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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 I see is profitability. Cannabis is highly regulated and with little access to capital, high tax rate, heavy labor requirements and high energy costs. Couple that with price compression in mature markets and you can see pretty clearly that something has to give. Our job is to help growers maximize their output while keeping OpEx and CapEx as low as possible. Products like our JumpLights Catalyst Pro under canopy light can increase yield significantly as well as $/ft2 without having to build another cultivation site. At JumpLights we often take custom approaches to cultivation as every cultivator and facility is different, we are always trying to find the most ideal solution for our customer’s business.
Where do you see the most exciting opportunity for growth and innovation in cannabis?
Most growers are still operating in rooms that weren’t truly engineered for high-performance cannabis. There’s a massive runway in helping cultivators rethink their environments—how air moves, how photons are delivered, how plants are layered or spaced—and then pairing that with lighting systems that are optimized for their facility.
We’re already seeing how under-canopy lighting, spectrum optimization and more intelligent PPFD distribution can turn the same square footage into a more productive, more profitable footprint. As margins tighten, the winners will be the operators who treat cultivation like controlled manufacturing.
So the big opportunity is in getting more value out of every cubic foot—designing rooms more intentionally, optimizing light from top to bottom, and using tech to ensure plants get exactly what they need, when they need it. Growers who lean into that level of precision are going to see major gains in quality, consistency, and yield. This is the pathway to commercial Ag style cultivation; we are on that path.
What’s one piece of advice you would give to someone looking to break into the cannabis industry?
Just get out there and do it. In this industry there is no shortcut or substitution for experience. Look for good opportunities through networking and start from the ground floor. My personal story: I fell in love with the plant in college. After college, I moved from North Carolina (where cannabis still isn’t legal) out to Boulder, Colorado and jumped right in, learning from being in the grows and dispensaries. Immerse yourself in the market, find what excites you and follow your passion. In cannabis, you really have to learn by doing, to put the time in to learn and build your skills.
What is the most important thing you have learned from your experiences in the cannabis industry?
I know it sounds like a cliche, but the people really do matter. The best teams I’ve been a part of are ones that really care about the industry, treat others with respect, and put in the work. Your integrity and character in this industry matters if you want to have longevity.
What do you want your legacy to be as it relates to the cannabis industry?
I want to help growers be the best that they can be and help businesses be more successful. Whether that means providing them the best lighting solutions (as I do today in my role at JumpLights), or just picking up the phone and helping another grower think through a challenge or opportunity, I just love being part of this community. Connecting people, solving problems and driving better crop and financial performance for the companies I work with is my goal.