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StaffJuly 20, 2021

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Cannabis beverages are a hot ticket item these days. In the last year alone, cannabis beverage sales have shot up by 40%, totaling $95.2 million. Over the next four years, sales are projected to grow at a CAGR of 17.8%, topping out at $2.8 billion in sales by 2025.

Hoping to stake out a slice of this rapidly growing market, brands have been searching for ways to provide consumers with a unique cannabis beverage experience. favorite Jamie Evans, author and founder of the leading cannabis blog The Herb Somm, thinks she has found it.

Evans is a cannabis beverage expert and Certified Specialist of Wine. Studying viticulture in Champagne and Alsace, Evans has an extensive background in winemaking, having most recently earned the Wine Scholar Guild’s French Wine Scholar (FWS) certification with highest honors. She has also authored several bestselling cannabis books, including Cannabis Drinks: Secrets to Crafting CBD and THC Beverages at Home and The Ultimate Guide to CBD: Explore the World of Cannabidiol.

Earlier this week, Evans announced the impending launch of Herbacée, the nation’s first nonalcoholic cannabis-infused sparkling wine honoring French-inspired wine blends

“Herbacée was created to inspire the senses,” says Evans. “As a nonalcoholic cannabis-infused wine, each product will showcase the divine connection between cannabis and the grapevine.”

Herbacée, which means “Herbaceous” in French, is aimed at honoring and showcasing French-inspired wine blends and draws inspiration from the legendary French winemaking regions of Bordeaux, Rhône, Provence, Champagne, and Loire.

“Herbacée is also a term we use in the wine industry to describe the herbal characteristics in a glass of wine,” adds Evans. “While you won’t be able to smell or taste any familiar cannabis notes, your nose and palate will be greeted with a curated melody of aromas and flavors, very similar to a traditional glass of wine.”

Though inspired by French wines, the initial batch of wine sourced for Herbacée will come from premier Central Coast wine regions in California and not France. According to Evans, this is not necessarily by done design but rather necessity. Because of COVID-19, import regulations are still incredibly strict. As those restrictions are repealed, however, Evans says that Herbacée will include French wines as the base for their boutique cannabis-infused products moving forward.

Set to launch in the California market later this Fall, Herbacée will first feature a sparkling rosé inspired blend made primarily from Grenache, Mourvèdre, and Cinsault. Herbacée will be made available in single-serve cans and four-packs, and Evans says she plans to release a line sparkling blanc next year, and as well as a line of still cannabis-infused wines.

StaffMay 6, 2021

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While millions of Americans are getting ready to enjoy the summer for the first time in over a year, the cannabis industry is already gearing up for the upcoming fall harvest. Taking place between October and early November, the period is called Croptober, and it is a time when roughly 80%-85% of the cannabis industry’s outdoor cannabis is harvested.

The reason why the industry harvests the majority of outdoor cannabis during this specific period has to do with the plant itself. Cannabis is an annual plant, which means it lives out its entire life cycle in a single growing season.

Planted in the early Spring, the cannabis plant starts to produce buds in Fall as the days start to shorten, typically becoming ready for harvest around mid-October. For outdoor cultivators, this is the only time of the year they will harvest their crop, so it is both a time of celebration and great stress.

In many of the parts of the country where cannabis cultivation is big business, like the fabled Emerald Triangle in Northern California, Croptober has taken on an air akin to many of the harvest festivals celebrated throughout the world.

Cannabis farms often give tours, parties are thrown, and while consumers can’t pick buds off the plant like apples, there is an influx of cheap high-quality cannabis. It is this celebratory atmosphere that first attracted Case Mandel, the Co-Founder of Cannadips, to set up shop in Humboldt County.

“I first visited Humboldt County in 2003 when I right out of High School,” Mandel recalls. “There were so many beautiful farms and incredible cultivators. I was completely astounded.”

Cannadips CBD manufacturers a smokeless CBD pouch that works as a dipping alternative. With a retail footprint of 6,000 stores, Cannadips CBD is one of the area’s largest hemp manufacturers. Cannadips also manufactures a cannabis pouch in Humboldt County as well.

