Innholdsfortegnelse for Spring 2019 i Green Entrepreneur

I recently had the opportunity to judge the Chronic Cup in San Francisco. The Shark Tank–ish event awarded $10K to the cannabis startup with the best pitch. Together the contestants represented the many faces of the industry. There were the former Airbnb employees pitching security software, a second-generation Chinese-American pitching cannabis-infused chili oil, a lupus survivor pitching a chain of dispensaries aimed at empowering the community. The passion of the presenters was palpable, and the energy in the packed room was giddy—and that was before we started smoking. It was a similar vibe to some of the dot-com events I attended in the late ’90s. Everyone was optimistic about the future and thrilled to be involved in an industry they believe has a positive impact on society. Five years ago,…

When Colorado first legalized recreational marijuana, in 2014, a smattering of pot shops popped up. What a difference five years make. There are more dispensaries in Denver than Starbucks, McDonald’s, and 7-Eleven stores combined, and statewide the number exceeds 500. But while many dispensaries are thriving, a good handful are generating revenues far below the industry average. Why? This business presents unique challenges to entrepreneurs that you might never expect. Before diving in, a few things to know: 1. You are not an expert just because you ran a business or smoked marijuana for years. I entered the cannabis industry with all the confidence in the world, having more than a decade of experience behind me as a successful serial entrepreneur. Because running a business was second nature to me,…

Remember when marijuana ads showed up in your social media feeds? That was so 2016. Today the major platforms—Facebook, Instagram, Twitter—impose strict rules around cannabis advertising, legal CBD products included. Even ancillary companies that don’t sell the plant face stiff restrictions. So what’s a cannabis company to do? Get creative. Here are real-world examples of killer marketing placements that work. 1. Find an ad network that’s weed-friendly. Far from conducting “digital raids” like Facebook and Google have, there are a few advertising networks that actually want your cannabis company display ads. Traffic Roots has burst on the scene with an online control panel that’s easy to use, and it will get your ads to the audience you specify. While your ads may not run on big mainstream sites yet, that…

December 20, 2018, is basically hemp’s Fourth of July. That’s when President Trump signed the 2018 Farm Bill, making industrial hemp a lawful agricultural commodity nationwide for the first time in 80 years. And what is “industrial hemp”? It’s a term for a specific variety of cannabis—one that, by law, contains less than 0.3 percent of the psychoactive compound tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), which means it won’t get anyone high. At its core, industrial hemp is just a really hardy crop. It thrives in most soils, requires few chemical fertilizers or pesticides, and grows extremely fast, furiously absorbing carbon from the atmosphere from germination to harvest, when its real versatility shines. Its uses range from foods and medicines to textiles, construction materials, biofuels, and bioplastics. Now it’s legal to grow and sell—which,…

Whitney Beatty had a thriving 15-year career in development for TV in Los Angeles, but the hours were long and the pressure high. In 2007, the job pushed her to the breaking point. “I was sitting at my desk, and all of a sudden, I am short of breath, my heart is beating out of control, and I’m sweating profusely. I thought I was going to die,” she recalls. After driving herself to the hospital, Beatty was so anxious to get inside that she parked in the ambulance zone and left her keys in the ignition. Inside, they told her she’d experienced a panic attack. Her doctor prescribed a cocktail of drugs, all with side effects. Eventually, someone suggested that she give cannabis a shot, and she soon found a…

You want in on the cannabis boom, but you don’t know a blunt from a bong. What do you do? For many entrepreneurs who’ve made the plunge, that question is also the answer: Whatever they did before legalization is the skill they brought to cannabis. And there are lots of skills needed in the new green world. Anytime a state legalizes, every business that “touches the plant”—think growing weed, baking edibles, distilling tinctures, packaging pre-roll—has to be confined within the borders of that state, creating exciting new opportunities for every sort of local business. Indoor grow operations need wiring and plumbing, dispensaries need architects and construction crews, entrepreneurs need local lawyers and accountants to guide them through the inevitable regulatory maze. On top of that, the onerous constraints required to…

This past December, the passage of the 2018 Farm Bill may have sparked a new oil boom. For the first time, hemp—the form of cannabis that doesn’t get you high—became federally legal. The news heated up the already hot CBD oil market because CBD, the medicinal, nonpsychoactive compound in marijuana, is also found in hemp. In other words, CBD oil, as long as you derive it from hemp, is legal everywhere. But is it? Does this mean an explosion of new CBD products? And what’s hemp oil? Here’s the breakdown. Hemp Oil: It’s Straightforward By the Farm Bill’s definition, legal hemp products can contain up to 0.3 percent THC—not enough to produce a psychoactive effect. Hemp seed oil is extracted from the seeds and used as a cooking oil, and…

Adam Bierman could be the poster boy of the modern canna-business executive. Clean-cut, driven, smooth as a vape hit—about as removed from the bong-bogarting stoner as you can get. He’s also killing it. As cofounder and CEO of marijuana giant MedMen, he has grown the company from a few dinky L.A. dispensaries to the largest cannabis business in the U.S.—made possible by its acquisition of PharmaCann, and a rapid expansion that includes 78 dispensaries and 17 cultivation and production centers across 12 states, pending all acquisitions. But Bierman says this is just the beginning. Here’s the kind of thinking that got him to the top of the market: 1. Go mainstream “We had the vision that we could build this marijuana company through brand, through accessibility, by way of destigmatizing…

