In The Weeds with Jimmy Young finds a one of kind talent at the NCIA NE Business Conference in Boston, he’s Warren Bobrow.
Category: Interviews
PHOTO COURTESY: EQUILIBRIA
Author’s note: “Coco Meers and Marcy Capron Vermillion are the co-founders of Equilibria.”
Warren Bobrow=WB: Why cannabis? What brought you to the plant?
Coco: I was extremely under-educated about cannabis when Marcy (co-founder) and I reconnected to ideate in summer of 2018 after selling our respective tech companies. A francophile from Alabama, white burgundy and bourbon pretty much had me covered on the recreational side of things. Marcy was the first data-driven, engineering mind to emphatically share her personal CBD success story with me, opening up my mind to the idea of cannabis as medicine, versus recreation. Upon hearing Marcy’s authentic stories of nerve pain management and mental health relief, as well as the countless (anonymized) stories of the women she had counseled on dosage and delivery techniques, I began taking a high quality, full-spectrum CBD daily. After a few days, I felt more rested and generally more balanced. After a few weeks, I described my overall temperament as decidedly more “even.” I had a longer fuse with my young children and was less fixated on elements beyond my control at work. After a month or so, I realized I could take my biologic injectable drug for an autoimmune disease less and less, eventually leveling off at ⅓ the frequency. CBD has brought me balance, and I knew women everywhere deserved similar access.
CREDIT: SPHEREX
Warren Bobrow=WB: Where are you from? Why cannabis? What propelled you on this journey? What are the highlights so far?
Niccolo Aieta=NA: I live in Colorado now, but I was born in Northern California and spent my formative years outside of Los Angeles.
PHOTO COURTESY: SLANG WORLDWIDE
Warren Bobrow: Where are you from? Why cannabis? Did you go to business school? Who is your mentor?
Peter Miller: I am from Toronto, Ontario, Canada. I spend my time now between our corporate headquarters there and visiting everywhere that the SLANG network operates, meeting with the team, our partners, and the greater group of stakeholders in our supply chain and business. Cannabis grabbed my attention seven years ago, when Colorado had a ballot initiative to legalize adult use cannabis. It piqued my interest because of the potential that the new market represented and how the cannabis space could have such a great impact. Soon after, I discovered that Canada was exploring a commercial medical cannabis market to handle what had become a pretty large gray market that the government wanted to disintermediate.
PHOTO COURTESY: CANNDESCENT
Warren Bobrow=WB: How do you set up a successful brand in the cannabis space?
Sam Arellan0=SA: How you approach building your brand should not be qualified by the space you operate within. As in any industry, start by understanding the audience you wish to engage with. You should know them as well, if not better than they know themselves. The most successful brands regardless of industry are predictive – they know what we want before we do. They revolutionize and modernize the way we think, act and shop. Successful brands become prisms by which paradigms shift and new ones get created. In cannabis, Canndescent operates like this. How does this differ from mainstream brands? It doesn’t. Good brands regardless of industry are like good conversations. That is to say they are reciprocal, meaningful and mutually beneficial.
PHOTO COURTESY: STILLWATER BRANDS
Warren Bobrow=WB: Please tell me about Stillwater Brands? Why cannabis? Tell me about your professional path to cannabis?
Coree Schmitz=CS: Stillwater Brands is a company that believes in the power of cannabinoids in functional doses. We create fast-acting, consistent products that consumers can trust. Our flagship product, Ripple, has grown to become one of the best-selling brands in Colorado.
PHOTO COURTESY: SUE BACHORSKI
The cannabis-infused beverage market is growing at an accelerated rate. Over the next four years, non-alcoholic cannabis-infused beverages (which includes beers, wines, and spirits) is projected to grow by $155 million. With an annual CAGR of 19%, much of this growth is being fueled by major investments from players in the alcohol industry.
Warren Bobrow- WB: Please tell me about Trailblazers. How did it start? What is your overarching mission?
Trailblazers=T: Trailblazers is a curated community of cannabis business and cultural leaders who work to advance the industry, unified by a shared ethos and vision of the future. We believe cannabis is on the precipice of transforming the human experience. Whether it’s disrupting the $50 billion pain management industry, addressing the injustices faced by millions of people who have been wrongly incarcerated, or bringing hope to those who suffer from anxiety, depression, and other ailments, the federal legalization of cannabis has the ability to touch everyone’s life in a meaningful way. It’s not a question of if this impact will occur but how, and whether the cannabis industry will put profit before purpose and blaze a new trail with conscious capitalism in mind.
PHOTO CREDIT: 5280 PRODUCTIONS
Warren Bobrow=WB: Why Cannabis? Would you please tell me why you found this path? What had you been doing?
Krysti Rede=KR: The decision for me was less about cannabis. At the forefront I was excited about an opportunity to work in a nascent rapidly growing industry, within a young startup that has an opportunity to positively influence the market, and significantly elevate product and consumer experiences. Many of the opportunities in cannabis are patterns that have played out in other commerce and retail verticals. As more experienced professionals from established verticals move into cannabis, this will elevate the standard of excellence for all involved.
Photo: @Vixxion
Warren Bobrow=WB: Where are you from originally, reason why I ask is because hardly anyone is actually from Los Angeles, right? What do you do now? Tell me a little bit about your path to where you are now?