Looking to draw more attention to the season, Cannadips recently announced its first annual Croptober Getaway Sweepstakes where five winners are given an all-expenses-paid trip to Humboldt County to experience some of California’s most prominent cannabis farms and experience Croptober first-hand. The winners will also be treated to a party at the historic Arcata Theater Lounge, as well as a relaxing tour of Humboldt Count’s redwood forests and beaches.

“Humboldt is not what they see on Netflix’s Murder Mountain or Dateline NBC, it’s the Emerald Triangle, we are excited to share its shine.”

The contest runs from May 1 to June 30, and those interested in signing up can register on the Cannadips website. Four of the winners will be chosen through a random drawing, with one winner to be announced every two weeks. The fifth winner will be the person with the best Instagram post with the #Croptober2021 hashtag.

“This type of access would never have been possible in the last twenty years,” says Mandel. “These Croptober winners won’t be touring corporate cannabis monocrops, they’ll be exploring the best outdoor sun-grown cannabis from some of Humboldt’s best cultivators. It is refreshing we can share the amazing innovation and craft legally that has made our region famous.”

StaffMay 3, 2021

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Meet Erika Tingey. She’s Head of Product at Backbone, a fully customizable supply-chain management platform, tracking production, compliance, COGS, yields, and audit reporting data in real time. Around the world, cannabis and hemp growers are facing an increasing market demand. Producers are faced with new challenges in their supply chain on an unprecedented scale. That’s where pioneering software company Backbone comes in. Because they’ve witnessed first-hand the struggles and challenges cannabis and hemp growers faced in Humboldt County, CA and across the country, they are inspired to solve their problems.

That’s where Erika comes in. Her work is driven by solving the unique problems cannabis companies face, developing features based on client insights, while minding the future vision for Backbone products. Drawing from a background as a software engineer at QuickBooks and Product Management at Sage Intacct, Erika brings expertise in financial systems, accounting, and inventory to the needs of mid-tier enterprise customers. Additionally, Erika performs product design, data analysis, problem-solving, customer research, and helps develop strong engineering teams. Intrigued by Erika’s problem solving prowess, we’re highlighting her cannabis journey here at Green Market Report.

When did you start working in cannabis?

Erika Tingey: I started at Backbone in January of 2019. It was my first introduction to the cannabis industry, but I was lucky enough to have some veteran cannabis operators, like Dr. Peter Huson, to introduce me. I’ve visited a lot of cannabis cultivation, manufacturing and distribution customers, and followed them around, learning what problems they have and what their biggest needs are. Cannabis has some really interesting and unique issues I haven’t encountered before, so it’s been a fun journey to learn about it and try to work through solutions.

What is your vision and mission for your professional cannabis endeavors?

ET: To help people in the cannabis industry be successful in their businesses, by building software that makes their lives easier.

How did your cannabis journey begin?

ET: In the early days at Intuit, we were focused on solving customer problems. We spent time doing “follow me homes” where we would go to our customer’s office to observe them and learn what pain points they had, so we could make software that would actually make their lives easier. When I started learning about the cannabis industry, I knew that I wanted to bring that sensibility to cannabis software.

What is your superpower?

ET: Listening! I’ve found that the best way to really understand people and the world around me is to listen for that extra moment — when I could jump in and talk, but if I wait, they might say that last thing that’s really important.

What is your vision for women in this industry?

ET: As with a lot of industries, cannabis seems to be male dominated. But there are amazing women doing great things in our industry, and our community is very supportive and empowering to other women. If you’re getting into cannabis, or even have been around for a while, reach out and you’ll find some incredible women there to lend a hand.

Who are some women you admire in the industry?

ET: Amanda Friedman is doing impactful community work. Rebecca Gasca at Pistil & Stigma is another woman I admire.

StaffApril 20, 2021

Matt McGinn is the co-founder of Spacestation, a cannabis-infused beverage co-packing company, Fly Beverage Co., and Apollo Distribution as well as Chief Strategy Officer of Hardcar.

In 2013, McGinn founded Blackeye Roasting Co., which quickly expanded across several Midwestern States in major convenience store locations.