Nancy Whiteman’s foray into the cannabis industry began in her tiny Boulder, Colo., test kitchen back in 2010. “We would make a cannabis syrup, pour it over nuts, and bake them, and it would be, like, a sweet-savory nut mix that was infused. It was delicious,” she says. Even more nutty is the success she’s achieved: Nine years later, Wana Brands, known for its gummies, is far and away the number one cannabis-infused-edibles company in the U.S. Last year, it grossed $18 million, a number that will continue to grow as she expands sales in seven other states. Here’s how a seasoned corporate executive, who has a background in marketing for the financial services industry, taste-tested her way to the top. Where did all this begin? When I moved to…

Canna-Daddy’s Canna-Daddy’s familial name helps it stand out in the competitive Portland, Oreg., dispensary scene, and so does its relationship with growers. Customers praise it as their trusted source of cannabis in a soothing setting. “I’m agoraphobic and only leave my house when my wife makes me. I love to go to Canna-Daddy’s,” reads one customer review. Starbuds Dabuccino This isn’t a dispensary sign, but we had to include it. In 2016, Starbucks, revealing it has zero sense of humor, won a judgment of nearly $500,000 against Oregon artist James Landgraf, designer of the Dabuccino. Knockoffs of the Dabuccino remain defiantly for sale online. High Q High Q has two Colorado dispensaries—one in Silt, the other in Carbondale—and both offer half-priced grams on Mondays. A half-gram is plenty for a…

KushyPunch founder Ruben Cross. When KushyPunch first hit dispensary shelves in 2014, founder Ruben Cross didn’t have a lot of insight into how the market would mature. Back then, dosing within the edibles market was largely inconsistent, and much of what was available was high-calorie, high-sugar and not friendly to medical patients with dietary requirements. With KushyPunch, Cross set out to change all of that and become the leading edible brand in California. As his line of THC gummies—and eventually vapes—attracted an extraordinarily passionate following, Cross began to establish a foundation for becoming a blockbuster national brand. “Scale was always the goal,” says Cross, who is 39. “Once we understood how well our product worked for our patients and patrons, we felt a sense of obligation to bring it to…

Since California legalized recreational marijuana, I’ve been curious how its new cannabis market has evolved. So I decided to clear my calendar recently for a road trip up and down Southern California’s highways, visiting as many storefront dispensaries as possible. As a CEO in the cannabis space, with a company that develops software for dispensaries, I wanted to learn just what these retailers have been experiencing in this transition from the “gray market” to a new era of hyperregulation and compliance—and what it all means for the future. ▸Sophisticated shopping. All over the state, retailers are creating familiar and welcoming environments like you might find at popular high-end stores like Sephora, where the floor plans lend themselves to multisensory browsing experiences. Customers are often encouraged to touch packaging and smell…

When Scott Campbell and Clement Kwan founded Beboe in 2015, their mission was to create cannabis products that were dosed to go with specific, sophisticated social settings: weddings, afternoon tea parties, and fancy dinners. So they released sleek, elegant vape pens and edible pastilles packaged like something you might find in a Parisian boutique. The classy look got them nicknamed “the Hermès of marijuana” by The New York Times. Clearly, the two were onto something. In March, Green Thumb Industries acquired Beboe for an undisclosed sum, and Barneys New York announced a partnership to sell the products (including a special edition silver vaporizing pen) in its new cannabis lifestyle shop, The High End, in Beverly Hills. We caught up with Campbell to talk about how it all happened. What did…

Is it time to break out the cannabis-infused bubbly? Many analysts are predicting not whether but when cannabis will become federally legal for adult use in the United States, as it has in countries like Canada and Uruguay—with others such as Mexico likely soon to follow. It may come in the form of the government removing cannabis as a scheduled drug under the Controlled Substances Act (CSA). It may come in the form of the pending STATES Act or through other congressional action. It may even come through the courts—for example, with the current constitutional challenge to the CSA as it applies to cannabis. An initial dismissal was recently argued on appeal. Let us step back, however, to consider how we got here. Before 1937, when cannabis was first criminalized…

Last winter at MJBizCon in Las Vegas, the longest line at the convention was for a tiny Italian ice stall, where two guys shoveled free samples of cherry, mango, and lemon ices into little cups. The guys were Al and Troy Everetts, a father-and-son team from Pennsylvania. And the product they were serving for the first time ever was called Mt. Everetts Frozen Creations—traditional Italian ices infused with nontraditional CBD. This was the last place on Earth the two ever expected to be—at a marijuana convention 2,500 miles from the family’s Italian ice and custard shop in the small town of Kingston. How they got there and why is a story of a good idea, good timing, and very good recipes. Rocky Mountain High The idea for Mt. Everetts Frozen…

Of all the things that could’ve harmed Tesla in recent years—car batteries catching on fire, cash troubles, SEC probes—nowhere on that list was the name Joe Rogan. But then Tesla founder Elon Musk sat down for an interview on Rogan’s mega-popular podcast. Rogan lit a joint, Musk took a single (legal) hit off it, and video of the moment set the Twitter-verse and media ablaze. Tesla’s stock dropped 9 percent, and the Air Force reportedly reevaluated its relationship with the company. Musk was forced to retreat; NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine, who works with Musk, said afterward that “Musk understands that that was not appropriate behavior.” But what did Rogan think of the dustup? He doesn’t talk much to the media these days—word is that he worries about becoming overexposed—but it’s…