Category: Articles
Nancy Gallardo
1. Are you still located in the East Coast? How has your company changed in the year since we last spoke? What opportunities have you discovered?
I’m still out in Brooklyn and operating everything out of Los Angeles. There have been many changes this past year. For one, we’ve tripled the size of the team. One of the new hires is a buddy and former colleague of mine, Brandon Rea, whose focus is on developing and growing our business.
From a product perspective, we’ve expanded our initial offering (i.e. portable container with a built-in vacuum pump lid) through adding different sizes, colors and designs, all of which is geared towards a direct-to-consumer approach. And on the B2B side, we’ve put a lot of effort into creating new solutions and processes to help manufacturers vacuum package their goods for sale, helping supply chains become more efficient and work around logistical issues through the extension of product shelf-life.
Overall, the biggest opportunity that we’ve found is understanding that the ‘business’ is a byproduct of the community; not the other way around. Truth be told, the whole Canlock team (including myself) joined this community in high school, which is why our focus is on both the flower and end user. So whether it’s working tirelessly with brands to give their products a safe shelter, or offering customers an opportunity to have one of our jars through giveaways and discounts, we are making most of this chance of being a part of the industry during these unpredictable times.
Nancy Gallardo
2. What have you done differently from a design standpoint? Sizes? Colors? What are your six and twelve month goals going forward?
From a design standpoint, we always try to encompass 3 main features: preservation, reusability, and cost effectiveness. Keeping this in mind, the roadmap is set to bring larger vacuum containers to the market, not only for bulk storage but also as a curing solution for commercial and at-home growers. And of course, we’ll continue to develop our portable solutions, taking other formats (e.g. edibles, concentrates) into consideration.
All that said, most of our resources will zero in on the innovation of our B2B products and processes. Our goal isn’t to work with every brand out there, but to focus on the nuances of the brands we do work with, ensuring brand consistency or packaging efficiency.
Nancy Gallardo
3. Do you have a mentor in this business? How did you start the company? What obstacles are you facing currently?
I alluded to it earlier, but this is yet another example of why the community is so important. I’ve been fortunate to meet folks from all parts of the business, including manufacturers and dispensary owners, to other smoking related accessories and PR agencies, and I’ve been able to learn something from almost every conversation I’ve had.
Compared to 2 years ago when we started the company because we wanted to make our own personal stash last longer, it has matured into a business that hopes to bring consistency to the market, in turn creating a safer environment for cannabis and eventually removing the stigmas associated with it.
This stigma is actually one of the bigger obstacles we encounter on a daily basis. As if it weren’t hard enough to start a company from the ground up, we’ve had to be extremely creative in working with the roadblocks that every digital platform puts up when it comes to cannabis.
It doesn’t matter if you sell the actual plant or even just provide a storage solution for cannabis, if you are starting a business in this industry be prepared to be fully acquainted with the policies associated with every “essential” social media platform.
Nancy Gallardo
4. Where is the best place to get a burger near you? What does your favorite meal look like these days?
I would only order a burger if adding a fried egg (over hard) is an option, and Moo Burger never disappoints. But these days, I’m just looking for a meal where my sons don’t bicker with each other – my wife can attest to this.
5. What is your passion?
Without a doubt, it has to be hip hop. In fact, I could argue that it is hip hop that brought cannabis into my life. There’s never a moment when music is not needed.
Nancy Gallardo
Categories
Matt Mayberry of TRYM
1. Please tell me about yourself? What brought you to the cannabis/botany world? Healing? What was your inspiration to do what you do?
I grew up in North Carolina in a conservative town where cannabis legalization felt like the furthest thing from reality. I couldn’t have been more out of place. I was the skater kid with dyed hair, and I wrote a punk ‘zine. Out of curiosity to see how hard it was, I planted my first seeds when I was 17. Of course, I had no idea how to grow good weed and I’m pretty sure I fed my first plants Miracle Grow.
In college, I connected with other growers and learned how to actually grow quality cannabis. That’s where I met my wife, Karen, who’s also a Trym co-founder. After studying engineering, we moved to California in 2007 and I started working in the Solar Industry. We also started the first of many home grows together and we’ve been growing ever since.
A lot of my friends worked in the cannabis industry and when Prop 64 passed, the timing felt right for me to make the move. In 2017, I started going to tradeshows to check out the scene. I wanted to work with growers, and with my engineering and product development background, it seemed like I could build software to help them succeed in the regulated industry.
That’s when we decided to start Trym. At first, we had more passion than direction but we spent as much time as possible meeting with growers and learning about their challenges. Eventually we started building the product, launched a super rough beta with a great California brand in July of 2018, and everything grew from there.
2. Please tell me about your company? What do you do that’s different, therefore better than your competition? What stigmas do you face?
Our software helps large-scale commercial cultivators get organized, be more productive, and scale their businesses. Running a cultivation business in the regulated cannabis industry isn’t easy, and many companies are trying to scale and establish themselves. Labor accounts for nearly half of cannabis production costs, so there’s real value in helping growers become more productive.
