Meet the Young Entrepreneur Breaking Barriers in the Highly Competitive Cannabis Industry

This article was originally published by Mogul Millennial on May 25, 2020, and has been shared with consent.

“

We're very proud to be minority-owned and are trying to help other minorities get into the industry as well.”

—Hope Wiseman, founder Mary & Main

In the competitive cannabis industry, Hope Wiseman is a boss amongst bosses.  By the age of 26, she made history as the youngest Black woman dispensary owner in the U.S.

Beyond entrepreneurship, she is looking to break down stigmas, raise awareness and educate about the positive impact cannabis can have on America’s economy and communities. She has often said that once the dismissive connotation of cannabis has been dissolved, communities will have the opportunity to heal and economically prosper.

The Spelman graduate and co-founder of Mary & Main spoke with Mogul Millennial to help us learn more about her journey from finance to entrepreneurship and making money moves in the cannabis industry.

MOGUL MILLENNIAL: In launching Mary & Main, you entered a billion-dollar market where there are bigger players and a lack of diversity. What have you learned from entering this competitive space?

HOPE WISEMAN: I have learned that it is really all about performance rather than your race, age, and gender. All those things definitely play a role and you know subconsciously people cannot help what they've been conditioned to support. If your company is operating under a system of excellence, then that allows you to still succeed in this industry. I feel like this industry craves sophisticated leaders, [because] people can form businesses that can sustain all different types of environments, especially right now with coronavirus.

Before you launched Mary & Main, you had a career in investment banking. What were some of the transferable skills that allowed you to make the transition to entrepreneurship?

I gained hard and soft skills from investment banking that helped me be successful in my quest to obtain a license as well as in my operational side. First, I believe from a soft skill perspective, it taught me how to be tenacious, as well as how to figure things out on my own. My problem-solving skills are great because when I was working in investment banking as an analyst, if you didn't know how to do something, you had to figure it out on your own or you'd have to seek your own help. [You have to be] able to troubleshoot, figure things out quickly, and keep a level head while working through issues.

I used to work in equity institutional sales, so I was interpreting stock research. We would have analysts internally that would completely turn the company inside out to study it and give a stock recommendation. As a result, I understand how companies and their finances work. For me, that makes it a lot easier going into my entrepreneurial journey. I know where I want to go and where I want to take the company. I understand the inner workings of how companies should be run to get to a certain point, and I think it has been a tremendous help.

For the more tangible, hard skills, I’m good at financial modeling. Also, the resources and connections in my network are probably a little bit more expanded than your average person because I was working at the top investment bank on Wall Street as a sophomore in college. I definitely feel like investment banking played a big part in giving me the confidence and the actual tools I needed to be successful in the cannabis industry.

When you launched Mary & Main, how did you determine your revenue share model with your product partners?

The three founders bootstrapped the entire process in the beginning, so there was no revenue share. We have since raised some money, but it's all equity. There's no revenue sharing going on as of right now. We have a few small owners, but about 90% of the company is owned by the three founders.

We know you like to partner with brands that are in line with your company's values and offer their products as well. What are some of the lessons you've learned during that journey of building out partnerships and maintaining those relationships?

Because of federal irregularities of cannabis, we are only allowed to purchase products that are grown and processed in the state of Maryland. As a result, we are limited to 10, maybe 20 companies, total. We don't have a big variety because there are not a lot of options. We pretty much work with everyone in the market. And with everyone in the Maryland market, it's so regulated. Everybody has high-quality products, some higher quality than others, but we have every type of patient that comes to our store so we need to have lower-cost products and super high-quality products that have a higher price point.

[Moving forward], we will definitely work with companies that have a strong focus on minority participation within their organization and high-quality standards. However, in states like Maryland and New Jersey, states that are highly regulated, every single producer will be high quality. It'll be more about the relationships you have with people and the types of deals you're able to negotiate with.

“

I want to focus on promoting female entrepreneurship, period.”

—Hope Wiseman, founder Mary & Main

How have you been able to build and sustain a brand and customer loyalty in such a crowded competitive space?

