Seed to CEO

Jessica shares:

• Why she left her own IT services company to work with cannabis.
• The differences between heading a private firm and a publicly traded one.
• How the cannabis industry has evolved over the past decade.
• Where the next opportunities for the market might be.

Who is Jessica Billingsley?

Jessica Billingsley is an accomplished innovator, executive and board member in public and private international technology with more than 20 years of experience. She co-founded MJ Freeway in 2010, where she served as president until April 2018 and CEO until the company was acquired by MTech Acquisition Corp. to form Akerna. Shortly after that acquisition, Jessica led Akerna to become the first cannabis technology company listed on Nasdaq.

An eviction notice on 4/20. That’s how Jesce Horton’s first foray into state-licensed cannabis cultivation ended in 2017. Part of it had to do with a one-in-a-million regulatory quirk that forced him to shut down a successful grow, and part of it was not being “passionate” about a not-so-successful retail arm. But Jesce remained confident in his process and product while never losing his love for the craft, so he tried again. The result is Lowd, Horton’s “dream company” that “embodies the art of urban craft cultivation.”

In this episode of Seed to CEO, Jesce shares:

• How his education and experience in industrial engineering helped elevate his operations.
• The importance of authenticity in creating loyalty and differentiating your brand in saturated markets.
• Lessons he learned from his first foray into the regulated cannabis market.
• How to raise capital for a second company after your first one fails.

Who is Jesce Horton?

Jesce Horton, CEO at Portland, Oregon-based Lowd, is a professional engineer specializing in automation and energy management. He started his cannabis cultivation journey growing medical marijuana in his basement for two elderly cancer patients. Jesce is the co-founder of the Minority Cannabis Business Association and a former chair and current member of the board of directors at the Resource Innovation Institute. He also sits on the Oregon Cannabis Association’s board and is an advisory board member for MJBizDaily. Jesce and his wife, Jeannette Ward Horton, founded the nonprofit organization Nu Project, which supports Black and brown cannabis entrepreneurs.

• How they tap the intersection of sports and cannabis.
• How sentiment in professional sports is changing.
• Why building a strong team with varied skill sets is critical.
• How to pitch your story without pitching.

Who are Ricky Williams and Eric Hammond?

In the sports world, Ricky Williams is perhaps best known as a bruising running back who tore through NFL defenses for a dozen years. But in the cannabis industry, he’s known as the longtime advocate who put his professional sports career on the line for the plant. Ricky has founded an herbal medicine company and a software business, and today he’s busy running his newest cannabis venture, Highsman, which he founded with Eric Hammond, a brand specialist. Eric cut his teeth on cannabis while at Greenlane Holdings, a cannabis distribution and supply company. Before cannabis, Eric specialized in business development in the audio industry as well as having founded his own scrap-metal recycling company.

• How systemic problems for everyone impede equity.
• Why partnerships – even some that might seem strange to outsiders – are critical to achieving success in cannabis policy.
• How the association is working to change the trajectory of the industry.
• Where she sees successes and failures in U.S. cannabis business.

Who is Amber Littlejohn?

As an attorney and advocate for emerging and embattled industries, Amber has developed and implemented creative strategies for industry, associations, nonprofits and other stakeholder groups. As senior policy adviser at the Minority Cannabis Business Association (MCBA), she helped develop and implement the group’s federal policy program. Through her advocacy work, she has developed creative strategies to expand and stabilize emerging markets by engaging and supporting underrepresented business interests and communities. Amber became “employee No. 1” at the MCBA when she took on the mantle of executive director in 2020.

• Why it’s important to immerse yourself in the cannabis business culture before making big changes.
• How cannabis and its consumers are different from other products and consumers.
• How to thrive in increasingly competitive relationships by building customers relationships.
• Tips to manage supply-chain squeezes, such as employing better analytics.

Who is Simon Nankervis?

