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What’s the biggest challenge facing the cannabis industry right now, and how are you and/or your company addressing it?
One of the biggest challenges is the lack of standardization and regulatory clarity, especially around smokable hemp. States like California and Florida have started banning hemp products because they aren’t bringing in the same tax revenue as cannabis. That kind of uneven regulation makes it hard for companies to grow consistently. At Botani, we’re working to solve this by creating inputs that are reliable and repeatable. Our reconstituted hemp paper and tea leaf wrappers offer consistency in flavor, active ingredient content, and release, to meet changing compliance standards. The goal is to help brands build for the future, not just the current moment.
Where do you see the most exciting opportunity for growth and innovation in cannabis?
Pre-rolls and cones are where we see the most momentum from our clients. In North America, people want convenience, not roll-your-own. Our hemp and tea wrappers are designed to meet that demand with consistency and quality. They can be infused with flavor, customized for branding, and used in large-scale production. That combination of flexibility and reliability is opening the door for real innovation in product formats.
What’s one piece of advice you would give to someone looking to break into the cannabis industry?
Don’t try to do everything at once. I’ve seen so many people come in with lots of different offerings, trying to go national right out of the gate, throwing all their money into marketing, and forgetting the basics—like how to actually get the product where it needs to go. My advice? Pick a lane, stay focused, and get really good at servicing one market. Nail the repeat sale before you even think about expanding. That’s how you build a sustainable business.
What is the most important thing you have learned from your experiences in the cannabis industry?
You can’t assume what worked in other industries will work here. We’ve applied a lot of lessons from tobacco, especially around sustainability and product engineering, but cannabis brings its own set of challenges. The market is fragmented. The rules are still taking shape. And many operators are entering it for the first time. That means we’ve had to stay flexible and design systems specifically for this space, without cutting corners on quality.
What do you want your legacy to be as it relates to the cannabis industry?
I’d like to help show that sustainable manufacturing is possible from the start. We’ve built processes that take what used to be waste—like hemp biomass after oil extraction—and turn it into useful, high-quality products. If we can encourage the industry to think that way more broadly, and help brands grow without creating more waste, that’s a legacy worth aiming for.