Mike’s Organic encompasses a farm-to-home grocery delivery service founded by Mike Geller, as well as a marketplace and hub for food education located in Stamford, Connecticut. The conduit between the farmer and the consumer, Mike's Organic sources directly from hundreds of small farms and purveyors. Each item has been carefully vetted and hand-picked, ensuring the highest quality local produce, pastured meats and eggs, grass-fed dairy, wild fish, and organic pantry selections. After becoming frustrated working in advertising in NYC, in 2009 I quit my job and went off to live and work in the Kalahari Desert. It was in Botswana that I discovered something incredible: all the food at the supermarket looked and tasted better than almost anything you could buy at a grocery store in the U.S. It took time away from “civilization” to start questioning not only what I was eating, but how it was grown and where it was coming from. During my trip I was charged by a leopard, almost bitten by a cobra and was in a plane that lost an engine. In every sense of the expression, it was a life-altering experience. When I returned home I was 20 pounds lighter, in the best shape of my life, and committed to sharing what I had learned. I became a student of how food was grown, where the seeds come from, how they were cared for, raised, packaged, shipped, and displayed, and fully immersed myself in local sustainable farming and agriculture culture. I consumed books, attended lectures, and volunteered at Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture. These learning experiences and a lifetime of cooking, gardening, fine dining, hunting and fishing were the foundation for Mike’s Organic. Fast forward to today and we are a cornerstone in the community, providing the finest, farm fresh food and helping people live and eat well.

Tell us a bit about how you know RISE, how you integrate RISE into your life, what you’d recommend to friends about it -- we’re open!

I know RISE Brewing Co. through my good friends Jarrett, Grant and Justin! We went to school together and then went off and started our own businesses in the F&B world. I was running Mike's Organic out of my warehouse in Stamford and one day Grant shows up and says, "How do you like this area?" The next thing I know RISE is my next door neighbor! It's so exciting to see what's happening with the business and the best part is, when we run out of coffee for our customers (we carry all three vegan nitro cold brew coffee flavors plus the new Organic Oat Milk), I can WALK over to get more!

Give us a brief introduction to you -- where you come from, etc?

I'm the founder of Mike's Organic Delivery. I grew up in Manhattan and then moved to Greenwich, CT when I was 9 years old. It was the perfect blend of understanding what it was like to live in a big city but then spending some of my formative years fishing, gardening, catching frogs and being a "country" kid...all while remaining close to the Big Apple.

How did you end up doing what you do?

My life has taken me in so many different directions and I never anticipated starting Mike's Organic when I was 29. Prior to that I was in the Music Industry, had my own event business, did advertising, copywriting, bartended, worked on farms...a mix of things! Looking back now I believe that each and every one of these experiences has contributed to my success as a person and our success at Mike's. Everything has its purpose!