Simon Nankervis became CEO of The Source, a vertically integrated cannabis business based in Nevada, in April 2020, a few months after becoming a consultant for the company during its restructuring. The Australia native started his career as a lawyer, then jumped into fashion retail, including C-suite appointments with American Eagle Outfitters, DSW and the Camuto Group. The wealthy Schottenstein family, which owns some of those businesses, is also an investor in The Source and asked Simon for advice on rebuilding the brand. He fell in love with the work, and the rest is history.

In this episode, Hope shares:

• How she realized the need for better genetics in cannabis.
• How her experience as a staff scientist at NASA helped her build her self-confidence.
• Why good business partners need more than common goals to succeed.
• Why tissue culture is a solid starting point for quality biomass to support the entire cannabis supply chain.

Who is Hope Jones?

Hope Jones is a veteran plant scientist who immersed herself in the plant world long before jumping into cannabis. Her experience includes staff scientist at NASA, where she helped grow plants in outer space; a tenure at the University of Arizona’s world-renowned Controlled Environment Agriculture Center, where she used her extensive micropropagation skills and knowledge to rescue endangered plant species; and a stint as a bartender, which she credits for her ability to connect with people. She launched her first cannabis company, Phoenix-based Emergent Cannabis Sciences, in 2016, and her second, Superior Phenos, in 2020.

The cannabis industry wasn’t front of mind when Cassandra Farrington set out to launch a resource for entrepreneurs. But as she and her business partner were looking for the right segment to provide their skill sets to back in 2010, the cannabis industry found them. Eventually the two set aside their other business endeavors to focus on building MJBiz into the brand you see today.

In this episode of Seed to CEO, Cassandra shares:

• What she saw as the opportunity in the cannabis industry in those early days.
• How and why they bootstrapped the company rather than seeking outside funding.
• Why in-person events were critical for the developing industry.
• Why now was the right time to sell MJBiz.

When John Lord, a former head of a child-safety-seat manufacturer, started in the cannabis industry, he was viewed with suspicion by legacy operators because he was an outsider. But the CEO of Denver-based LivWell Enlightened Health quickly became a believer in the product. Cannabis was unlike any other product John had sold, but he realized that to successfully sell it, he still needed standard business practices.

In this season finale of Seed to CEO, Lord dishes on the early days of building a cannabis company as well as:

• How technology and standard operating procedures can vastly improve your operations.
• Why looking beyond today’s ecosystem is critical for long-term growth.
• How changing regulations set the stage for LivWell’s acquisition strategy.
• Why now was the right time for LivWell to be the acquired rather than the acquirer.

Who is John Lord?

John Lord is the CEO of LivWell, a vertically integrated cannabis company operating in Colorado and Michigan. LivWell was acquired by Chicago-based multistate operator PharmaCann in October. New Zealand “born and raised,” John started in dairy farming before building one of the most successful child products companies in the world, selling in major retailers such as Walmart, Toys R Us and Montgomery Ward. John sold that company and retired at 49, but boredom quickly set in and the cannabis industry was just getting started. So he unretired to launch the company that would become LivWell.

Jeannette Ward Horton loved her time in corporate America, working for such mainstream giants as Coca-Cola, but the experience ultimately left her wanting to do something more meaningful. Enter: cannabis. From her early days in the industry, Jeannette noticed a gap in participation between white owners and others, so she decided to change it. She founded NuProject with her husband, Jesce Horton, to give minority entrepreneurs a way to get their piece of the cannabis industry pie.

In this episode, Jeannette shares:

• How she identified what BIPOC communities needed to benefit from the burgeoning industry.
• What it took to launch a program such as NuProject.
• How she hopes her program and work will change the face of cannabis.
• Where the industry can do better.

Who is Jeannette Ward Horton?

Before entering the cannabis industry, Jeannette had a 15-year career in marketing and communications at companies such as Coca-Cola, The Home Depot and UPS. She switched to the cannabis industry in 2015 to lead marketing and public relations for Denver-based technology company Akerna. Her drive to do more to make her new industry a better place for “Black and brown” entrepreneurs took her to the Minority Cannabis Business Association (MCBA), where she helped develop policy plans. She founded NuProject to help put those theories and policies into play and provide underrepresented communities with a way to benefit from the cannabis industry.