Along with his team, McGinn oversaw the design and buildout of the company’s 30,000 square foot co-packing and cold brew coffee production facility, a coffee roastery, and two cafes in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

In 2017, McGinn left Blackeye and joined with Macai Polansky to co-found Spacestation. Serving as COO, McGinn was instrumental in bringing Spacestation’s first clients to market, as well as helping create Fly Beverage Co. the brand house for Spacestation.

Pivoting to expand Fly Beverage Co.’s brands, McGinn helped oversee the launch of Nectr, Matts High Soda, and Uncle Arnie’s Iced Tea Lemonade. Nectr and Uncle Arnie’s Iced Tea Lemonade are sold in over 140 Licensed California Dispensaries, with additional plans to launch product lines in Oregon, Maine, Colorado, Massachusetts, and the country of Israel.

GMR Executive Spotlight Interview Q & A:

Full birth name: Matthew McGinn

Title: Co-Founder, Chief Strategy Officer and Product Formulator

Company: Fly Beverage

Years at current company: 14 Months

Most successful professional accomplishment before cannabis: Built a regional CPG coffee Roasting Company, 30k sqft contract manufacturing facility in Saint Paul, MN for beverage retort manufacturing and scaled a CPG business in 18 months into over 3500 accounts before taking an acquisition in 2019.

Company Mission: Simply put, our mission is to make more cannabis beverages (like our Uncle Arnie’s, Matt’s High Soda and Nectr. https://mattshighsoda.com/) as well as cannabis edibles, more affordable to the daily consumer. We intend to give the traditional market a run for its money!

Company’s most successful achievement: Number 1 fastest selling Cannabis infused Beverage. 152 Retail, licensed Dispensary account pickups in 6 months, with a bootstrap budget.

Has the company raised any capital (yes or no): 700,000 from friends and family

Any plans on raising capital in the future? Aggressively raising 2-4 Mil more

Most important company 5 year goal: Product will be sold in all 50 states, and internationally. This will happen.

StaffMarch 25, 2021

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Unique service to capitalise on emerging markets launches

For British marketplace tech-preneurs, Neil Tunbridge and James Storie-Pugh, a trip to the States two years ago sealed their fate with CBD. Seeing first-hand the explosion that was happening stateside, the pair wasted no time in researching and outreaching to their marketplace network, discovering CBD was increasingly being adopted on home shores.

In the middle of the pandemic, Neil and James soft-launched mellow – the UK’s marketplace for global hemp and CBD wellness brands. mellow is fast gaining a reputation as the most trusted (and trustworthy) destination for consumers to buy global CBD and hemp brands in the UK’s burgeoning wellness and alternative healthcare space. Last year the UK’s CBD market reached £300 million, with that figure set to triple in the next five years.

Now, the duo is turning their sights to helping CBD and hemp brands, across the globe, who are looking to launch into, and capitalise on the rich growth opportunities within both the UK and broader European markets.

Launching later this month is ‘Grow by mellow’, a complementary B2B service and the first of an expanded offering under the mellow umbrella. It will make the mellow brand one of the world’s first end-to-end eCommerce and technology businesses in the Cannabis space.

Grow by mellow offers a tiered structure of diverse eCommerce services which includes leveraging their bespoke backend technology and frontend design, build and operate services for brands wanting a new UK/EU eCommerce site. Additionally, brands can also utilise the warehousing and operations, brand management, as well as marketing and sales functions that are also included in the Grow by mellow service offering. Any brand complying with CBD rules and regulations in the UK and EU markets is able to take advantage of this service.

According to co-founder, Neil, the new service is designed to take the headache and guesswork away from already successful brands who are keen to enter the increasingly lucrative UK and EU markets, by providing them with an extremely easy and cost-effective suite of complete operational and brand management solutions, adaptable to each individual brands’ needs.

“When it comes to CBD, each market within the UK and Europe is unique. One of the beauties of Grow by mellow is that brands can also draw on our expertise in navigating and leveraging local complexities, cultural behaviours and opportunities,” says Neil.

