What’s the biggest challenge facing the cannabis industry right now, and how are you and/or your company addressing it?
For retailers – market saturation. We have powerful customer acquisition (SEO) and retention (email/SMS/loyalty campaign mgmt) services that help retailers acquire more customers from search and retain those customers through targeted marketing
For Execs – reporting/data insights/tech stack madness. There are 5-20 dashboards that a given exec uses to evaluate their stores’ ecommerce & marketing efforts. We are creating a dashboard that centralizes these data sources into 1 place, delivering only the data that is most insightful & actionable, drowning out the other noise.
Where do you see the most exciting opportunity for growth and innovation in cannabis?
There is still a ton of opportunity to take systems & strategies that work well in other industries and adapt them to cannabis.
High-level, I believe there is a void in the cannabis brand space that is yet to be filled. I am excited to see a strong brand get national recognition, as I think this could do a lot to break down the stigma & help normalize cannabis use amongst the general adult population in this country.
What’s one piece of advice you would give to someone looking to break into the cannabis industry?
Think long and hard about why you’re entering the industry. It’s way more difficult to succeed in cannabis compared to other industries while a lot of newcomers think the opposite.
This is not a cash grab industry. If your only goal and/or the only opportunity you see is money it’s not for you.
Also – this is a retail industry. Retail is hard. No matter how amazing your weed is, you’ll need more than just good buds to succeed.
What is the most important thing you have learned from your experiences in the cannabis industry?
It’s not so specific to cannabis but more so just a business lesson. I’m realizing being able to work with/through people and being able to build & support a high-level team is arguably a more important skillset than any technical skill set like coding or marketing or even sales. And now that I type it out it seems obvious, but I think actually putting that into practice on a daily basis is what I am learning – you are only as good as your people & how you treat them, and that extends to every vertical in every industry.
What do you want your legacy to be as it relates to the cannabis industry?
When I think of legacy I think of famous people – professional athletes, musicians, etc. So I don’t really care much for legacy. What would be cooler for me is to to be known by the people I’ve worked & interacted with as someone that always brought value. I want to leave a positive impact. Whether that’s through the creation of services & software tools, or creating a company that gives people the opportunity to be themselves and contribute to a positive experience. It’s important to operate at a high level while still operating with empathy and strong values.