Our customers love Trym’s task management and compliance reporting capabilities. Running a large team and maintaining compliance are two of the biggest headaches for cultivators. We’re helping them overcome those challenges with user-friendly software and excellent customer support.
We’re passionate about helping growers succeed because we love cannabis and want this industry to thrive. One key differentiator, versus many of the other cannabis software providers, is that we’re entirely focused on cultivation. We dive deep into the specific needs of cultivators and pride ourselves on building software that brings them significant value. We give growers full transparency into everything happening in their facility, from what their team is doing and the conditions their plants are exposed to, all the way to automating the compliance review process and reducing errors.
The biggest stigma we face as a tech company is that we’re a cannabis tech company. Even though we don’t directly touch the plant, we still face many of the same banking and operational challenges that plant touching businesses have.
3. What is your six and twelve month plan? What obstacles exist in your professional world? How do you anticipate removing them?
We recently closed our seed round and we’re planning to use that capital to keep building the platform and growing market share. Since we’re based in California, we’ve focused on expanding our presence here but we’re also quickly growing beyond the 15 states where we currently operate.
In the next six months, we’re focusing on several strategic partnerships with hardware and software companies that will enable us to build a smart and impactful ecosystem for the cultivation space.
In the next 12 months, we’re planning to launch more advanced analytics reporting that will help growers really dig into the factors that matter. To scale up to our industry’s potential, growers need to be able to optimize yields and quality, while decreasing their costs. And then, ultimately replicate their successes. Our roadmap supports these goals, so stay tuned!
Like so many others, our biggest challenge is trying to find some level of normalcy, enjoyment, and success in the midst of a global pandemic. To overcome this, we’re staying flexible and adapting as needed. Luckily for Trym, our family, and our customers, cannabis is an essential service and we’ve seen a major increase in sales in recent months.
As a team, we actively encourage our employees to take time off for whatever reasons they need. We’ve worked hard to foster a culture of openness and empathy, and in these trying times, it’s what will carry us through.
Overall, we’re excited about our company’s growth and by the great feedback we consistently get from our customers about how much we’re helping their businesses thrive.
4. What is your favorite food memory from childhood? What does your favorite (birthday) meal look like now? Favorite food?
My favorite childhood food memory is probably from when I was 7 or 8. I played on a little league baseball team that was named after a burger joint in town called Hap’s Grill. After the games, the whole team would go to the restaurant, which was this super small hole in the wall place with no tables, and we’d eat hotdogs and cheeseburgers and drink sodas out of glass bottles while sitting on the sidewalk.
For my favorite birthday meal, I have to go with sushi. Some tuna sashimi, some kind of a spicy roll, and inari.
It’s hard to pick one “favorite food” but I’d say a California burrito with pollo asada instead of carne asada is what I crave often. If you live on the West Coast, you’ve probably heard of a California Burrito, which is a burrito with carne asada, french fries, guacamole, sour cream, and cheese. I don’t eat much beef, so I swap it out for grilled chicken. When I’m on a long run, this is usually what I start dreaming of as a post-run meal.
5. What is your passion?
I’m obsessed with the outdoors. Mostly trail running, snowboarding, and camping, but I enjoy almost anything that gets me outside. My love for nature helped shape me into an environmentalist, and that’s why I ended up working in solar for several years.
Live music has also been a huge part of my life. My twenties were filled with seeing bands like Phish, STS9, and Widespread Panic. My wife Karen and I met at a Widespread show in college and we’ve traveled all over the country together for music and adventuring. Even though we’re startup founders and parents, we’ve still been able to make it to shows and festivals or, at least, we used to pre-COVID.
Of course, I’m also very passionate about cannabis. The health benefits are clear from a medical perspective, but also as a healthy alternative to alcohol. Cannabis goes perfectly with outdoor activities and live music, so it’s played a big part in my life as well.
- Please tell me about where Natty Rems has gone since we spoke last? What kind of change have you activated?
Natty Rems since we last spoke has expanded its cultivation canopy, extraction operations, and overall square footage over 3x growing from 23,000sf to 83,000sf. We are on track to be in 300 doors statewide by end of Q1 2021 and plan on being in 400+ stores by the end of 2021. Natty has revamped all branding presentation, packaging, labeling, business plans, and overall messaging in line with our expansion. Our genetic library has been expanded and reinvigorated old heirlooms to start reintroducing them to the market that we feel is drowned with so called “exotics”. With us releasing the familial parents of these genetics back to market including our OG Line as well as a Long Flowering Line by the end of 2021 we feel this will uniquely separate our brand from the rest of the market. Both lines will be limited releases every 2-4 months we believe there’s still a lot of room for these REAL exotics to make a comeback in the market, we are one of the only companies in the country that I know of with a lot of these real OGs and unique Sativas. We have held some of them for over 11 years so the team knows how to properly revive and nurture these legacy cultivars through experience and true appreciation!