Sara Gullickson didn’t have much business experience of any sort when she got the chance to buy DispensaryPermits.com. She jumped at the opportunity, working and learning furiously to build it into a successful cannabis consultancy. But when an industry big shot told her no one would want to buy what she had built, she doubted herself - but only briefly. She ultimately sold that firm for an enviable sum. Today, she’s back in the cannabis industry with a new boutique consulting firm, The Cannabis Business Advisors, and as a license holder herself.

In this episode of Seed to CEO, Sara shares insights into: 

• Aligning your company’s strengths with your market’s needs.
• Why having the right team around you is critical.
• How “telling stories” can make your application stand out in competitive markets.
• How to prepare your company for sale.

Who is Sara Gullickson?

Sara Gullickson is a marketer-turned-cannabis success story. At 27, she broke into cannabis even though she knew little about business. She led DispensaryPermits.com for nine years before selling it to a publicly traded company in 2019. Sara then took some time off to have children but realized she had a passion for the cannabis industry and the opportunities it provided. Then, during the COVID-19 pandemic, she launched her second firm, The Cannabis Business Advisors.

When Jill Ellsworth, founder and CEO of Willow Industries in Denver, looked to bring her food and beverage safety knowledge to this new industry, she noticed a huge gap in the process of getting safe, clean cannabis to consumers: a “kill step” to eradicate pathogens. Legalization might be spreading rapidly, but testing is still trying to catch up – and the lack of regulations at the time Jill launched Willow required the creation of such a step. In this episode, Jill talks about how initial process failure eventually led to a product and process with global aspirations. She shares:

• The steps she took to figure out the best mechanism to meet a broad industry need.
• How she blended bootstrapping, outside investors and debt to finance her startup.
• Why consumer safety should be front of mind for any cannabis entrepreneur – and how it helped her land investors.
• How she figured out the best operating model for her company.

Who is Jill Ellsworth?

Before getting into cannabis, Jill founded and ran Vibrant Earth Juices, a producer of cold-pressed fruit and vegetable juices. That experience in nutrition was critical to Willow’s formulation. She also founded and led Vibrant Earth Distribution, whose alcoholic kombucha was sold in Whole Foods Market and Kroger before she decided that driving a truck just wasn’t for her and sold the business to Sunrise Beverage.

Oakland, California-based Harborside is one of the oldest cannabis dispensaries in the U.S. But when the company went public a few years ago, it had to adapt to some new challenges – and new challengers. In 2020, for example, a group of disgruntled shareholders challenged leadership and ultimately overturned the board of directors. In this episode, Matt Hawkins, Harborside’s chair and interim CEO, talks about how the company faced the new challenges and laid the groundwork for future growth.

Matt shares:

• The different challenges that private and public companies face.
• Why going public isn’t always the best option for companies.
• Steps Harborside has taken to become a fully vertically integrated platform cannabis company in California.
• How to navigate the complex regulatory environment in California.

Who is Matt Hawkins?

Matt Hawkins currently wears several hats. He is the founder and CEO of Entourage Effect Capital (formerly Cresco Capital Partners), a cannabis-focused private investment firm, and he also serves as chair and interim CEO of Harborside, one of the most iconic businesses in the marijuana industry.

Before Cresco, Matt was a partner and president of a private real estate investment company that acquired real estate-owned and nonperforming loans from banks and financial institutions across the country. He was also co-founder of San Jacinto Partners, a fund focused on the bulk acquisition of single-family residential assets. He got into cannabis early, after seeing opportunities related to real estate in Denver.

Lilach Mazor Power, CEO of the Giving Tree Dispensary in Arizona, launched a vertically integrated medical marijuana operation in 2012, successfully navigating a market beset with strict rules and hostile politicians. And then, when voters legalized adult-use cannabis in the 2020 election, Lilach thought she’d have time to prepare for the transition. Arizona had other ideas.

