Category: Interviews

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Cal Marshall Bites Into Five Questions For 2020: Filmmaker In The Cannabis Space

Cal Marshall

Cal Marshall,
ANDREW KEMMIS

Warren Bobrow=WB: Tell me about yourself? What does the plant offer you? What are you working on right now?

Cal Marshall=CM: My name is Cal Marshall, on social media @CalCaliente, and I am a proud military veteran based in Las Vegas. I’m a patent-holding entrepreneur who started a social media content agency called Burger Media. We create culturally relevant narrative content that enables brands across different industries to connect with modern consumers. Right now I’m balancing multiple niche clients while working on a documentary series that takes a deep dive into the cannabis industry and sheds light on various aspects of the business and culture. Legal cannabis is an emerging industry with endless opportunity to identify stories that educate and entertain, and I’m positioning myself at the forefront.

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Rick Batenburg III Of Clear Cannabis Inc. Gets Gritty On Cannabis VC

Warren Bobrow: Where are you from? Did you go to business school? Who is your mentor? Why cannabis? What is your passion? 

Rick Batenburg III
Rick Batenburg III,
Cannabis Venture Capitalist
Credit: Clear Cannabis, Inc. CREDIT: CLEAR CANNABIS, INC.

Rick Batenburg III=RB: I am from Loveland, Colorado. The short answer on B-school is, yes, I graduated second in my class at Nichols College in Dudley, Massachusetts. However, my business education began decades earlier while going to the office with my father and learning negotiation and investment prowess through osmosis. I have two mentors: First and foremost, my father, Rich Batenburg Jr., and professionally I am mentored by Jim Jungjohann, a hedge fund manager. 

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Mike France: Co-Founder+CEO Of Proper Gets Granular In Five Crisp Questions

Proper Cannabis
Proper’s rated products for Relief PHOTO COURTESY: PROPER

Warren Bobrow=WB: Please tell me about yourself. Why cannabis products? Tell me about your business?

Mike France=MF: Timing, opportunity, and a new lifestyle. I was frustrated by private equity and venture capital in different ways and thinking more and more about taking a shot at something myself – but I didn’t have any good ideas. Turns out a friend of mine started running a cannabis company and he called me up and told me I had to see what was happening in the industry – this was 2014, before most of the legalization. What I saw was really exciting.

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Co-Location Spaces Redefine Efficiency And Culture In The Cannabis Industry

Natura Logo
Natura Logo
COURTESY: NATURA

The proliferation of coworking spaces, like WeWork and The Yard, has reshaped modern corporate culture in the past decade.  Mainstream companies have embraced the obvious benefits of sharing infrastructure and costs, along with working near fellow entrepreneurs who are navigating the same business challenges. It’s a networking dream to meet other professionals, combine resources and brainstorm with industry solutions. However, not all exciting and burgeoning industries may stand to benefit from joining the coworking movement. For cannabis entrepreneurs that are navigating a slew of unique regulatory and logistical challenges, a co-location space that offers niche industry solutions with like-minded peers may be a new alternative investment. 

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Articles Interviews

Digging Deeper Into Five Questions With Daily Bonfire Host Ngaio Bealum

Daily Bonfire
Ngaio DailyBonfire 
PHOTO COURTESY: DAILY BONFIRE

If cannabis, pop culture, games, cash prizes, and the war on drugs had a baby, it would be called the “Daily Bonfire.” The first cannabis gaming app where iPhone and Android users can test their cannabis IQ for a chance to win $420 and support nonprofit organizations such as ACLU, NORML, and MAPS, “Daily Bonfire” begs the question: “Think you’re smarter than a stoner?” Well, if you play your cards right, you may hit the “Daily Bonfire” jackpot (pun intended)… with longtime cannabis lover, activist, journalist, “Cooking on High” Netflix foodie, comedian, and “Daily Bonfire” host, Ngaio Bealum.

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An Interview With Cannabis Empressaria Zoe Wilder

Photo credit: Harlee Case/Ladies of Paradise.
Zoe Wilder at Kitchen Creek Farm in Southern Oregon. 
PHOTO CREDIT: HARLEE CASE/LADIES OF PARADISE.