2. What are your six and twelve month goals now that you’ve expanded your business? What obstacles do you face how? How do you anticipate removing those obstacles?
Our overall goal is to showcase our hard work since 2009 to be able to continually produce consistent and highest quality cannabis products even on a large scale producing the most of the best. With all of our business expansion we have also focusing on being a responsible that sustainable company. Natty is very excited to announce that we plan on implementing fully recyclable or reusable packaging within the next 3 years. We plan on improving our overall water/energy use in both operating and new facilities once the technology is at a place where we feel it is truly effectively accomplishing it’s overall goal. We are currently testing multiple manufacturer’s LED fixtures not only in Colorado but all other markets we are working on entering. Our live resin cartridges have taken off as we’ve continued to automate and optimize all of our processes to be able to continue to focus on the quality of our products at scale and we want to use this success to be a responsible and sustainable company.
At Natty Rems the focus has always been elevating community, culture, and cannabis by blending artistic expression and applied sciences and it has been great to see this come to fruition especially with our upcoming sustainability and social equity plans. We plan on being a fully inclusive company with all current and future business initiatives being updated including reviewing our hiring and employment training/educational materials with a minority owned HR entity to ensure accurate, appropriate information and practices being utilized by donating to community movements; donating and supporting Last Prisoner Project and including educational materials about cannabis incarceration throughout all of Natty Rems’ clients/partners across the country! While the company continues to grow we hope to truly be responsible and humble partners to right the many wrongs that were created by the war on drugs especially for minority communities across this whole country.
Andrew Boyens, Founder of Natty Rems
The 6 month goal is to be in the aforementioned 400+ doors statewide while still maintaining the brand reputation we have built over 11 years in the industry. Our 12 month goal is to continue to expand our SKU set starting with ice water extracted products and several others that we believe are underserved SKUs on the market. We know this will make a lot of people in Colorado and beyond as excited as us because we plan on being able to apply our dialed expertise to these products to make them more scalable and affordable quality for the consumer with the same quality that Natty is known for!
3. Tell me about your company in the current day world? What do you do that’s better than your competition and how do you continue to raise the bar now that you are a much bigger company?
Natty Rems’ team as a whole is bigger and stronger than it has ever been and that scale is what we have been waiting for! I am personally very proud of our team and how they have shown the ability, knowledge and overall wisdom to effectively scale our quality product lines (both plant and extract). Now that we have been able to accomplish what we feel was the hardest part of building a scalable product line as well as a brand we plan on using it wisely, strategically, and pragmatically. The timing for the first time in my many years of being in this cannabis business has aligned and I plan on utilizing the consistency of our product, expanded production, new skus and experiential marketing style to our advantage to continue to build our brand presence to truly show how we are better than the competition. We want to educate consumers to show them that they can depend on Natty for the same experience every single time they purchase not only in Colorado but nationwide.
4. What’s your favorite food memory from childhood? What’s your favorite Saturday Night dinner consist of?
This one is easy, homemade-from-scratch southern chicken and dumplings or biscuits and gravy made by my mother, hands down this is still my favorite thing to indulge in. Saturday night usually consists of a nice meal ordered in or going out with the favorite still being a proper pizza(which I’m still searching for consistently in Denver).
5. What’s your passion?
My passion is truly family and business strategy in that order.
Herbal Goods Company
1. Please tell me about yourself. Why cannabis instead of law, medicine or science?
I was on track of becoming a doctor… . I was doing the pre-med courses, the long nights and sometimes all-nighters in the dorm room studying… but really this was more the vision my parents had loaded onto me (the classic immigrant parent story- “the way to be successful is to become a lawyer or a doctor!”). My parents immigrated from El Salvador during the civil war and I was born and raised in San Francisco CA. My parents are a big motivator and importance in my life. My father is a custodian and my mother a florist.
Thankfully I had it within myself to challenge the family pressure and to drop the pre-med studies and to follow my true calling, entrepreneurialism.
2. Please tell me about your company. What is your goal?
Herbal Goods Co. is a Vancouver, BC-based company with startup roots in my hometown of San Francisco, CA. All we focus on is our wild foraged pre-roll cones we call Herbal Goods.
We’re not trying to introduce new grinders, cone fillers, pipes, or anything like that. We are literally head down in making what we truly believe is the smoothest pre-roll cones in the game.
Each and every Herbal Goods pre-rolled cone is meticulously hand-rolled and tied. This allows us to completely eliminate toxic glues, bleach, paper, and additives while providing you with what we believe is the smoothest and cleanest smoke you’ll experience from a pre-roll.
Herbal Goods Company
We wild harvest our Ebony leaves in Bengal. This process enables a machine, pesticide, and monoculture free harvesting process. After harvest, our leaves are sun-dried for two weeks in preparation for rolling. Once dry, each Herbal Goods leaf is cut to size and shape by hand. Each of our cones is then carefully rolled and tied by hand to create our Herbal Goods cones.