In this episode, Lilach talks with MJBiz CEO Chris Walsh about:

• How she pivoted her operations from medical to recreational in less than one week.
• The financial, legal, real estate, organizational and workforce demands of launching a cannabis business.
• Surviving unrealistic business plans, human error and the race to the bottom on prices.

Who is Lilach Mazor Power?

Lilach grew up in Israel before moving to the U.S. in her mid-20s. She spent many years in the restaurant industry but held a lifelong dream of owning her own business. When Arizona legalized medical marijuana, she saw her opportunity and founded Giving Tree Dispensary. Since then, Lilach has become one of the best-known leaders on the national cannabis industry landscape. Her first piece of advice: “If you meet people that say that everything is good, they haven't been humbled and they're going to get humbled on your dime - walk away.”

After investing in and launching several cannabis companies, Jim Makoso took time during the COVID-19 pandemic to reflect on where he next wanted to turn his focus. The result? Flowe Technologies, a platform and system for researching and developing CPG products in cannabis. In this episode of Seed to CEO, Jim talks about why he left a promising career in finance for the riskier marijuana industry and how his experience has led him to what he sees as the “future of cannabis products.”

Jim shares:

• The sacrifices he made to pursue the cannabis dream.
• How he leveraged partnerships to mitigate the risks and costs associated with new cannabis ventures.
• What he thinks is still missing from the cannabis product development process.
• Why the future of cannabis is dependent on better research.

Who is Jim Makoso?

Jim is a business-development specialist and serial entrepreneur. He has served the past five years as vice president of Seattle-based Lucid Lab Group, which operates within the cannabis extraction and processing sector. Jim sits on several advisory boards, including MJBiz’s Editorial Advisory Board, and is vice chair of the NCIA Scientific Advisory Committee. Recognized by his peers as an extraction and processing technologies specialist, he regularly contributes to print publications in addition to speaking at some of the largest industry events around the country.

The cannabis industry got the band back together this week! MJBizCon 2021 met together in person in Las Vegas for the first time since 2019.

In this special episode, we share insights from featured event speakers who previously appeared on our show, including:

• Chris Ball, CEO, Ball Family Farms
• Berner, CEO, Cookies (Due to his cancer diagnosis, Berner was unable to appear at the event but still appears in this episode.)
• Nancy Whiteman, CEO, Wana Brands
• Denise Mink, owner, Med Pharm
• Wanda James, CEO, Simply Pure

After her brother was arrested and given a 10-year sentence for cannabis possession, Wanda James knew she had a mission. She opened her first Colorado dispensary with her husband in 2009 to help advance social justice and provide medicine to those in need. Today, James and her husband own and operate Simply Pure - “America’s most political dispensary” - in Denver.

In this episode, Wanda shares her insights on:

• How staying true to your values can benefit a business’ bottom line.
• Why it’s important to be politically connected in cannabis.
• How to leverage non-cannabis skills to thrive in the marijuana industry.
• How to set yourself apart and compete in a mature market.

Who is Wanda James?

Wanda has been a mainstay in the legal cannabis industry since its emergence and has helped shape much of the landscape on which it operates today. Before cannabis, she was a military officer and corporate sales and marketing executive. Wanda is also one of the inaugural inductees into the MJBizDaily Awards Hall of Fame for her work in pushing the cannabis industry forward while building a successful company.

When marketing maven Lisa Buffo broke into the marijuana industry in 2014, she had lots of questions concerning compliance, regulations and other issues, but there was no place for a cannabis marketing professional to find an answer. So she created that place herself, nurturing a series of marijuana marketing meetings that became the Cannabis Marketing Association. Today, the organization has nine “communities” across the nation and a growing membership.

