Blunt Business

The new multifaceted Cannabis Industry with Michael Apstein founding partner of Primary Growth Partners. Our guest has served on both for and non-profit boards, as an expert witness, has won numerous industry awards, and been profiled in the Wall Street Journal, Success, Money, and on NBC’s Dateline. He is especially proud to have mentored executives and entrepreneurs towards their own success with several former mentees now serving companies as CEO. Well-known cannabis brands are doing things right from a marketing perspective.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Creating iconic global brand strategies for cannabis with Conrad Lisco, Chief Marketing Officer of Fyllo. The company my next guest represents combining agency experience creating iconic global brand strategies with SaaS platform go-to-market rigor to accelerate growth and help brands and publishers realize the full potential of cannabis. Fyllo was founded and built by a team of former ad-tech employees and uses algorithms to track the changing landscape of cannabis laws around the U.S. Because brands can be penalized for advertising in states where products are illegal, the platform prevents digital ad impressions from showing up in places where they’re banned at the state or local level. Fyllo’s CannaBrain marketing technology ingests and interrogates billions of data points, allowing brands to safely build and execute advertising campaigns while also enabling publishers to create and monetize compliant ad inventory.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.

The beneficial effects of hemp products with Nick Womack Director of business development at GA Xtracts. Rapidly shifting regulations have resulted in a landscape where manufacturers are left without a trusted and ethical standard for reliably sourcing CBD. The founders of GA Xtracts are working to secure the long-term sustainability of the CBD industry by establishing connections with the FDA and university research groups to identify the most effective quality standards. GA Extracts shares a vision to become a multi-faceted global leader in the industrial hemp business. They want to empower people with natural and safe products. GA believes pharmaceutical style processes and approaches to industrial hemp and the extraction of the molecules found inside this amazing plant.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Vaporization technology and it's future with Mladen Barbaric, Founder/CEO of Airgraft. We're joined by the Founder and CEO of a company that designs, develops, and sells vaporization hardware and software. They describe themselves as a responsible vaporization technology company headquartered in Montreal, Canada. The company has launched the Airgraft Clean Vaporizer, which includes cannabis concentrate pods, and an app to control the actual vaporizer. Made of polished ceramic, Airgraft elegantly conceals a suite of technology features that give control and transparency to users. The system introduces consumable pod traceability, enabling Airgraft to optimize vapor, remove burn and perfectly serve different plant oils.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Craft cannabis brands with Jamie Shaw Chief Communications & Culture Officer of Pasha Brands. Our guest works for Canada's largest organization of craft cannabis brands. Shaw is a founding partner of Groundwork Consulting, a co-author of the first Lift & Co. Retail Cannabis Training Course, a cannabis career training instructor at Kwantlen Polytechnic University, and sits on various boards and advisory committees, including the BC Independent Cannabis Association. One of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s justifications for legalizing recreational cannabis was choking out the black market. Regulated alternatives to black-market weed would, in theory, draw customers away from the criminal organizations selling it: similar ideas ended alcohol prohibition in North America.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Building an integrated portfolio of cannabis retail and more with Brian Baca, CEO of ikänik Farms, Inc. Our guest is the CEO of a new company working on building an integrated portfolio of cannabis retail dispensaries, cultivation facilities, offering iconic, inspiring hand-crafted cannabis brands, delivered in an unsurpassed retail experience. When we look at cannabis becoming a global emerging commoditized market in the future, we actually took a step back. As opposed to taking a traditional MSO approach – which everyone else has done, and I think it’s very overworked – we needed to really look at what the big picture is…and the big picture, if you really want to be a player, is global positioning. You can’t really compete unless you have equal footing. Brian recently received all necessary licenses required to begin the construction of a cannabis camp in Adelanto, California. This base camp will significantly enhance Ikänik’s ability to serve key verticals such as cultivation, extraction, and distribution

A consistent consumer experience and cannabis product with David Kessler SVP Horticultural Solutions, TriGrow. Our guest is part of a company that has created a solution to deliver a consistent consumer experience and cannabis product. Their software and hardware solutions will standardize and help to automate the cannabis cultivation process. TriGrow’s cannabis cultivation solution hardware and software are meant to standardize and automate cultivation. The software solution allows for a consistent product regardless of the location of the cultivation facility so that MMJ’s customers can have a similar consumption experience no matter where they buy the product. Not unlike McDonald’s and Coca-Cola. The consistency is also beneficial from a business standpoint as it gives the grower some predictability and that allows the company to have reliable information which helps with business planning. Green Market Report reported on the grow facilities, but what set this one apart was the vertical stacking of the Tri

