-founder and board member of International Functional Foods Association (IFFA).

Ultimately, Stephen is on a mission to increase the consumption and education of powerful plants like microgreens to improve the health and wellness of society at large. 

Pictured is our award for the 2021 Social Impact Startup of the Year from National Institute for Social Impact