For us, we have built a community of people that support us mainly because we give great service and it's really like a family. But too, they are supporting a minority-owned company. We receive a lot of support simply because of that. We're very proud to be minority-owned and are trying to help other minorities get into the industry as well. We want [our patients] to feel comfortable with shopping in a dispensary. People always enjoy working, shopping, and doing things with people they feel they can relate to. We are offering that space within the cannabis industry and I believe that's where a lot of our loyalty comes from—knowing and having a feeling of a safe environment to do something that is still very sensitive to a lot of people. They want to feel comfortable and have a lot of questions. It's easier to talk to someone who you feel can relate to you.

Transitioning from investment banking into entrepreneurship, what would be one lesson that you learned that you wish you would have known going into that transition?

That's something I regret from early on. I wish I had been doing that. But I'd say those are the two main things: maintaining connections and looking at ancillary services from the beginning.

Do you feel that your experience at Spelman, and also just the experience of being enrolled at an HBCU, contributed anything to your success?

I was very strategic when I realized companies’ recruiting teams were looking for black women. The first place they’re going to go to is Spelman College. They’re not going to go to the University of Maryland or Harvard and look for me there. As prestigious as both those schools are, I felt I had the best chance at being where they would look for me rather than the [other way around]. Investment bank recruiters like Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan don’t even recruit at schools like the University of Maryland. So for me, it felt like a no-brainer if I wanted to land the best possible job after school. I also really enjoyed becoming a woman and adult around other Black women who were going through the same thing as me. It’s empowering and gives you the confidence to be able to walk out into the world and be proud of who you are, at the core.

I’m proud to be part of that sisterhood. Everywhere I go, every time I meet another Spelman sister, we connect and support each other. That’s something I also couldn’t get from a school that wasn’t an HBCU.

Has mentorship been helpful to your career? Also from having mentors or becoming a mentor, is that a role that you would hope to take on at some point?

I feel like [mentorship] is something that will continue throughout my life as I move to different levels. I’ll continue to find allies and mentors that can help me navigate that stage, and I plan to do that for other people. Although I’m still early in my journey and still establishing myself, I do it as much as I can for others in the cannabis industry. I plan to be able to do a lot more for others in the cannabis industry and entrepreneurship.

I was telling someone how I want to focus more on women entrepreneurs. That’s really what’s at my core. I love the cannabis industry and think it’s awesome, but I want to focus on promoting female entrepreneurship, period. I feel like that’s something I’ll do as a mentor.

What makes you a Mogul Millennial?

I feel that the more you give, the more you receive. The more you give, the better the world is. That’s what promotes expansion in a person. I make myself a better person, then I help others do the same.

Photo credit: All About-It, LLC courtesy of Hope Wiseman and Mogul Millennial

Mogul Millennial, Inc. a media-tech platform curating actionable resources for Black entrepreneurs and corporate leaders #forusbyus. Follow @mogulmillennial on Instagram and Twitter, and check out our website at www.mogulmillennial.com.

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How This CMO is Transforming the Cannabis Industry For Your Health

What happens when women and cannabis join forces? As it turns out, success. dosist, an award-winning California-based wellness brand, is proof. Their proprietary cannabis pen offers a safe, consistent dose of formulas created to promote sleep, pain relief, calmness, and more. We were thrilled to partner with the company, named Fast Company’s most innovative brand in 2018, to host a happy hour our Miami Vision Summit. Below, we chat with Anne-Marie Dacyshyn, chief marketing officer, about what women bring to the table in the wellness industry and how dosist is transforming healthcare...one dose at a time.

You joined Dosist in July. What appealed to you about the company, and what did you most look forward to?

What appealed to me about joining dosist were three key and powerful things: First, it offered me the chance to be part of a monumental global shift where this incredibly powerful and therapeutic natural resource is on a trajectory towards widely adopted legalization, which is huge from a wellness perspective. Next, I was inspired by dosist in particular in that it had already pioneered and innovated a game-changing proprietary dose control device and targeted formulations, all aimed at helping people naturally manage their health and happiness. And finally, the leadership team and brand culture led by CEO Gunner Winston was beyond inspiring, so when it all added up I knew this was a chance to make history in not only transforming the cannabis category, but also transforming how people think about healthcare, working with an incredible and talented team along the way.