Clean Green certified flower and pre-roll products with Jamie Warm, Co-founder, and CEO of Henry's Original. This episode is one of the co-founders of Henry’s Original, a craft cannabis brand started by local farmers in Laytonville, CA, providing sun-grown, Clean Green-certified cannabis throughout California. Henry’s produces Clean Green certified flower and pre-roll products that are cultivated entirely in Mendocino County, California. You hold thirteen state licenses which include nursery, cultivation, processing, distribution and a retail dispensary license. Your company has more than 100,000 square feet of cultivation in California. His company announced it closed a Series B investment led by Merida Capital Partners (Merida), a private equity firm focused solely on the cannabis and hemp industries. Henry’s intends to use the funds to expand its cultivation, processing, sales and marketing operations.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privac

Premium OTCQX and OTCQB Markets with Jason Paltrowitz Director & Executive Vice President, OTC Markets Group. Our next guest manages his company's international and domestic Corporate Services business, supporting more than 1,200 companies that trade on the premium OTCQX and OTCQB Markets. NYC-based OTC Markets Group, operator of financial markets for 10,000 U.S. and global securities, currently cross-trades dozens of cannabis companies with primary listings on the Canadian Securities Exchange -- providing these companies with access to U.S.-based investors.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Top performing marijuana stocks with Meni Morim Interim CEO at Namaste Technologies. Our next guest is interim CEO of a company that has been named as 1 of the 5 Top Performing marijuana stocks since the beginning of 2016 by Yahoo Finance. They launched an online portal launched last year which provides free access to medical cannabis consultations through secure video conferencing. Their unique business model has created an e-commerce platform where there are 30 websites in more than 20 countries, diversifying the revenue stream. Namaste recently signed an agreement with 2103486 Alberta Ltd. operating as "ARBR" to incorporate NamasteMD into the ARBR clinical referral platform.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Changing how you consume your CBD with Aaron Morris and Chris Joseph Co-Founders of Wild Roots Spirits. Our next guests founded a unique company, based in Portland, Ore., that's changing how you consume your vodka and now your CBD, too. While similarly, Wild Roots focuses on creating premium, natural, handcrafted spirits that are unique to the Pacific Northwest but can be enjoyed anywhere. Forbes recognized WYLD CBD as having some of the best CBD Gummies in the Market today. They heralded by saying: “As exclusively a CBD gummies company, Wyld CBD has a great lineup of premium options, including lemon, blueberry, huckleberry, and raspberry, which are all blended and infused with real fruits. As a broad-spectrum extract, these vegan treats are a darling of the list and one that is worth every penny.”Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

The anticipated boom in hemp agriculture with Gunhee Park CEO and Founder of Populum CBD. Our next guest is pursuing bringing their brand’s hemp farming from Colorado to Arizona and will be part of the anticipated boom in hemp agriculture in the state. With the explosion of CBD as a new frontier in modern self-care, Populum has set out to create a modern and approachable hemp oil brand unbridled by the confines of the stigma attached to hemp products, especially during their recently-launched rebrand, which was designed with the intention to make the product feel safe and trustworthy, as well as break the "sketchiness" that people may feel when shopping for hemp CBD oil. That was back in November.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Bringing highly designed products to cannabis with Maggie Connors, Founder of Besito. My next guest founded an effort intended on bringing highly designed products to the market in a way that gives back to the community. This brand advocates for LGBTQ rights, criminal justice reform, and the advancement of scientific research in cannabis. Besito has announced a partnership with Equity First Alliance, with the release of a powerful campaign featuring advocates, formerly incarcerated individuals, and their family members, amplifying the voices of those impacted by the War on Drugs. A Record Shouldn’t Last A Lifetime, is a call to action and urgent reminder of the moral obligation of those who are profiting off the legal cannabis industry to fight for equity and reparative justice. The multi-media campaign puts an intimate and human face to those who have been most harmed, featuring the subjects’ compelling personal stories in their own environments.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy &

The leading cannabis price comparison platform with Dan Nelson, CEO of Wikileaf. My next guest is CEO of a company of the leading cannabis price comparison platform with more than 3,800 legal recreational dispensaries, medical dispensaries, and brands listed across the U.S. and Canada. Wikileaf is a price comparison platform for recreational and medicinal cannabis consumers. You provide consumers with instant price comparison among dispensaries in their immediate vicinity. Wikileaf displays menus and prices for recreational and medical dispensaries in 7 states (Washington, Oregon, California, Montana, Nevada, Arizona, and Colorado). Wikileaf just recently became one of a handful of cannabis stocks to be listed on the Canadian Securities Exchange (CSE).Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

A gap in the world of cannabis with Jon Lowen the CoFounder of Surfside. My next guest is dedicated to building efficient, intelligent solutions that harness the power of data in today’s multi-dimensional marketplace. His expertise lends itself across multiple programming languages and is a specialist in machine learning, big data, content personalization, and real-time decisioning engines. Surfside is a customer acquisition platform that specializes in activating and expanding 1st party data for marketing, insights, and measurement. So, Surfside is currently focused on the cannabis industry but you’re working across verticals to help businesses understand, retain and acquire new customers. TechZone 360 reports that AI is being implemented in the cannabis industry is through personalized consumer sales.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Launch and scale cannabis brands with Ori Bytton CEO & Founder of Natura Life + Science. Ori's is the CEO and founder of a co-manufacturing facility that’s creating the world’s most sophisticated platform to launch and scale cannabis brands. He came from the Solar industry upon arriving at the States from the homeland of Israel. Ori gained interest in the cannabis industry by learning and breaking down all of the aspects of the supply chain. As well as finding that regulations and supply chain issues were making it difficult for canna-businesses to succeed, no matter how good their product was. He believes the two biggest problems in the cannabis industry are knowledge and consumer trust.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Retail Cannabis Purchasing Guide for cannabis dispensaries with Ryan Smith, the CEO & Founder of LeafLink. Since our last interview Leaflink is now live in 22 territories across the United States and Canada. It has offices in Los Angeles, New York, and Toronto. cannabis retailers and brands use LeafLink to manage over $1B+ per year in wholesale orders. Leaflink just released a new Retail Cannabis Purchasing Guide for cannabis dispensaries with best practices from leading cannabis retailers to help them take control of their purchasing process. The processes retailers use to evaluate vendors can vary a lot. However, having a process in place, rather than talking to vendors haphazardly, makes vendor selection much more manageable.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Simplifying compliance for the cannabis industry with Kyle Sherman, CEO of Flowhub. This episode we talk with the CEO of Denver-based inventory management and POS platform for dispensaries that just launched the first-of-its-kind Stash App, a simple mobile application custom-built to streamline dispensary operations, maximize efficiency, and reduce inventory management cycles all from the palm of your hand. Many cannabis retailers are left to track their inventory by either piecing together several workflows and tools or manually tracking and performing audits with pen and paper or spreadsheets.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Leading recruiting platform in the cannabis industry with Karson Humiston Founder & CEO of Vangst. Our next guest is the CEO of the leading recruiting platform in the cannabis industry. She was featured on the 2018 Forbes 30 under 30 lists. Since launching in 2016, this platform has connected more than 10,000 people with jobs at over 650 leading cannabis businesses around the US. Women are making their mark on the cannabis industry. Of the 166 companies we surveyed, 38.5% of cannabis employees are female-identifying individuals.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Vape devices and the issues in the market with Corey Mangold, Co-Founder & CEO of Orchid Essentials. Our guest’s company is addressing many of the issues that they personally encountered using vape devices on the market. With so many different vaping options to choose from these days, how can you know if you’re getting the best vape experience? Vape pens consist of two pieces, a battery, and a cartridge. Most pens today were designed for nicotine e-juice and not thicker cannabis oils. Also, many vape brands on the market have tiny mouthpieces with not much airflow. Think of it like trying to suck a very thick milkshake through a coffee stirrer...v hard!. Orchid strived to build “superior hardware and high-quality extracts that make your device consistent and will not compromise flavor with impurities from the manufacturing process. The Orchid Essentials vape pen was created with superior hardware and the highest quality extracts. They wanted the design of the pen to be similar to a medical device - qualit