“We can get a brand properly to market in around a two-month timeframe. This means they can have a fully-functioning site – front and backend – with analytics, warehousing, payment processing, CRM and access to our inhouse marketing services, all up and running, and operated by us,” Neil continues.

“There’s been demand from the get-go. Our brand partners were increasingly asking us to provide a ‘build and operate’ service to help them enter the UK and wider European markets because they often weren’t set up for this themselves,” James, mellow co-founder, adds.

Five brands have already signed up to the service, with a significant queue forming behind them, ahead of the official launch later this month.

“Just like us, our brand partners are very ambitious, so we’re definitely keeping a close eye on emerging CBD markets in other parts of the world to see where the next opportunity might lie,” says Neil.

StaffFebruary 12, 2021

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Scott Bryant is Co-Founder and CEO of Pineworx, the nation’s premier white-label pre-roll manufacturer, and Tree-Rolls® Hemp Company, a premium hemp CBD pre-roll brand created for the convenience store market. Scott has worn many hats, including accounting, marketing, Sales, brand and product development, and industrial automation engineering.

Mentored by his father in executive business management, Scott had a vision early on to create new, innovative companies. After graduating from Washington State University with a B.A. in Marketing, Scott worked for a top 10 beverage distributor, Columbia Distributing, where he gained knowledge and experience in the three-tier distribution system. With anticipation for exponential growth within the craft brewing industry he joined Hopunion (now YCH Hops) and became the company’s highest grossing Regional Manager – managing over 1000+ accounts across the Western U.S.. Over a 5-year period, Scott played an integral role in developing a nationwide sales force and worked side-by-side with top breweries, helping to introduce many of the world’s most popular hop varieties to the market.

While visiting a San Diego medical cannabis dispensary in 2012, Scott recognized the industry’s need for high quality branded products and utilized his background in Marketing and hops (a close relative to cannabis) to launch one of the nation’s first branded multipacks of pre-rolled joints, Jay’s Pre-Rolls, with co-founder Victor Berrio. Through the company’s success across California, the product helped to de-stigmatize the pre-rolled joint and became a pioneer of the product category.

Identifying a complete lack of product consistency in the market and the non-existence of pre-roll manufacturing equipment, Scott and his team acted on the opportunity to create industry quality standards. In 2014, Pineworx was born as a technology-driven white-label manufacturer focused on producing the finest quality pre-rolls possible.

After the passing of the 2018 Farm Bill, Pineworx transitioned into the hemp space to capitalize on the much broader, national CBD market. As the market emerged, Scott and his fellow entrepreneurs founded Tree-Rolls® Hemp Company in 2019 with an aim to normalize smokable hemp and obtain nationwide distribution into convenience stores, smoke shops, gas stations and other retail locations across the country. Through a passion for giving back to the community, Tree-Rolls® partnered with Trees For the Future (Trees.org) – planting one tree for every product sold.

Executive Spotlight Interview:

Full birth name: Scott Bryant

Title: Co-Founder / CEO

Company: Pineworx

Years at current company: 5+

Most successful professional accomplishment before cannabis:

Prior to the cannabis industry, I spent most of my adult life in beer, wine and spirits – working for distributors and raw material suppliers. From 2010 – 2015, I worked to develop a nationwide sales force for what is now the largest global distributor of hops to craft breweries. Our team led the 25 year old grower-owned company from ~$25MM in annual sales, to over $100MM in under 5 years. Through our hop breeding program and worldwide sourcing, our sales team was a driving factor in the worldwide IPA boom.

Company Mission:

At Pineworx, Our mission is assist our clients in developing the finest pre-rolled products possible – continuously innovating new ways of improving product quality, convenience, sustainability and appeal for the ultimate benefit of our clients and the end consumer.

Company’s most successful achievement:

In 2013, Pineworx’ first project was one of the first branded multi-packs of pre-rolled smokable cannabis products in the U.S. – creating a new product category and spreading distribution throughout the state of California. At the time, there was an underlying stigma that any pre-rolls sold in a dispensary were low quality and not worth the money. We worked for years to eliminate that stigma and show the world that machine-manufactured pre-rolls can match and exceed the quality of hand-rolled products. Today, pre-rolled joints are a standard product in every cannabis retail location.