Women hold more executive positions in the cannabis industry than the average U.S. business. Do you think women bring a unique perspective to the category, and how do you see female-led companies changing the future of cannabis?

To start, at dosist we are 100% focused on the wellness side of cannabis use, and in fact are building a leading modern wellness brand vs. a cannabis brand. And I believe it is that important distinction and focus on health and wellness that has attracted an influx of women into the space and into our brand in particular, as consumer history has shown us that women have often been the catalysts in helping shape and drive the new global “modern wellness” platform as they continue to seek out and demand natural alternatives to support their wellness routines. So, from there it is only logical that more women are stepping in and helping drive this initiative and conversation through key roles, to help accelerate the access to and development of more cannabis-based wellness products.

As for how this influx shapes businesses at dosist we believe the best products and brands come out of companies with a culture that fosters and promotes diversified thinking across the board. So for us that comes from building a diverse leadership team that is not just about gender diversity, but also diversity across backgrounds and experience, and it’s all of these factors that are paramount to achieving our goals.

“There is still so much misconception and stigma that exists around this amazing plant, so it is imperative for us to ensure we are always educating first and foremost about its potential as a powerful therapeutic tool.”

Dosist is run by a more diverse leadership team than the average brand. What advantages does this have, from both a marketing perspective and an internal one?

We’re certainly proud to have a female CMO, CFO and a diverse team. But we’ve never thought about it in terms of hiring quotas. At dosist we are committed to developing talent around three principles – inspiration, collaboration, and accountability. And, do you share our vision of transforming healthcare? It’s those shared values across the team, combined with our commitment to innovation in products, therapeutic formulations and consumer experiences that inspire and differentiate us in empowering consumers to naturally manage their health and happiness.

What differentiates dosist from other companies in the cannabis space?

To start, at dosist we are focused on an entirely different approach in that we are building a leading modern wellness brand which uses cannabis to provide relief from some of today’s most common ailments through science and innovation. Our products and formulas are engineered to take the guesswork out of cannabis treatment, and create consistent, safe and effective results for our consumers.

We achieve this through a few key things. The first is our proprietary and award-winning dose pen, that uses superior vaporization technology to activate the key cannabis compounds in our targeted formulas and delivers a precise 2.25 mg dose each and every time, notifying the consumer of a complete dose with a slight vibration. Dose control is imperative to effectively using cannabis as a therapeutic tool, and we are the leaders in this technology and initiative.

Next, we worked with leading cannabis scientists to engineer our six targeted formulas:

Bliss, Sleep, Calm, Relief, Arouse and Passion, to deliver optimal health benefits without the sometimes overwhelming effects of THC. From reducing pain and inflammation to getting a better night’s sleep our formulas are expertly engineered to elevate your health and happiness naturally.

And last, we are dedicated to being the leader in providing education and awareness for consumers about cannabis. There is still so much misconception and stigma that exists around this amazing plant, so it is imperative for us to ensure we are always educating first and foremost about its potential as a powerful therapeutic tool. We are committed to breaking through the pre-existing barrier of misconception and ultimately removing the stigma that still exists.

What about your job makes you feel most fulfilled?

In short, all of it. From the opportunity to be a part of something that is so impactful to so many people’s lives and the incredible stories we hear from our customers every day, to the amazing and talented group of people and partners that I get to work with (like partnering up with Create & Cultivate at Art Basel!), it’s an incredible journey we are on to help people discover cannabis and utilize it as a safe, therapeutic alternative medicine. So it’s all of that and more that keeps me fulfilled, inspired and grateful.

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Green Queen: Why Women in Weed Have the Power to Change Everything

Let’s be blunt.

Jazmin Victoria Hupp co-founded Women Grow, the largest professional network in the cannabis industry. Since its launch in 2014, Women Grow has connected over 25,000 entrepreneurs at events in 45 cities across the US & Canada. The organization hit $1 million in revenue in 2015, with no outside funding.

