Today on State of Cannabis our guest sis Gateway Founder Ben Larson is the godfather of cannabis tech. For the passed two year, Ben and his partner are spearheading toward more widespread legitimization of the green economy. The companies they are mentoring are creating solutions in CPGs, hardware and software. Ben Larson, one of the founders of cannabis industry incubator Gateway in San Francisco, spoke at Valley in Berlin, a one day conference in Germany bringing together interesting Silicon Valley speakers with startups, founders, investors, mentors & politicians from around the world, on March 10th. Ben, who worked two years at The Founder Institute, helped launch over 20 startups by leading semesters in San Francisco and Silicon Valley in the four month program. Ben began the talk (posted below) with a discussion of Charlotte Figi, the child for whom high-CBD strain Charlotte’s Web was named, and then a close friend of his, Nigel, who suffers from an invasive brain cancer that causes seizures, setting the tone for his inspiration in launching his incubator last year. Gateway will soon announce its first class. The company caters to both direct cannabis companies as well as ancillary companies and offers co-working space in its Oakland office.