In tandem with our consumer facing products, Pineworx continued the development of proprietary pre-roll production technology and entered the B2B market, becoming the country’s first marketed white-label pre-roll manufacturer. Existing manufacturing equipment at the time was extremely primitive, forcing our engineers to start from scratch. Through years of R&D and continuous prototyping, Pineworx has set the standard for premium pre-roll smokables and solidified itself as the industry leader in product quality, consistency, and innovation. To-date our company has worked with many industry leaders to develop brands, expand on their production capacity and deliver their customers with the best pre-rolls possible.

Has the company raised any capital (yes or no):

No, we are completely self-funded.

Any plans on raising capital in the future?

Yes, we are preparing for a series A funding.

Most important company 5 year goal:

Continue expanding operations throughout the country and enter the international market, becoming the Phillip Morris of pre-roll manufacturing. We also have plans to re-enter the recreational cannabis space, partnering with select companies across the U.S.

Brenda LougheryJanuary 22, 2021

Beth Stavola laughs when she recalls the early days of her cannabis career almost a decade ago, landing back in her home state of New Jersey after one of countless trips to her cannabis businesses in Arizona. She lived in a state that had what was widely considered at the time the most restrictive medical cannabis program in the entire country, worked in a state thousands of miles away that had a growing MMJ market and its own risks — and did it all in a country where her entire business was considered criminal. She was blazing new trails as one of the few women in an exciting new industry — but couldn’t openly share her successes with her children and friends.

“It was my dream, every time I landed at Newark,” she says now. “I would say ‘it would be great to have an amazing program in New Jersey to see my friends, family and my fellow New Jersey-ians able to reap the many benefits of medical cannabis treatment.”

Now with New Jersey having approved cannabis for adult (“recreational”) use and expected to see its first retail sales by later this year, Beth Stavola is seeing her dream come true, and then some. In the span of less than a decade, Stavola has gone from a passive investor in Arizona and other states to a true cannabis trailblazer, as the first (and currently only) woman to be awarded a cannabis license in New Jersey. She is currently in court in regards to her abrupt departure from iAnthus (OTC: ITHUF), the troubled management company she joined earlier in 2020 before leaving in August. As a New Jersey court weighs its decision, Stavola looks back at her early days in Arizona and forward at New Jersey adult use and the challenges her home state will face.

From the Jersey Shore to the Green Rush

A self-described “proud Jersey Shore mom,” Stavola has built her career on Wall Street as senior vice president of Institutional Equity Sales at Jefferies New York while raising her six children, including twin girls. It was after the birth of her twins that she decided to retire from Wall Street, while keeping an eye out for other opportunities that looked promising. “I can’t lie, I love to work,” she says. “And I wanted something to keep my mind sharp.

At the time Chris Christie was serving as governor of the Garden State, and while New Jersey did have a medical marijuana program, he made little effort to expand access or even work towards destigmatizing the medicine, referring to it as simply a “front” for legalization efforts.

“Back then it was NOT popular in New Jersey or really anywhere on the East Coast. It was thought of as a California thing or a Colorado ‘experiment,’” says Stavola. But then a deal broker brought her an opportunity to invest in medical marijuana in Arizona, and “I decided to jump in with both feet.”

“My biggest concern back then was discussing this with my children and then how would I be viewed by others. Would I be viewed as the “pot mom” and my daughters would be ostracized because of my new profession?”

In addition to the social risks back home; in Arizona, the risks of working in a federally prohibited industry started to become part of Stavola’s new reality. “These were things that kept me up at night, like the many concerns that the pioneers of this industry had every day, she says.

“Will all of my employees be safe today, given the fact that we can’t deposit any of this cash in the bank? I slept with a phone in my bed for a very long time, for my children (anyone with teens knows that feeling) but also for my other family out in Arizona — wanting to make sure that everyone was able to lock up the stores safely and return safely from work to their families. These were the days where individuals were taking real risks in even deciding to take a job in the industry, whether it was being denied a mortgage for their first home or loan for their first car, to the stigma attached for their own children – the same the way I was feeling about protecting my own family.”