Its focus is to connect and empower diverse people to launch national cannabis businesses and to serve diverse customers. Hupp herself is a self-described feminist who once told Edibles Mag, “I love the real meaning of feminism and I am angry the word has been f***d with by people who don’t believe that women and men should be equal.”

Again. Blunt.

She told us, “Women are better than anyone at working within a system that wasn’t created for their benefit.” Can’t say we disagree. And it’s why she’s a Green Queen, through and through.

Find out more from the founder below.

There’s a lot of water cooler talk about how legal marijuana could be the first billion-dollar industry not dominated by men. How does Women Grow factor into this? So, Women Grow is dedicated to “creating and cultivating”—women to be leaders of the cannabis industry. Why was it important for you to focus solely on women?

Women will purchase the majority of marijuana products after full legalization and the end of marijuana stigma. Marijuana is known for being a medicinal product, a wellness product, and a recreational product. On the medicinal side, women make the vast majority of medical decisions for their families and purchase 92% of over the counter medicines. On the wellness side, women are the prodimineent buyers of wellness services like yoga and acupuncture. On the recreational side women purchase the majority of wine & liquor that will be consumed at home. Women are desperate for a sugar-free and low calorie alternative to alcohol. As the stigma around marijuana ends, you’ll see women switch from a bottle of wine to a vaporizer at night. So since women will be the dominate purchasers of marijuana, it turns out that other women are best equipped to create the marijuana products and buying experiences that women want. Additionally operating a marijuana business today requires navigating a complex system not created for your success and it turns out women are better than anyone at working within a system that wasn’t created for their benefit.

I focus on women because they are the greatest untapped resource on this earth. They are already installed everywhere but working at half their capacity. When you upgrade the women, you upgrade the lives of everyone around them.

"I focus on women because they are the greatest untapped resource on this earth."

2015 you held your first summit. What was that like? What did you see that was inspiring?

Women Grow’s first summit was for just 125 women in the mountains of Colorado (the event has since grown to over 1,000). The black market of cannabis required business owners to be secretive and isolated from their peers. They had few people to ask questions or get support. We heard some stories from women in emotionally and physically abusive work relationships that had no one to turn to when what they were doing was illegal.

After legalization, women in weed were able to come out of hiding. By placing these women in community they were able to share knowledge and support for the first time. And we were able to take everyone through hours of business education to fundraise for their company. Now I get to attend office openings and anniversary parties of many of the companies founded after that first event. It’s an amazing feeling to see the staff of six women hired by one woman who sat in the front row of the event.

How has your business changed the last three years?

I ran Women Grow as CEO for the first two years and wow did I ever have a hero complex. I hated to see people struggle so I would give people the answers instead of mentoring them through the learning curve. So Women Grow expanded quickly to 66 cities and 3 countries but that growth wasn’t sustainable. I had built an large system that was dependent on me instead of creating independent leaders. This is one of the core reasons that we contracted when I left my role as CEO. I’m excited to see how Women Grow will blossom under Dr. Chandra Marcias, Gia Moron, and Kristina Garcia.

I also didn’t anticipate that many women had more experience fighting against each other than helping each other succeed. In my experience, women have a culture of destructive gossip that cycles negativity between each other. Instead of bringing feedback to the person who we’d like to challenge, we bitch to our friends about it.

Why do you think it’s important to decriminalize weed?

Cannabis (aka weed, pot, marijuana) is one of the safest and most effective plants we were gifted on earth. Our body naturally produces cannabinoids (the elements within cannabis) to regulate our body. When your body’s regulation is off, cannabis can supplement.

Cannabis is also one of the most flexible medicines, specializing in many of the symptoms women suffer from most. I use cannabis to fall asleep at night, to reduce inflammation in my body after yoga, and to balance my stomach when I eat the Standard American Diet.  

Women Grow had no outside funding. What did you know about launching a business?

I caught the entrepreneurial bug as a kid and started launching websites at age 11. I started running theatre productions shortly after that and theatre teaches you a lot about running a business. You’ve got to pick your strategy (the play), hire your team (casting), get everyone to work together (rehearsals), sell tickets (marketing & sales), and deliver your product (opening night). Most companies never get to delivering their product so theatre was a great container to practice that cycle with lower stakes.