In this episode of Seed to CEO, Lisa shares:

• How she identified the need for a marketing association and how what she did can be used as a model for other professional groups.
• How her event-driven cannabis industry adapted during the COVID-19 pandemic.
• How to strategically scale an organization such as the CMA even as new markets are still getting off the ground.
• Why marketing really matters in cannabis.

Who is Lisa Buffo?

While Lisa’s focus these days is on marketing, she has broad experience in multiple sectors, having worked with several business incubators, including as a program associate at Canopy Boulder, where she helped launch its first class of startups. She is also founder and co-chair of the Marketing & Advertising Committee at the National Cannabis Industry Association and speaks extensively about marijuana in the media and public forums. Before cannabis, Lisa worked for Bizdom and LaunchHouse, technology business accelerators in Cleveland and helped bring more than two dozen software startups to market.

Ross Lipson had built and sold his second online food-ordering company by the time he was 25, but when he decided to launch a B2B online ordering platform for cannabis - Bend, Oregon-based Dutchie - he jettisoned his previous experience, saying it’s better to start with a “fresh slate” because cannabis is so different. The philosophy paid off. Today, Dutchie serves roughly 4,500 businesses in every legal U.S. market and Canada.

In this episode of Seed to CEO, Ross talks with MJBiz CEO Chris Walsh about how he built Dutchie, including:

• Why being relentless and humble are keys to getting buy-in from investors and partners for a new idea.
• The problem of trying to rely totally on experience.
• Why it’s important to understand your weaknesses as much as your strengths and build a team that fills the gaps.

Who is Ross Lipson?

Ross Lipson embodies the entrepreneurial spirit, from selling candy in elementary school to founding his first online food-ordering service in college. By the time he was 25, Ross had sold his second online ordering system, Grub Canada, and was looking to explore his own life. Until he went to purchase cannabis for himself in Bend, Oregon. There a new idea was born.

Ross credits his success to a supportive family - including a truth-telling older brother who is also his co-founder - and being passionate about cannabis.

Starting a cannabis retail business with only $50,000 may seem impossible, but that’s how Seun Adedeji got his start in the Oregon adult-use market at just 23. Today, the 28-year-old's Elev8 Cannabis has locations on both coasts (Oregon and Massachusetts) and plans for further expansion. In this episode of Seed to CEO, Seun talks with MJBiz CEO Chris Walsh about how he leveraged lessons from some early foibles to become one of the most successful young entrepreneurs in the U.S. cannabis industry.

Seun shares:

• Why owning real estate rather than renting provides a better foundation for growth.
• How to partner with growers even when upfront cash is tight.
• Why being the COE – chief of everything – is a bad idea.
• Why community participation and engagement is critical to success.

Who is Seun Adedeji?

Seun came to the United States from Nigeria as a child and embraced the entrepreneurial spirit by selling candy to his classmates at school. He stepped up to selling marijuana and got arrested at age 13. Today, a legit Seun operates retail stores in Oregon and Massachusetts – and he’s not even 30. He’s closing this year with a renewed sense of energy and gratefulness after returning from his first visit to Nigeria in 21 years.

While cannabis brand Cookies started modestly in a garage in San Francisco, today it is a global empire, with a presence in 11 U.S. states and three countries (with two more on the way) and selling more than co-founder Berner could have ever imagined. In this episode of Seed to CEO, Berner talks with MJBiz CEO Chris Walsh about how he built Cookies into one of the most recognizable brands in the world.

Berner shares:

• How integrated social media and noncannabis products, such as clothing, helped to build awareness of the brand.
• The role partnerships play in Cookies’ successful and rapid expansion.
• Why genetics are critical – but keeping a tight handle on who has access to them isn’t.
• His 100-year plan for keeping Cookies exciting and thriving.

Who is Berner?

Born Gilbert Anthony Milam Jr., Berner comes from working-class parents in the San Francisco Bay Area. He dropped out of high school to pursue a music career, which eventually landed him a contract with Taylor Gang Records. Berner started Cookies Clothing to get out of the illicit cannabis game, but ultimately ended up leveraging its success to help build the Cookies cannabis brand.