Our unique filters are made from sun-dried corn husks that are rolled and tied by hand. No paper, no card stock, no glue. Finally, our cones undergo a curing process which sets the final Herbal Goods cone shape and removes all remaining moisture. This is done in an open flame clay oven.
What’s really lovely is that our cones are made by our amazing team of workers in India. We are proud to have a workforce made up of 85% women who would otherwise be without work given their rural location. By decentralizing the process of rolling our cones we are able to offer workers the freedom to earn a living while staying in their local communities. What this means is that rather than traveling to a local center for work, they are able to sustain normal rhythms and tasks by working from home. This is particularly important for female workers in rural India who are expected to care for the home and children.
Our goal here is to have Herbal Goods be a widely distributed accessory product within the space of cannabis as the best all-natural pre-roll option.
3. Our ‘elevator pitch’: A 100% natural wild forge ebony leaf pre-roll that eliminates toxic glues, bleach, paper, and additives and provides you with what we believe is the smoothest and cleanest smoke you’ll experience.
Herbal Goods Company
4. Favorite food memory?:
My nickname my entire family (including distant family) calls me is Gordo (fat in Spanish). I was nearly 13 pounds when I was born. Yes, poor mama, indeed.
Anyways… I loved mangos, still do! My earliest memory is chasing the mango with my mouth as it danced around the bowl my parents put it in. I’d be chasing it for hours… The result, a face that looked like a mango.
Do you cook?:
I love my breakfast. Two poached eggs over a bed of sunflower sprouts, organic farmers market sauerkraut, a cashew jalapeno spread on a lightly toasted olive sourdough bread.
Favorite thing you prepare?
Pupusas! A Salvadorian dish I highly recommend.
5. What is your passion?
My passion is using my creativity to create things people love and enjoy. Since University I’ve been designing products and putting them out into the market. From meditation tools, water bottles, to plant-based shower sponges, Herbal Goods is just another one of my product creations made with a lot of love and creativity – that we hope everyone loves and enjoy when they try!
1. Please tell me about yourself. What do you do? What brought you to cannabis? Do you enjoy the plant?
I am an award winning entrepreneur, marketing plant medicine advocate, and spiritual guide and coach/mentor.
I founded the first ever cannabis marketing/PR/branding agency and consultancy Cannabrand in 2013 on the onset burgeoning cannabis industry. It disrupted both the cannabis and advertising industries.
Cannabrand specializes in creating cannabis brands and defining their identities and purpose in an ever-evolving, increasingly competitive marketplace. I have dedicated my life to removing negative stereotypes and stigmas from cannabis and “rebranding” the entire industry. This has been done by creating, educating, internationally speaking, employing, inspiring others to do the same and live their purpose.
I started working as a kid, doing any odd job I could talk my way into. Helping out in the neighbor’s garden, selling handmade jewelry or art, lemonade stands, nannying, you name it!
I got more serious when I was 13 years old, I would work ‘under the table’ at a retail children’s clothing shop in Connecticut where I grew up.
As a kid, I really loved working with people and being a helper. I loved to create my own abundance in all areas of life. I was always fascinated in learning everything I could and still am.
I felt compelled to help everywhere I felt there was an opportunity.
At the University of Colorado at Boulder, I earned some important internships working for Fortune 500 companies where I was able to learn first hand, the ins and outs of corporate business. I was adamant about getting tons of experience before I entered the “workforce.”
Little did I know, I was going to be creating my own companies.
I am blessed to have come from a very hard working and successful family. Many members of whom continue to inspire me to spread my entrepreneurial wings and push the business envelope in new and exciting ways. My great-great grandfather was Elmer Ambrose Sperry who invented the first electric car in Europe and uses it for the Gyroscope, including Auto-Pilot. He was known as the “Father of Modern Navigation Technology.”
From an early age, I knew that I must absolutely be able to work for myself so no one could limit my drive or desire to grow. I did not want anything to stand in my way from manifesting my own reality.
At only 23, I created my first start-up called MARCA Strategic (Marca translates to “brand” in Spanish, Italian and Portuguese), which is a marketing and branding agency and a holding company.
I was drawn to cannabis because I believe that there are so many medicinal values and uses for cannabis. I am so happy to see how much progress we have made in 7 years (since the Adult Use Legalization in Denver in 2013).
I was also in the right place at the right time –It was fate, and was able to take the risk of creating the legal industry in its infancy. I remember a ‘limiting belief’ I would tell myself that I would probably never be able to get a “real job” after I took the big leap into the cannabis industry — due to the stigma other industries placed on the cannabis space. (I’m so proud that we’ve come such a long way to legitimize this industry, but there is still a lot of work to be done!) I’m proud of the part that I have been able to play in moving the industry forward and grateful for the opportunity to help so many people with my acumen of marketing and of cannabis. It is incredibly rewarding to me and drives me to want to do more.
I have recently launched Psilocybrand, which is dedicated to the research and data surrounding the use of psychedelics as a medicine. It is also working with a handful of publicly traded Psychedelic Science and Data companies for their marketing and strategy needs. There is a TON of work that needs to be done in these spaces to further our understanding of how the plants can and are used medicinally.