While I was in college for theatre, my computer broke and so I took a job at Apple for the employee discount. At age 20, I transferred to an independent Apple store called Tekserve in New York City and got a deep dive on every shade of a sales, repair, and consulting business. As an internal entrepreneur at Tekserve I got to create new offerings within the container of an already operating business. I got great at the creation, marketing, and launch of new things but was never responsible for operating what I created for more than a year. During that time I was also a director at Women 2.0, helping women become VC-backed founders with events in dozens of cities. Through Women 2.0 I was immersed in equity funding and Lean Startup methods.

"When your body’s regulation is off, cannabis can supplement."

In the Spring of 2014, my grandmother died and I took a few days off to reexamined my life purpose and what I was contributing to the world. Cannabis had just been fully legalized in Colorado and Washington so I decided to visit Denver for the first legal 4/20 celebration. I went to a huge event with a hundred different cannabis businesses and only met one female business owner. I realized that in this new blue ocean, women could have an unfair advantage in what would become a care-based industry. With that in mind, I met Jane West, who had already started to organize female business owners in Denver and we launched Women Grow in August of 2014.

For new entrepreneurs, what is your advice for starting?

We launched Women Grow with about $26,000 in founding memberships. Instead of going to investors for our startup capital, we went directly to our customers, female entrepreneurs, and built the business to about a $1M in revenue. The challenge with going to investors early is you have to immediately start serving two masters, what your customers want and what your investors want. By building the initial business on just customer revenue, you are more likely to create a business aligned with what your customers want before confusing it with investor advisors. You’ll also be able to get much better terms for those investments when you have a proven model versus them funding an idea on paper.

Starting your company based solely on revenue ensures that you scale your expenses with your revenue. If you use your outside funding for operating costs, you often end up in a situation with a high burn rate (money spent exceeding your revenues) and a ticking clock that forces you to raise even more money before you’ve proven your product works. Instead prove you can deliver something your customers want at a low cost and then raise funds to market the fuck out of it. Most companies raise money before getting that product fit correct and burn through it.

So many women are struggling at work. They’re burning out. You create happiness through a practice of yoga, meditation, cannabis consumption, and self-love. Can you chat about how these practices have improved your quality of life?

First I had to realize that my inner reality was creating my outer reality. By that I mean if I felt scarce, I would experience scarcity in my business. If I felt in flow, I would experience flow in my business. I stopped taking a salary from my company for the last two years to focus on self-work to work on myself and clear out the inner debris.

We all know that working out your physical body improves how your body functions. What I found is that I also had an emotional (a.k.a. energetic body) that needed just as much care. I tried dozens of practices and my current favorites are: meditation, Kundalini Yoga, Emotional Freedom Technique, ecstatic dance, sanskrit chant, and cannabis-infused baths.

This summer I’m launching a new company based on this self-work, called Rage Palace. Rage Palace is an event for women to release anger and workout their emotional bodies. We’re bringing together dozens of local practitioners to lead women through activities from sledgehammering a car to dance to crying on a grandmother’s shoulder. We’ll launch in San Francisco this summer and then tour the event as we perfect the formula.

What’s an exciting product you’ve seen hit the market?

I’m loving Treatwell’s Wellness & Balance tinctures. These are non-psychoactive, meaning they don’t get you “high” but give you all the benefits of cannabis for your body. It’s like taking the vitamin you didn’t know your body was missing.

You were named a genius entrepreneur. What’s it like to be called a Green Queen?

Honestly I don’t get called a Green Queen by anyone but reporters, they love puns. [editor's note: it's true, weed do.] 

What’s your proudest accomplishment to date?

Losing 60 pounds by changing everything in my life that made me want to overeat instead of following some silly diet. I realized that food was my go-to comfort substance. It kept me awake and made me feel better in the short term. In the long term it was masking how I was abusing my body to make money. We hired a new CEO for Women Grow and I spent a year pulling apart all my bad habits. Losing weight wasn’t even a goal, it just naturally came off as I stopped compromising myself.  

What do you hope to see from women in weed?

