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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 biggest challenge for the industry is understanding the dynamics of cost, quality, and price. Starting with cost – it’s hard to understand which vendors are reputable and if there’s ROI to selecting them. There’s a lot of mis-information which makes decision making difficult. We share our knowledge and experience with customers so they don’t all have to go through the learning curve, we’re also transparent about product performance and key aspects of the deal.
When it comes to quality, everybody says they want to grow the best cannabis, but high quality along with consistency and distribution is very difficult. Finding your spot in the landscape is difficult now.
Finally on price, we’re seeing price compression in some key markets. When this happens, things can get difficult for growers. They may have great ideas about how to optimize their facilities, but due to a lack of capital, they may not be able to implement them. At JumpLights, we do all we can to make our lights cost effective for growers, including providing full rebate and financing support for many of our customers.
Where do you see the most exciting opportunity for growth and innovation in cannabis?
The most exciting opportunity is still in under-canopy, lots of companies are sleeping on it right now. We’ve been deploying under canopy lights (the JumpLights Catalyst series) for 5 years now and it really works. I think greenhouse growers are going to be more prevalent so I see that – but also this will push indoor growers to refine quality even more. I like to see growers pair our overs with our unders – in multi-tier, indoor single, greenhouse, etc. There are lots of great combinations and these can be power matched to fit optimal HVAC loads.
From a geographic standpoint, there are exciting new markets that could soon expand – Virginia, Texas, Pennsylvania, and Florida are the ones that immediately come to mind. I’m excited to work with cultivators in all of these places.
What’s one piece of advice you would give to someone looking to break into the cannabis industry?
Go work retail or cultivation and see what it’s like. Put in the time. See if you like it. There are also a lot of state meetups like Spark (here in Maryland) where people get together to socialize.
What is the most important thing you have learned from your experiences in the cannabis industry?
The industry is volatile and things change quickly – markets evolve almost daily, technology improves, and cultivators continue to get better and better at what they do. That’s why I like the industry – you learn a lot and can help a lot of people. JumpLights has changed our strategies and tactics many times based on feedback from the growers who are in the trenches every day. We are learning from them constantly and continue to evolve and bring out new products based on what we learn from the field.
What do you want your legacy to be as it relates to the cannabis industry?
Innovation and satisfaction. I’ve been issued multiple patents for the lights we build at JumpLights and I hope to have more soon. Our manufacturing practices and these innovations are what drives quality that I’m proud of. I want grows to be satisfied with our products in the field and know that they can count on us when they need to grow the best quality flower and be competitive on the local or national level. We want cultivators to say that JumpLights really helped their plants (and their businesses) be the best that they can be.