Justin Dye was brought into to Schwazze to help pivot it to a plant-touching business. In this final episode of Seed to CEO, learn: How and why Dye chenged the focus of the company How he decides which companies to acquire Why Schwazze remains focused on mature markets, like Colorado, instead of newer markets Who is Justin Dye? Justin Dye is chairman and CEO at Schwazze. He cut his management teeth at Albertsons, the grocer, leaving as chief adminstrative officer. He went on to advise...

Gary Allen has leveraged lessons from the high-tech and advertiisng industries to lead New Frontier Data as it provides the booming cannabis industry with accurate data on trends and insights. The company now serves over 30 markets. In this episode: Discover the vision behind how big data can help in cannabis Learn how lessons from the tech boom and bust should inform your cannabis strategy Who is Gary Allen? Gary Allen is CEO New Frontier Data, a data, analytics and technology firm...

Chad Bronstein started his first businesses in high school. He built an agency working with major brands, but things had gotten too corporate. So he took the leap to build Fyllo, helping cannabis companies market. Over time, he has built a method to segment and target audiences, while educating brands on regulatory constraints. In this episode, find out: The mindset needed to jump into a high-risk, new role How he used networking to speed up his education in the industry The importance of...

During his twenties, Ryan Smith had already started and sold two companies before he broke into cannabis in 2015 with the launch of his B2B technology platform Leaflink. One year later, he made Forbes’ 30 Under 30 list highlighting software technology entrepreneurs, buttressing his wunderkind reputation. Seven years on, Leaflink operates in some 30 markets and has some 12,000 business customers. In this episode of "Seed to CEO," you’ll hear what Smith did to get this far, including: ...

Greenlight, led by John Mueller, is one of the fastest growing multi-state operators in the United States, with operations in Missouri, Arkansas, West Virginia, Illinois and South Dakota. Mueller is executing an unusual strategy, buying licenses in "undiscovered" locations.  In this episode, learn: The logic behind his strategy Why he operates in off-the-radar locations How to adjust to changing conditions How he scores licenses Who is John Mueller? John Mueller has previously...

Rebecca Colett spent most of her professional career in analytical and leadership positions at some of the best-known financial and tech companies in America, including Morgan Stanley Smith Barney, GE Capital, IBM, and Red Hat. But that didn’t quench Colett’s professional passion, so the Detroit entrepreneur and her business partner started a caregiving business, teaching themselves the craft of cultivation and product manufacturing. They learned it well enough that in 2019 they expanded that...

Jim Cacioppo cut his teeth in the financial world in the early 1990s with investment bank Wasserstein Perella. The bank was co-founded by Bruce Wasserstein, the hostile takeover pioneer portrayed in Barbarians at the Gate, the book about his 31 billion dollar takeover bid for RJR Nabisco. Cacioppo, after working at some of New York’s most storied hedge funds, broke into the cannabis industry in 2018, and co-founded Jushi Holdings, a growing MSO. He brought a "buy big" strategy with him into...

Fife Symington IV is the CEO and Managing Director of Copperstate Farms, a vertically integrated cannabis operation he launched in 2016. This year,  Copperstate Farms was named to the Inc. 5000 List of Fastest Growing Private Companies in the U.S. Copperstate started as a 40-acre greenhouse; today it's a 1.7 million square foot canopy colossus. In 2019, Copperstate launched dispensary brand, Sol Flower, which now has five locations, including one that features a café and wellness...

Oregon entrepreneur Arron Morris and his partners launched Wyld, an infused cannabis edibles brand, in 2016. Morris admits their first cannabis-infused candies were terrible. But he and his team persisted, pairing a winning recipe with a bold business plan that’s made them one of the top edibles brands in America. In this episode of Seed to CEO, hear Morris talk about:  Bootstrapping your business  Branding your business  Efficient distribution  Expansion in other states and other...

Barbara Fox planned on becoming a doctor, but then the cannabis industry came calling. In 2016, when Fox was 20 years old and still in college, majoring in biology and public health at the University of Nevada Las Vegas, her plan was to go to medical school. But her father and brother needed help coming up with packaging for their Nevada medical marijuana cultivation business, so Fox chipped in, and the Cannabiz Supply Co was born. Today, the company generates millions of dollars annually,...

Being a small business in the cannabis industry is tough and getting tougher, especially with all the advantages that multi-state operators and other big businesses have over independent shops. But a small number of small cannabis businesses have succeeded, writing their own David and Goliath stories.   One such entrepreneur is Hope Wiseman, founder and CEO of Mary and Main, a medical cannabis dispensary in Prince Georges County, Maryland. One of the youngest entrepreneurs in the business,...