Everything. Women in weed have the power to change our workplace cultures, our medical outcomes, our wellness practices, and even how we party on Friday night. I’m excited to see how replacing alcohol with more thoughtful substances might lead to a decrease in sexual assault. I’m excited to see how commercial hemp can replace fossil fuels in every instance where we’re using non-renewables. I’m excited to see how living in alignment with nature could be.

What would you consider your superpower?

I can tell what you need before you even know you need it. Basically, I can read people and anticipate their needs. It’s what makes coming up with new businesses so much fun because I can make stuff that you hadn’t thought of, but once you see it you know you need it.

Want more from the cannabis culture? Check back on our Green Queens series in partnership with MISSBISH. We'll be featuring a woman in weed per week! 

Want even more? Register to participate in the Slack Session co-hosted with MISSBISH. Green Queens in the Cannabis Industry is going down April 25th at 6:30 PST, mark your calendars and sign up here. 

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Find Out Why Women Are Running the Weed Industry

graphic credit: Moon Bacon

Karson Humiston is the founder of Vangst— the cannabis industry's largest and leading recruiting resource. Since launching in 2015, her company has successfully connected over 3,000 skilled workers with jobs. 

It’s an industry that’s growing. And that is incredibly exciting for Humiston and other women who are getting in at the ground level. 

Humiston has always had that entrepreneurial kick. When she was younger her family lived on a golf course. At night, the budding business woman would head out with a bag and collect golf balls. She’d clean them and sell them back to the golfers the following day. “I convinced the kids in my neighborhood to help too. They set up second stands and I would pay them.” 

So how did she go from manicured greens to the green industry? The same as other entrepreneurs— she recognized a need and the ability to fill a void. A new report from New Frontier Data projects that by 2020 the legal cannabis market will create more than a quarter of a million jobs. The legal cannabis market was worth an estimated $7.2 billion in 2016 and is projected to grow at a compound annual rate of 17%.

That’s a lot of jobs in an economy that has seen better days. And what does a growing industry need? Recruiters. Good ones. Huminston is great. 

We caught up with the impresario to talk cannabis, job creation, and why there are so many women at the top of the weed chain. 

Can you tell us a bit about how you got started, the backstory of what led you down this career path? For some, it’s certainly not an obvious choice. 

When I was in college I had a student travel company. After I sold my student travel company I realized I had a really big network of students and recent grads. I was trying to figure out what these group of people needed. I realized they needed jobs. And an industry that was very interesting to me because of the high growth and career opportunity potential was the cannabis. industry. I went to career services [at St. Lawrence in upstate New York] to get their general sense on the cannabis industry. They were horrified. They were not interested in helping people find jobs in the cannabis industry, helping alumni find jobs or current students. So I went to a cannabis trade show to do a little of my own investigating and was blown away by the types of jobs that were available. From accounting jobs, marketing jobs, cultivation jobs, there were a ton of jobs and there was no source to help people find jobs in the space. So I literally graduated and got in my car and drove to Denver where I didn’t know anybody. I had no place to live. I lived in a hotel for the first half. And I started the company first focusing on young professionals in the cannabis industry. 

"

I started the company first focusing on young professionals in the cannabis industry."

So how did you make those first connections because weed is legal in Colorado but not in a lot of other states. How did you break down doors?

So the business used to be called ‘Gradjuana,’ which was connecting college students and recent college grads with cannabis jobs. Like I said I was at the trade show and I pitched myself as being with Gradjuana. I said, “Hey I have a huge network of college grads and recent grads. I'm a college grad myself and I had this other company that allowed me to help build this huge network for other people. So I could help you find your next entry level person for just a small fee.” At that first trade show I spoke with everyone at every booth asking, “What positions are you hiring for?” With anything entry level I would send it out to my personal database. People would apply and I would interview them and check their references from past on campus jobs and then connect them with the company. So when I moved to Denver, to be honest it was a door-to-door strategy I didn’t have the money for some huge marketing campaign. I would walk into dispensaries or people’s offices and say, “I’m Karson with Gradjuana and I heard you’re hiring an intern,” —  even if they weren’t. And they would say, “Actually we’ve been talking about hiring an intern can you help us?” I went all in that summer, connecting a lot of interns and recent grads with cannabis companies. In September a company came to me and said they needed a technical writer, construction project manager, and an executive assistant. They didn't want entry level, but someone with 5-7 years with experience. They said, "We are paying our current search firm 20% of annual salary, you obviously don’t seem to know what you are doing so we’ll give you 8% if you can find these roles." At that point a huge lightbulb went off in my head and I decided to take a risk and go out and hire my first two recruiters.

