Willow Industries Archives - Green Market Report

Jill Ellsworth is founder and CEO of Willow Industries, Inc., which provides state-of-the-art, ozone-based technology for post-harvest microbial decontamination. Upon launching Willow Industries in 2015, Jill’s aim was—and remains—to protect consumers and patients by helping producers put clean, safe product on the market. 

Willow’s technology has proven to reduce yeast, mold, bacteria, mildew, E.Coli, and other dangerous pathogens, all while protecting the medicinal properties of the plant. The introduction of the WillowPureSM system to the market has provided growers a solution to passing newly set state regulation standards. 

Fueled by her passion for innovation and dedication to healthier living, Jill is a vocal advocate for the cannabis industry’s adoption of FDA-like standards and proactive promotion of safety measures.

Jill serves on the Cannabis Health and Safety Advisory Committee for the City of Denver and is a Registered Dietitian Nutritionist (RDN) with a Master’s of Science in Nutrition, Dietetics, and Food Science.

Prior to launching Willow Industries in 2015, Jill founded Vibrant Earth Juices (VEJ), a cold-pressed organic juice company, in 2010 and later parlayed VEJ into a beverage distribution company.

In 2013, Jill was named Female Entrepreneur of the Year in Emerging Business by the Santa Barbara Women’s Economic Ventures group. Most recently, Jill was selected by Marijuana Business Daily as one of their 2019 Women to Watch in Cannabis. She has also been honored by cannabis lifestyle magazine, GreenDorphin, as one of the 20 Most Influential Women in Cannabis and Industry Leaders Magazine as one of the Influential Businesswomen in the Cannabis Industry.

GMR Executive Spotlight Q&A – 

Full birth name: Jill Lynn Ellsworth (Maiden: Latham)

Title: Founder / CEO

Company: Willow Industries, Inc. (https://willowindustries.com/)

Years at current company: 3.5 years

Education profile: 

BS Communications – California State University, Northridge 

MS Nutrition, Dietetics & Food Science – California State University, Northridge 

Dietetic Internship : Registered Dietitian  – Cal Poly San Louis Obispo

Most successful professional accomplishment before cannabis: I am most proud of the cold-pressed, organic juice business, Vibrant Earth Juices, I founded and launched in Santa Barbara, CA in 2011 and Denver, CO in 2013. Vibrant Earth was one of the first fresh juice companies in Santa Barbara and Denver and quickly became very successful. From this, I was named Female Entrepreneur of the Year – Emerging Business in 2013. This was the start of my vision to develop innovative products and/or solutions for consumers. 

Company Mission: Willow Industries strives to be the cannabis industry’s most reliable and innovative solution for producing clean, safe cannabis that consumers can trust.

Company’s most successful achievement: Willow’s most successful achievement was innovating a solution to a huge problem in the industry – microbial contamination. While we were very ahead of our time when we first launched Willow, we remained focused and patient, knowing the industry needed to catch up to our vision and what was important to the future of the industry. Staying the course and not giving up before the industry understood our value is our most successful achievement. Now with many cultivators adopting our tech, we continue to focus on our vision and goals.

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

If so, how much?: We have raised $2 million. 

Any plans on raising capital in the future? Certainly. We have very aggressive and aspirational goals that will lead us to the need for more financing. Right now, we are focused on executing our plans for the most recent funding round. 

Most important company 5 year goal: We look for Willow to become a standard for consumer safety in the cannabis industry (modeling safety standards from the food & beverage industries) and for cultivators to see Willow as the solution for clean cannabis. We are focusing our efforts on cannabis compliance and helping to educate the regulatory sector of the industry as well. We will continue to push the boundaries for clean cannabis innovations, while keeping consumer safety at the focal point of our goals.