I feel that plant medicine is a conduit to feeling and awakening into elevated frequencies and dimensions. I am certainly not a proponent of using plant medicine as a vice, but rather as an opportunity to give people with illness and depression hope and to learn that there is so much more to this life than what meets the eye. I also want to make it clear that you can ascend not using any substances, through thoughts and feelings, breathwork, meditation and just your vibrations of emotions (energy in motion) you are radiating and attracting at all times.
My greatest expertise is not only marketing, business strategy and creation, but also the ability to help business professionals and their companies to understand how to step into their highest empowerment by aligning their passion and vibration with their greatest purpose.
“Do you enjoy the plant”
Absolutely! I am growing a gorgeous Sour Tangie plant I named “Buddy” in my garden this year and am thrilled. I have been a cannabis enthusiast for a very long time, but have never had enough space to grow my own. I use cannabis almost everyday. I use it in my baths, on my body when I have aches and pains, and sometimes in cooking.
2. What does your company do better than its competition? What kind of obstacles do you face every day?
I really enjoy combusting a beautiful flower everyday when my work has been done, or sometimes during the day as a motivation and creative inspiration. I am also very athletic, practice yoga and go hiking almost everyday. So i’m excited I have been able to break the “lazy stoner” stigma.
Our competition uses “Cannabrand” (the word I made up) as their Google Adwords, if that tells you a little something.
Our marketing strategy in the cannabis game is second to none.
My company and team have dedicated themselves to being of service to others.
We love our clients and partners and blast them with positive energy and results!
Usually the CEO of a company does not work with all of their clients personally, but I do, because I love to use my strategic genius to help companies and be involved as much as I can.
We have an incredible team that is all on the same level about our mission and values so we are always on the top of our game!
We are different from our competition because we were the first to launch and I disrupted this industry back in 2013. We were on the cover of the New York Times Styles Sunday with an article titled: “The Rebranding of Pot Inc.” We build extremely valuable brands and then get to promote them. We are proud that our clients have gone on to thrive and range from 10M-500M valuation in size.
3. What are your six-and twelve-month goals?
One obstacle that we face is that Cannabis is still very stigmatized and has a long way to go. It is highly censored when trying to communicate facts and has a long way to go with legislation, research and data to name a few. It is difficult to advertise cannabis companies because of Facebook and Google’s community guidelines.
My 6-12 month goals are to watch our world receive healing and to be a catalyst of healing.
I will continue to expand my team and our areas of reach. I would like to be able to create even more abundance for people during “these times.” I am also working on a few special projects including a retreat series, where expansion, abundance, and business meet.
Cannabrand/Psilocybrand and Superconscious leaders have also launched a series of Spiritual Expansion Retreats for people who are purpose driven and willing to live their best lives while manifesting their passions. I have used my vast experience in business, energy healing and creation for this.
4. What kind of food do you like? Favorite food memory from childhood? Who taught you to cook (if you do cook)?
I absolutely love to cook! My mother is French, so I grew up always eating incredibly healthy French style meals. I was able to be in the family kitchen and stood by my mother and her mother (Mamette’s) side my entire life watching them cook and helping them. I was always so impressed – they could make miracles out of scratch.
My favorite food is ACTUALLY SUSHI- and Uni to be exact. I love the brininess, the weirdness and the whole experience of it. I also love to cook, and get to cook dinner pretty much every night from scratch for my husband and I. My favorite thing to cook is smoked salmon eggs benedict!
5. What is your passion?
What is my passion? Everything I have discussed above and my Husband and new puppy Stella.
I am living my life on purpose with no fear. Everything that I am doing and what I have dedicated my life to.
Please tell me about yourself, where are you from? Where are you living now? What was your path to the plant? Who was your inspiration for what you do today?