Arkansas wasn’t on many people’s radars a few years ago when it came to cannabis legalization. But since legal sales started there in May 2019, Arkansas has proven to be a robust market, albeit with its challenges. One canna-entrepreneur making a go at it is Matt Shansky, who was climbing the corporate latter in the fitness space when his family queried him about breaking into the industry. Before long, he was converting a barn in Bentonville, which became The Releaf Center, the dispensary...

Vanessa Gabriel is only 30 but has already launched three highly successful software companies, with the two most recent being in the cannabis industry. Gabriel sold her first cannabis business, an order-ahead platform called Greenlight Technologies, about a year after launching it, for a high nine-digit figure. Well capitalized, she launched her current company Drop Delivery in 2018. But Gabriel, a proud Filipina who’s also built a diverse company, also encountered plenty of rough patches...

Keith Villa’s jump from craft beer to cannabis infused beer  Keith Villa created Blue Moon in 1995 while working at Coors Brewing Company. Blue Moon became a massive success and changed the brewing landscape forever. After three decades of brewing, Villa and his wife, who has a background in civil engineering, leveraged their knowledge to create Ceria Brewing, a Colorado-based cannabis infused beer company, in 2017. In this episode of Seed to CEO, Villa shares:  How he and his wife came up...

Matt Walstatter and his wife Meghan were among the first cannabis retailers in Portland, Oregon and enjoyed early mover advantages for a few years. But Portland grew into one of the most saturated retail markets in the country, so the couple instead decided to focus on their nascent craft cultivation business. The problem? It also happens to be in one of the most saturated cultivation markets in the country. The Walstatters not only survived but thrived. This episode of Seed to CEO is a...

Chris Beals landed unexpectedly at Weedmaps in 2015 but since then has taken the famed ancillary business public and grown it into one of the most recognizable brands in cannabis. Beals spent his pre-cannabis life advising start-ups and deal-making in highly regulated industries such as healthcare and technology, but it took some tough on-the-job experience to prepare Beals for cannabis’ realities. In this episode, Beals talks about:    The importance of due diligence How Weedmaps handles...

Brett Heyman had led PR efforts at Gucci and Dolce and Gabbana before launching a line of clutches in 2010, named Edie Parker, after her daughter, that quickly took off thanks to vocal fans such as Lady Gaga, Solange Knowles, and Kate Hudson. Heyman followed-up with a successful line of home accessories but for her third act pivoted to cannabis, launching Flower by Edie Parker in 2019. In this episode of Seed to CEO, Heyman takes listeners on her fashion to flower journey, discussing: How...

This former tech entrepreneur is shaking up the cannabis ingestible market, licensing fast-acting ingestible formulations to premium cannabis brands.  Learn how: Her interest in wellness led her to cannabis Azuca is using science to improve the cannabis experience Azuca's focus on quality runs through its brand How Rael thinks about scale 

Tim Schuler spent 15 years with Anheuser-Busch, “moving product from the manufacturer into consumer hands in another regulated market.” He sold 48M cases of beer a year.  When Michigan offered medical licenses in 2015, he applied. “I knew where the market was going.”  His company now focuses on concentrates and edibles, with a new drink mix.  Learn how he is tackling key obstacles, including: Increasing costs Winning over retailers and budtenders Direct to consumer marketing Who is...

Keith Cooper spent 20 years launching or rescuing businesses, mostly in the tech sector, before becoming CEO of Revolutionary Clinics, a vertically integrated cannabis business in Massachusetts, in 2017. Cooper stepped into cannabis figuring he’d build Revolutionary into a popular retail brand. But regulatory and other delays scuttled that plan and forced Cooper into a new strategy: wholesaling. That move helped place Revolutionary No. 4 on Inc. Magazine’s 2021 list of fastest growing...

Mechanical engineer Ace Shelander teamed-up with chemist Lilibel de la Puente to launch Beaker and Wrench, a company in Santa Monica, Calif. that makes specialty equipment for the cannabis industry. They began with a dosing pump for wiped film distillation and solving other problems that were “right in front” of them before moving into complete distillation systems. Their products were niche but had high value-adds and following that model has served the company well. Insights that Shelander...

Andrew DeAngelo and his brother Steve were legacy cannabis market entrepreneurs and “reluctant activists” before founding one of America’s most iconic cannabis businesses, Harborside Health Center Oakland in 2006. The DeAngelo’s helped pave the way for today’s legal cannabis industry, and in its heyday, Harborside was the “largest medical cannabis retailer in the world.” But when Harborside tried to expand into other states, Steve’s cannabis felony proved too big a barrier. The DeAngelo’s...

Brett Novey was recruited in 2016 by two pals from his accounting days to join them at a small start-up called PharmaCann, which had just won medical marijuana business licenses in Illinois and New York. The company was comprised of accountants, financial specialists and lawyers who were trying to learn to grow cannabis at scale.  “There was a big learning curve,” recalled Novey, who did everything from development and sales to cultivation and manufacturing before becoming CEO in 2019. ...