The Beyond Microgreens Story

 Founder Stephen Cowan grew up in a southwest suburb of 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 fit people 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 own apartment into a hydroponic farm, he began growing all types of herbs and leafy greens, and that’s when he stumbled upon the absolute miracle 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 an opportunity to create microgreens products, Stephen moved to the mountains of Colorado, 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 for consumers, he began dehydrating and mixing them in with different products and sampling at local farmers markets. The most popular product was loose leaf tea 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 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 customers to fill the nutritional gaps in their diet with organic tea blends and boosters. The new website launched in the summer of 2020 with its flagship product, Broccoli Booster. Customers can now buy the original Microtea, and other microgreen products.

Beyond Microgreens is an ecofriendly company and a proud affiliate of 1% For the Planet. Its commitment is to make quality products that are sustainable, delicious and nutritious. Learn more about 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), and is a board member of Boulder Speakeasy, a leadership workshop program.

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