What’s the biggest challenge facing the cannabis industry right now, and how are you and/or your company addressing it?
Beyond the well-known challenges like 280E, banking, and AR, one of the biggest obstacles cannabis operators face today is the fragmentation of their operational systems and the lack of meaningful data that results from it. Operators are often stuck between two poor choices: piecemealing generic tools not built for cannabis, which leads to expensive, disjointed workflows, or settling for “cannatech” solutions that have historically underperformed.
If you look at other verticals—take restaurants, for example—there was a time when operators relied on pen, paper, and fax machines. Then Toast came along and offered an integrated platform that transformed the way restaurants ran their businesses. Cannabis is at a similar inflection point. Operators still lack basic visibility into things like cost of goods sold (COGS), and when they do try to calculate it, it’s often through complex spreadsheets that are slow, error-prone, and hard to maintain.
That’s where Illumify comes in. We’re building the system this industry has been waiting for: a true end-to-end ERP platform designed specifically for cannabis. From native accounting and inventory to cultivation, manufacturing, mobile workflows, and robust analytics, Illumify brings everything together in one place. We are helping operators understand their COGS down to the individual plant—right out of the box.
Where do you see the most exciting opportunity for growth and innovation in cannabis?
There is a lot of cool innovation happening on the plant touching side, but I believe the tech side lags far behind the product side. So to me, it is happening behind the scenes — in the infrastructure that powers the supply chain. The turnover in the industry is high, and operational teams are stretched thin. There is a massive opportunity to drive efficiencies through technology around AI and automation, and the next wave of growth will come from empowering operators to do more with less. That’s exactly where we’re focused.
What’s one piece of advice you would give to someone looking to break into the cannabis industry?
If you’re on the tech side, understand the existing workflows, pain points, and compliance constraints that operators face every day. Only then can you build solutions that truly add value. And be obsessed with customer support.
What is the most important thing you have learned from your experiences in the cannabis industry?
There’s been real progress: nearly 90% of Americans now support legalization, and the legal market is slowly gaining ground. But for operators, that progress often feels far away. And they’ve been navigating years of tech “solutions” that have overpromised and underdelivered. It’s no surprise so many still rely on spreadsheets.
So the biggest lesson is probably one you know from elementary school: Show, don’t tell.
In cannabis, trust is earned slowly and lost quickly. People have had enough of vaporware and big claims with no follow-through. If you want to succeed here, the main thing that matters is execution. Deliver what you say you’re going to deliver. And then keep going.
What do you want your legacy to be as it relates to the cannabis industry?
I’ve spent over 40 years building businesses across a range of industries. Through it all, I’ve tried to lead with honesty, do the right thing, and give back as much as I can. That has been at the core of everything I do, both personally and professionally.
When it comes to cannabis, I want to be remembered as someone who entered this challenging industry and delivered real value. Someone who helped operators survive, scale, and focus on what they do best — growing and manufacturing great products — because they finally had a system that worked for them, not against them.