An Accidental Activist

The more involved Stavola became in her cannabis business, she began to see the impact that cannabis medicine was having on the lives of the people she served in Arizona. Veterans and other patients who had been prescribed countless pharmaceuticals (“oxy-everything,” Stavola says) mothers desperate to save their children’s lives — Stavola became more involved in the value of cannabis as medicine. Suddenly, she says, cannabis went from a passive financial investment to the “true passion” of her life. She went on to found Stavola Medical Marijuana Holdings, Health for Life Inc., Melting Point Extracts, GreenMart of Nevada and CBD For Life. By 2017, she had built a multi-million-dollar portfolio, which she sold to a Canadian company later known as MPX Bioceutical and joined the company to run its US operations. It is under a separate WBE entity, MPX New Jersey, that Stavola holds her license to grow, manufacture and sell cannabis that is the subject of the current litigation with iAnthus.

While Stavola won’t discuss details surrounding her tenure and departure from iAnthus or the NJ lawsuit, she does say that the experience, as well as her early days in Arizona, has further informed her understanding of the industry and some of its continuing issues.

“I want to focus on women and minority (owned) businesses being able to successfully participate — not just put forth and then wiped out after the big win: all of a sudden you have a staff that’s fabulous –looks like the model of true diversity — and then having it (become) a bunch of white men in suits. The switcheroo.”

“One of the things that I think overall in the industry that needs to be addressed is that people say, “Oh isn’t cannabis so great, so inclusive to women!” And I say, “well sure, if you want to be a pastry chef or run a trim room. But look in the C-suite of a lot of these big companies, and there’s only one female CEO among all of the big MSOs.”

Looking to the Future of New Jersey Adult Use

In regards to leadership for state cannabis operators, Stavola is confident that New Jersey regulators and leaders are highly motivated to ensure diversity in the new adult use market. With adult use on the near horizon, New Jersey operators will be finding a more competitive cannabis landscape than ever going forward. The adult use bill allows for more licenses to be issued for recreational sales — and Stavola is looking forward to losing her distinction as the only woman license holder in New Jersey cannabis to make way for more women and minority owned businesses to get a piece of the legal cannabis pie.

Moreover, she acknowledges that more licenses are absolutely necessary to meet the demand of the adult use market in a state of 9 million people. “I’ve never been one who’s fearful of competition; I think it’s healthy,” she says.

However, she acknowledges that entry into the adult market must be gradual, and only as long as the medical market’s need can be met. “We can’t as a state be pulling the rug out from medical patients,” she says. Stavola says she has full confidence in the rollout being overseen by Jeff Brown at the NJ Dept of Health. “He’s very thoughtful in the way that he is thinking about rolling this out, and he’ll be front and center.”

On Becoming the “First Lady” of New Jersey Cannabis

Stavola’s cannabis journey came full circle in 2018, when she was awarded one of the current 12 licenses in the state of New Jersey as the only woman owned cannabis business in the state. She says it represents for her the pinnacle of not only her career and accomplishments in the cannabis industry, but also as a mother.

“It brings tears to my eyes now to even discuss, I made my daughters so proud after all the years of feeling that I had to keep my passion somewhat hidden for their protection, Stavola says. “My daughters were so proud to see their mom lead the charge in this industry in our home state of New Jersey for women!. Currently MPX NJ is the only women owned cannabis license in the state of New Jersey and I want to be a huge part of leading the charge for women and minority groups to participate in this incredible industry. I went from shielding my daughters from the stigma and harm that I felt my involvement in the legal cannabis business could create for them to being a role model for these young girls and women looking to become entrepreneurs and BOSSES in this industry.”

StaffOctober 28, 2020

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Lucky Box Club announced the launch of their “Seasonal Collections”, featuring pre-curated Lucky Boxes filled with California’s favorite cannabis brands.

The quarterly releases are available for one-time purchase and feature products perfect for the season for $199.

