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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?
The cannabis industry is stuck in a false binary that quietly hurts success and suffocates innovation. Operators are told they must either race to the bottom on price or defend an “authentic cannabis experience” that, frankly, many consumers don’t enjoy. Harsh throat burn, overpowering aroma, inconsistent effects, and anxiety are often treated as proof of legitimacy rather than design failures. At Sinful, we rejected that framing entirely. We built our business around cannabis as a premium indulgence, smooth, delicious, precisely dosed products engineered with formulation discipline. The result is predictable enjoyment without compromise. If you stop pretending discomfort equals authenticity, consumers respond. I’ve seen it in everything from edibles to flower to concentrates. Smooth, delicious experiences win.
Where do you see the most exciting opportunity for growth and innovation in cannabis?
The most compelling opportunity lies in treating cannabis experiences with the same sophistication we expect from craft spirits, fine dining, or luxury hospitality. The market is overserved by novelty and underserved by delight. How often are you delighted by an edible, a flower, or a vape? The next wave of growth will come from products where cannabis enhances the experience instead of dominating it: taste exceptional first, formulations that deliver smooth, controlled effects, and branding that just blows the mind. Companies willing to invest in real science, better ingredients, and experience design will define the categories that matter as cannabis continues to normalize.
What’s one piece of advice you would give to someone looking to break into the cannabis industry?
Passion alone isn’t enough. Don’t enter cannabis because you love cannabis, enter because you bring a capability the industry desperately needs and doesn’t yet have. I come from over a decade at Blue Marble, where we developed hundreds of natural ingredients for Fortune 50 companies through rigorous fermentation science and regulatory compliance. We also delighted our customers, in this case, formulators and marketing, giving them what they needed to succeed. That background in formulation chemistry, supply chain complexity, and compliance proved far more valuable than enthusiasm ever could. However, you have to understand and embrace the culture as well…it’s a two-part problem. If you’re into operational excellence, you’re gonna have to train like a deep cover spy if you’re not already part of the culture.
What is the most important thing you have learned from your experiences in the cannabis industry?
High-variance industries reward excellence while punishing improvisation not backed by raw skill. Cannabis attracts brilliant creativity, but it also attracts chaos. The long-term winners aren’t the loudest, best-funded, or most culturally connected; they’re the ones building real infrastructure beneath the noise. Treating cannabis like a serious CPG business with disciplined R&D, repeatable training systems, rigorous quality control, and sustainable unit economics creates a durable advantage but only if you’re willing to embrace the chaos and culture. The industry’s immaturity isn’t a weakness; it’s an opportunity for operators willing to build systems while others are still winging it. But you’re still gonna be punched in the face, and all your plans will have to be thrown out over and over again as well.
What do you want your legacy to be as it relates to the cannabis industry?
I want to be remembered as someone who helped prove that cannabis products could be true premium indulgences built through serious science, not commodities or authenticity theater. Sinful showed that a Montana-based company could achieve market leadership by refusing the false choice between racing to the bottom and glorifying something that wasn’t a wonderful experience all around. More broadly, cannabis was our proving ground for building businesses in complex, high-variance environments using unconventional frameworks drawn from biology, systems theory, and resilience modeling. For me, it’s about demonstrating that disciplined design and thoughtful systems outperform hype when the environment is volatile.