My name is Brett Richter and I am 39 years old, born and raised in Brooklyn, NY. I am the Vice President of Ecological Laboratories, Inc. a family owned and operated Biotechnology company. I am a 2nd Generation Family Member. I live in Long Island, NY with my wife and two kids. Until the pandemic and quarantine I would spend time going back and forth from our Corporate Office in NY to our Laboratories, Production, Warehouse, Training, Shipping Facility in Cape Coral, FL. Our microbial technology that is proprietary to ELI (Ecological Laboratories, Inc.) can be used in many different applications for environmental issues. Mostly focused on the agricultural, wastewater, Farm Waste Management, Ecosystem Restoration, Aquaculture, Biogas markets on the Industrial Side. As well as major focus on the consumer hobby markets that include Pond/Water Garden, Aquarium, Septic, Birding, Pet and Lawn & Garden. With having large success in the commercial agriculture market for many years, and having our microbial products used on hundreds of thousands of Acres and Hectares globally and we always look to expand to new markets. Roughly 10 years ago, my amazing and dedicated Science and Sales team identified the Cannabis/Hemp Cultivation market as one that would benefit from our technology. Our national sales manager and product expert Scott Berke along with Bill Swearingen our Sales territory manager in Northern California and Southern Oregon including myself was the group that felt the cannabis community needed our technology. It shouldn’t be just for commercial agriculture, Cannabis/Hemp needed this! We did know that microbes/bacteria were used in the Cannabis/Hemp market, if it was growers brewing their own teas and starter microbes. Or other types of microbes being sold to the market, however none of them with the consortium that we produce with a long shelf life. We understood at the beginning that the success the commercial ag farmers experience using our product resulting in a healthier, stronger, faster growing crop would translate to the Cannabis/Hemp Cultivators. We also understood that for those growing for medicinal purposes can feel confident using our technology that it is 100% safe for the plant, non-chemical, nontoxic and safe for the end user. We surveyed the marketplace, put our R&D team to the task to develop our strains of microbes to put out the Best Microbial products to the Cannabis/Hemp grower. After a two year process, we launched the Microbe Life Hydroponics brand of products. Although Hydroponics is in the brand name, every product is safe and great to use in Soil/Aquaponic/Aeroponic grows. 8 years later we are very proud to have our Microbe Life technology being used by Cannabis/Hemp Cultivators from small , mid, and large scale all over the globe. Our path to this plant was very exciting, and to know we are helping caregivers/cultivators/home growers is extremely gratifying for our entire team. I would have to say my inspiration for what I do today first starts with my father and uncle, co-owners and founders of Ecological Laboratories, Inc. I have grown up in our lab from a very small boy when it was still in NY. I was able to understand microbes by this time spent in our lab, as well as other areas of the business from Shipping/Production/Marketing/Sales, etc. My work ethic was heavily influenced in me by my father and uncle who still have their hands involved in all aspects of the business. They are my heroes. Having them as mentors and having a front row seat of running and operating a biotech business has allowed me to be successful in my professional career and personal life.
Photo of Cape Coral Florida employees
What are your six-and twelve month goals? What obstacles do you face? How do you anticipate removing those obstacles?
With so many different markets we serve, we set different goals for each of them. However specific to the Cannabis/Hemp market we are always looking to grow, improve, and get our products in the hands of everyone! Within the next 6 months we are looking to finalize our formulations and packaging for several new products to be launched under the Microbe Life Hydroponics brand. We have not had any new items since our initial launch 8 years ago. When launching a new product we want to make sure that the grower will truly benefit from what is in the bottle. We want to make sure we offer the best technology out there. A longer term goal for us is to have our products fully registered in Canada. All of our products are registered in each state in the US. That allows us to make the claims we do on our labels, and allow the grower to feel confident in putting our products to use. There are so many products on the market that the contents are unknown in the bottle. We want the grower to fully understand what is in our formulations and how they work and interact with the plant. We have been working on Canadian registrations for a while now. It is a lengthy process, and hope to have this available to all the growers in Canada in the long term. Of course in business there are always obstacles, and they come in many ways. They can be other microbial products out there that may claim to do what we can do, but don’t. Growers have purchased and used biologicals for a very long time, and many didn’t see results. So at the beginning it was always proving to each grower that our products do what we say they do! That never goes away! We can have a lot of success with a farmer, but the next farmer rightfully so needs to see the proof themselves. Other obstacles always include product registration, being that we know our products are 100% safe for the environment, people, pets, aquatics, however different countries have their own specific microbial strains that are approved and safe for import. Our consortium is so unique that some states, or countries never worked with anything like it. So it is a delicate arena to have to navigate in order to educate these governmental departments. Our Lab team made up of PHD’s, Biologists, Microbiologists, Chemists steer that ship for us and make these bacterial product registrations happen for us to sell and for the grower to use.
In front of Ecological Laboratories in Cape Coral, FL. (Far Left Brett Richter/2nd Gen of Family, Barry Richter/Founder/Owner, Mike Gorka (Northwest Territory Manager),Michael Richter/Founder/Owner, Matthew Richter/2nd Gen of family)
Tell me about your company? What do you do that’s better than your competition?
I mentioned some brief company history above, but there is always more we can talk about! 😊 We have roughly 80 employees between our NY Corporate Office and our Florida Laboratories. We have offices in the Middle East and Asia, and have sales representatives covering all of our markets on the road in the US. Being a family owned business there are four, 2nd Generation and one 3rd Generation family members all working for Ecological. We have so many employees that have been with us for 10, 20, 30 and even 40 years! I consider myself so lucky to be able to work with my family each day. We produce all of our Microbes right here in the US. Our core technology and consortium of microbes cannot be reverse engineered or duplicated. It has been tried over many times by different companies with zero success. The old saying “often imitated, never duplicated” works well for our microbial formulations. Of course there is competition out there, and there are many other wonderful efficacious microbial products out there. However they work very well with our technology and focus on other areas of the plant health that complements ours. Our flagship product is called Photosynthesis Plus, and it is a complete eco system in a bottle. It works in several areas of Cannabis plants as well as all plants. This product made up of our propriety consortium improves a plants ability to use available light for photosynthesis, increasing carbon cycling. The plant is able to convert more Carbon (CO2) to carbohydrates. There are bacteria in the blend that fix nitrogen from the air at the foliar level, in addition to at the root, and help the plant uptake other nutrients better. Other inputs a grower uses for their crops will be metabolized by the plant more efficiently, reducing waste and cost. Nutrient companies enjoy when their products are used in conjunction with Microbe Life Hydroponics/Photosynthesis Plus!