How long have you been in business now?

Two years ago we realized there was an opportunity far beyond interns and recent grads. That’s when we rebranded to be a full search firm. Fast forward, now we are a team of 25 employees. It has really grown a lot since door to door intern placement. I got my first official placement on July 12, 2015. I'll never forget it. Her name is Kiara and it was an intern placement for Open Bake.

So it’s been almost exactly two years to date? I assume the bulk placements are happening in states where the industry is legal…?

I can’t believe it’s been 2 years. Right now 29 states have legal medical marijuana and eight states are recreationally legal. What is really interesting for our business is that a lot of clients are out of state.

Why is that?

So for example, a group in Maryland is awarded a license. So they need to hire some experts from within the industry. They’ll engage us to pull a director of cultivation to relocate from Colorado. Someone who understand how to grow cannabis in a potentially a 50-1000 square foot growth facility. Who understands how to come in and build the SOP, who can write the training manual,who understands compliance, how to source the equipment, how to source the nutrients and relocate their expertise to Maryland. We’ve chosen to stay in Colorado because this is where we started, we still have an awesome client base here but with that said about 40% of our clients are outside Colorado. A lot of them are in states that are just coming up.

Do you ever experience push back from the community? Especially in places where it's not legal?

Honestly, the community has been super receptive to it. One of the things we’re doing this year is we’re throwing some career fairs in different places and it is such a job stimulator.  There are currently 125,000 people employed in the states and we’re supposed to get up to 250,000 by 2020 —- meaning there will be more jobs created in cannabis than manufacturing. Look at Colorado, their unemployment rate is less than 2% right now. Not only is it creating a ton of tax revenue but a ton of jobs.

Even though it’s a relatively new industry, it’s hard to argue with numbers. We recently spoke with a female grower who said it’s interesting an interesting time because it is new and profitable. Women can get in at the ground and grow a career as the same rate a a man. Are you seeing any kind of gender split in applicants or placements?

Since it is a new industry there are so many opportunities for people to get in on the ground floor. And because we live in an age where women are so empowered, they are taking this opportunity of a leveled playing field to start companies. It hasn’t been predominantly run by men for the past 100 years. I think we’re all kind of starting at ground zero like you indicated earlier. I think that is awesome. So, last month of the people we placed in jobs, 63% of our placements were women. And at our company we have 19 female employees six guys. 

"Last month of the people we placed in jobs, 63% of our placements were women."

Tweet this. 

You seem pretty fearless and willing to put yourself out there. Have there been any moments of doubt?

Yes of course. I think there are always times when you get to the end of a crazy week and you’re sitting there thinking, “Holy cow what am I doing?” But then I look around and we have helped over 3,500 people get jobs, we have 25 great people who work here, and we are doing a lot of really cool things that are paying off. But I’m from an East Coast conservative family, friends of my family are pretty conservatives, and many parents told me that if I did this, it was going to ruin my career. I’ve always been inspired to be in politics some day and many of them said, “You’ll never have a shot to be in politics, this is going to be the biggest mistake of your life.” Hearing that from people I’ve looked up to my whole life, I remember on the drive out here sort of feeling sick to my stomach, questioning if I was making the right choice, asking myself should I turn around and go back and find a job in Boston or New York like everyone else I know? And those types of moments don’t stop just because it’s working well now. I am now committed to the idea, which I think is a huge piece for anyone who is an entrepreneur to commit and stick through it and stay confident along the way. I know where we’re going and so far it’s working. I need to stay confident and things will continue to work out. 

Arianna Schioldager is Editor-in-Chief at Create & Cultivate. You can follow her @ariannawrotethis. 

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