“The great thing about the Winter Collection Box is that it features a curated assortment of brands and products that offer a really, fun unboxing experience. We work with craft and hard- to-find brands to curate a unique experience for our members,” said co-founder Eliza Maroney.

Featured brands in the upcoming Winter Collection include House of Saka, Pure Vape, Mellows, Somatik, Panacea, Weekenders, lolo, Garden Society, Z’s Life, and Cannabolish.

Each box also comes with our seasonal zine featuring product information, editorial content, recipes, and “the Magic in the Box.”
As a licensed delivery service, Lucky Box Club also offers on-demand delivery in addition to its premium cannabis subscription program.

Lucky Box Club Subscription and Seasonal Collection Boxes and products are available for delivery in the greater Sacramento and San Francisco Bay Area.

Founded by canna-couple Eliza and Luke Maroney in 2017, Lucky Box Club is the oldest, fully-licensed, continually run cannabis subscription box company in California (and potentially the world).

“We started Lucky Box Club to fill a need for busy, sophisticated cannabis consumers and newcomers alike. People don’t always have time to stop by the dispensary and discover new brands,” said Luke Maroney. “LBC is about giving our members exactly what they want… they set their preferences and we deliver awesome products. It’s cannabis, smarter. Whether it’s a top-notch flower or the best new edible on the market, you’re going to love what’s in your box.”

Lucky Box Club customers can sign up for a monthly cannabis subscription box via the company’s website and receive premium and craft cannabis products delivered right to their doorstep each month. Upon signup, customers set their cannabis preferences and only receive products from the categories they’ve selected. Not into concentrates or edibles? Not a problem.

You only receive products from the categories you select. After discovering a great new product, customers can also reorder products a la carte. Lucky Box Club offers a monthly box at $149/mo, a 3-month Trial subscription at $349, and a pre-curated Seasonal Collection Box at $199 for one-time purchase.

Cynthia SalarizadehOctober 22, 2020

Women Grow, the largest professional network for women in the cannabis industry, is uncertain if their annual Leadership Summit will return in 2021.

“We’re still uncertain if we will return next year. When we considered the risk and our protocol is everyone’s safety is first. Yes, we are a business but our community is important to us,” said Gia Morón, President of Women Grow. “But with no Leadership Summit this year, we had to come up with other creative ways to stay engaged so we shifted to social media LIVE talks. Meet them where they are,” said Morón.

In March at the start of the pandemic, the company shut down all of its Signature Networking Events (SNE) before lockdowns began. The shift to social media joined Women Grow with the ranks of their peers but it was during the lockdown the company launched its #adulthomeschooling program.

Women Grow took all the elements it used at its SNE and applied it through various education options.

“We wanted to keep our community engaged just as they would at SNE or summit except virtually. We’ve partnered with some amazing companies like Green Flower Arcview, Curaleaf, and M4MM with more partnerships to come. The idea of a virtual conference is still on the table but we’re still in talks,” said Morón.

StaffOctober 13, 2020

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Drop Delivery, the all-in-one cannabis delivery management solution, raises $1M through equity crowdfunding.

The Drop Delivery platform offers advanced technology that empowers cannabis retailers with their white-labeled mobile app, a dashboard to manage inventory, dispatch and driver logistics, automated marketing tools, and a built-in digital loyalty program.

“We are extremely excited to have raised capital through equity crowdfunding,” said Drop Delivery’s CEO, Vanessa Gabriel. “We have always wanted to offer the opportunity for people to join us on this journey. This route was a better fit for us than traditional capital. “

Drop Delivery was the first company to raise $1 million on the crowdfunding platform Equifund. Funds from this round will be used for product development, accelerate sales efforts, and fuel expansion into new markets in 2021.

Equity crowdfunding has been fully legal since 2016, and it allows a business to secure capital from unaccredited investors in the United States. Like with any investment, crowdfunding is a risk, but those who provide capital can stand to profit if the business succeeds.

Drop Delivery is the first all-in-one delivery management platform designed to help cannabis retailers safely – and compliantly – sell cannabis products, collect digital payments, handle supply chain management, and manage last-mile delivery. It provides retail cannabis companies with a fully branded solution to grow their business and re-engage customers.

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