Photo by pistil_tops
What is your favorite food memory from childhood? Do you cook? Who taught you? Favorite meal now?
I do not have the most sophisticated pallet when it comes to food. I have always been basic meat and potatoes type of person. One of my favorite food memories wasn’t exactly a good one! I am not the biggest fan of seafood, but my mother always wanted me to eat fish, you know its brain food! That’s what she would always tell me when she prepared it, but I just didn’t like it. So one night growing up she gave me a chicken dish, and I ate the entire thing, and asked for more……low and behold it wasn’t chicken it was fish. She fooled me! The power of the mind, right!? Yet I wouldn’t be fooled again, and we still laugh at that story today. I am not a big cook or fan of cooking, my wife and sister are amazing cooks, and I thank them for feeding me! Funny enough, I make a solid French toast, well at least my two kids think so. If I could have my favorite meal, it’s pretty basic, carbs all the way….give me some spaghetti and meatballs.
Photo Provided by Brett Richter
What is your passion?
As I get older my passions have changed, specifically when I became a father. So my passion is my family and raising my kids with my wife. After that, Ecological Laboratories isn’t just a job for me, it is my also my passion! It is in my genetic makeup to want to make our company continue to grow and help our environment whether its cleaning up polluted water ways and wastewater to helping all plants grow to the best of their natural ability. I have put so much into developing our Cannabis/Hemp cultivation sector of our business! This community of growers have encouraged me to want to make sure our products are being used for cannabis cultivation in order to produce the best Cannabis & Hemp out there especially for caregivers taking care of patients. However when I do decompress from the responsibilities of Ecological, I enjoy Baseball, Hockey, and sneakers! Yes, sneakers! A fresh pair of cool sneakers always gets my attention!
Thanks,
Brett
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1. Please tell me about yourself, where are you from? Where are you living now? What was your path to the plant?
I originally grew up in Yokohama, Japan till I was 20 and moved to the Emerald Triangle several years later after completing my service in the Intelligence Community while enlisted in the Army. For me, cannabis was used as a means-to-an-end to wean myself off of anti-depressants and the heavy alcohol use that often plagues most combat veterans who suffer from PTSD. I discovered cannabis at a time where if I never found it at that exact moment, I would’ve continued down an already reckless path of severe alcohol & drug abuse. Shortly after my tour in Iraq, I was stationed in Germany and found that I often didn’t get along with other service members so I mostly hung out with German locals, and became close with two biology graduate students from the Guttenburg University of Mainz who happened to grow weed and sell hash on the side. It was shortly after connecting with these guys where my travels and partying escapades eventually led to my first intimate experiences within the illicit hash trade and the underground cannabis grow culture in Europe.
The ultimate blessing during this period was learning that cannabis was able to alter my consciousness and lower my anxiety far better than alcohol or antidepressants could ever dream of. I noticed that the more I smoked, the less I drank. The less I drank, the less anger I had. The less anger I had the more control I wielded over my PTSD. This first, deep, much needed connection with cannabis allowed me, for the first time, to look deep within and address my issues at their root rather than settling for the sedated haze that awaits most vets swimming in pool prescription drugs. This sold me. I was a true believer and there was no stopping it. This plant taught me I didn’t have to end up with the same fate as other vets addicted to or dependent on pharmaceuticals. As my passion grew so did my hunger for knowledge and my forays into the cannabis world deepened quickly. My cannabis use ultimately led to the end of my Army Intelligence career, so after receiving my honorable discharge I headed to California to go all in. It was sink or swim. I dedicated my life to cannabis the minute it changed mine for the better. There was no looking back and no regrets.
I now reside in Humboldt County, California. Humboldt County is my Mecca. My true north. My Jerusalem of Cannabis. This is where the true believers go. This is where the best of the best make their pilgrimage to grow the best cannabis in the world. There’s a deep romance and connection I have with Humboldt. It’s name is ubiquitous within the cannabis industry for having arguably and consistently THE BEST cannabis in the world. There’s an acceptance and tolerance of pot-grower culture found here that is nonexistent elsewhere in the world. There’s a certain mystique surrounding this county and many will argue that the emerald triangle is home is the world’s largest homogenous community of career outlaws. It’s this outlaw culture of freedom and free expression that is the beating heart and magic of Humboldt. To me, Humboldt means FREEDOM. It’s this free-wheeling outlaw spirit that lies at the core of decades of hard earned cannabis grow-knowledge that makes Humboldt a phenomena in the world of ultra-fine cannabis.
Who was your inspiration for what you do today?
The man responsible for what I do today is known as OG Mendocino Mike. OG Mike took me under his wing right after getting out of the Army. I owe it to my brother who got me into the industry by introducing me to Mike who, at the time, hired me as the head of his security. OG Mike is the embodiment of the Emerald Triangle Dream. A true original grower and outlaw, he hitch hiked out to California in 1974 and gorilla-grew in Mendocino and Humboldt County where he would eventually buy his property and make the first of many fortunes. Hailing from an Ashkenazi Jewish background and standing at 5 foot 7″ tall with a long silver beard and tatted from head to toe, he was deeply spiritual and connected with plants on an entirely different level. He spoke about the vibrations the plants give and talked of the parallels between growing cannabis and teachings of the Kabbalah and giving off the right vibrations while in the garden. The most important lesson was he taught me early on that there’s two types of “growers” in the triangle: 1. Those strictly out for money and 2. Those out to grow the best possible cannabis. He drilled into my head: “If you want to grow big scenes my place isn’t the place or you, quite honestly if that’s your goal you can fuck off. But if you want to grow the BEST POSSIBLE cannabis by giving your BEST POSSIBLE effort then you can stick around” he left it at that and I stuck around ever since. Mike is and always will be my biggest inspiration.
2. What are your six-and twelve month goals? What obstacles do you face? How do you anticipate removing those obstacles?
As cannabis goes global we’ve opened an office in Barcelona, Spain to meet growing demands and engage in the legal EU market. Currently, we’ve been posturing to distribute our genetics to GMP Licensed cannabis farmers in federally legal countries around the globe. The largest obstacle to being a California based genetics company with huge demand is the large barriers to entry on the international market to engage with GMP-Licensed cannabis operators. We anticipate overcoming these obstacles by choosing the best grower and investment partners in the EU area.
3.Tell me about your company? What do you do that’s better than your competition?
Aficionado specializes in breeding and curating elite and heirloom genetics. We’re credited as being the world’s first ultra-premium cannabis brand. Up until legalization our bread and butter was measuring our genetics through competing in many of the cannabis competitions found throughout the country. We’re the first company to demand ultra-premium prices for our genetics and our releases have consistently sold-out since our first release in 2011. I won my first Emerald Cup in 2012 and since then we have stacked up 21 awards in a total of 3 countries, and in 2017 was inducted into the Seed Bank Hall of Fame. We’re known for crafting full-sun outdoor organic cannabis and seeds that demands the highest prices on the market. OG Mikes goal was always to grow indoor-quality cannabis outdoors, and that’s what we embody.
What we mainly do differently is our approach. We approach cannabis a lot like how a top-tier chef approaches fine cuisine. It boils down to the 3 Pillars of Quality. 1. Selection. 2. Technique 3. Timing. What separates a AAA top-shelf flower from low-end mids is akin to comparing the differences between a flat iron steak at Denny’s and a dry-aged cut of Wagyu from Nobu in Malibu. The 3 Pillars of Quality is our roadmap to success. The ‘Selection’ and provenance of your ingredients. The ‘Techniques’ used to express and execute your vision. And finally, the Timing of each function within your process and the timing of your final presentation. These are the basics of what separates greatness from mediocrity. Hard work, passion, and ruthless discipline is all you need to be successful in cannabis.
4. What is your favorite food memory from childhood? Do you cook? Who taught you? Favorite meal now?
Japanese street food. Growing up as a kid in Japan nearly everything food-wise had some sort of novel appeal to it. But my favorite dish BY FAR then and currently has to be Japanese Beef Curry. Unlike a Thai Curry which is a coconut milk and chili base, or an Indian Curry that employs the use of Turmeric and Garam Marsala with usually a tomato and cream base Japanese curry is made by creating first creating a roux of flour and butter and adding your Tumeric and Garam Marsala spices to your roux as it’s being whisked in the pot and you eventually end of with a curry-spiced beef gravy with chunks of ribeye, potatoes, carrots, and mushrooms served over white rice. You can stick me on a deserted island and tell me all I have to eat for the rest of my life is Japanese Curry and I’d be perfectly fine with that- hopefully I brought weed and seeds to said deserted island then I’d be set.
5. What is your passion?
Ultimately my passion is breeding cannabis. It is something that I’m not obsessed with, but something I’m possessed by. It’s a lot like love, there’s an invisible and unstoppable force that hurls you through the motions and destroys any fears. This passion has been the greatest gift of my life, and it’s a great passion of mine to share it with the world.
PHOTO COURTESY: HIGH LIFE FARMS
Despite only coming online last December, Michigan’s recreational market is growing at a record pace and is on track to generate between $400 million to $475 million in sales in 2020 alone. Even the ongoing pandemic has not stymied Michigan’s robust, albeit nascent cannabis market —the state reported $54.6 million in adult-use sales between March and May, with the number of retailers rising by 70% to keep up with growing demand.