I’ve known and worked with cannabis empressaria Zoe Wilder for several years. There is a quiet cadence about Zoe. She is pragmatic, deeply intellectual and takes massive risks in a burgeoning field that rewards ambitious female entrepreneurs who get it. Zoe is one of those cannabis entrepreneurs who has the innate desire to be in the know with her clients. Because at the end of the day, her clients aren’t just cold metrics, but individuals who are making history with Zoe right alongside them. You see, it’s a rare circumstance where the representative of the public relations agency is enjoying the path of enlightenment, too — a win-win for all who follow in this path, that of creating a new dialogue and a new direction. 

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Stormy Simon, Erudite CEO Of High Times Digs Deep Into Five Questions

Stormy Simon CEO High Times
Stormy Simon CEO High Times 
© JOHN RUSSO 2019

Warren Bobrow=WB: Please tell me about yourself? Where are you from? What was (is ) your educational path? Do you have a mentor? Who is it? Why? 

Stormy Simon=SS: I was born outside of South Chicago and moved to Utah as a little girl. I am from a blue collar family where college wasn’t really an option, I’m an autodidact. 

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Interviews Klaus

Warren Bobrow: Premier Cannabis Mixologist based in Morristown

Warren Bobrow, with his gnome
Warren Bobrow and Klaus!
2/5/20 By DAN ULLOA

Warren Bobrow is one of the premier cannabis mixologists in the country.

His eventful career in the cannabis industry has led him to travel across the United States. Yet he was born and raised in Morristown, New Jersey and has lived there most of his life.

However, at one-point Bobrow moved to Portland Maine where he worked in restaurants where he became a chef and a good bartender. While a bartender, he became a great mixologist, specializing in creating unique alcoholic drinks.

After becoming well-known as a mixologist, he wrote a book called “Bitters and Shrub Syrup Cocktails”. He went to the New Orleans Pharmacy Museum to promote the book and was amazed to learn about the medical role of cannabis in an earlier age.

“I had a dream in New Orleans, and I saw it. It was so profound,” Bobrow said. This prompted him to begin looking into creating cannabis cocktails and mocktails. He already been a fan of it for quite some time.

“Weed is exceptional. It makes you feel better about grim circumstances surrounding you,” Bobrow said. “The only thing that kept me sane when working for a private bank was smoking cannabis.”

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Vertically Integrated Cannabis Lifestyle Brand Oregrown Raises The Bar For 2020

Oregrown
Congressman Earl Blumenauer and the Oregrown team celebrate new retail flagship in Portland. PHOTO COURTESY OF OREGROWN.

Last week, I made my way out to Oregon for the grand opening of the state’s newest cannabis retail establishment, the Portland Oregrown Flagship — an award-winning, vertically integrated cannabis lifestyle brand. The celebration included a special ribbon-cutting ceremony with the ever so dapper, sharp bow-tie sporting (not unlike the colorful ones I used to wear) Congressman Earl Blumenauer, a passionate voice for cannabis law reform. In typical Portland fashion, the sky issued a smile. Thanks to the universe for parting the clouds, if only for a scant moment, during the ebullient event. The black painted building, framed by luminous, inner-lit windows stood out against the teeming sky, brimming with effusive raindrops. Portland in the winter has a character of its own— rain falls now and later, and then it will rain again. Only tourists use umbrellas. It’s funny to notice the locals in all kinds of exotic rain gear, yet the tourists bump into each other with umbrellas and wet joints hanging from their mouths. Locals seize the opportunity to duck into a doorway and spark a bowl, which marks the difference. It’s part of a culture, you have to live here to notice. 

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Five Organic Questions With NCIA Media Relations Director, Morgan Fox

Morgan Fox
Morgan Fox 
COPYRIGHT MATTHEW JORDAN PHOTOGRAPHY 2012

Warren Bobrow=WB: I saw a recent letter from Elizabeth Warren endorsing NCIA’s upcoming Northeast Cannabis Business Conference in Boston on February . How did this come about?

Morgan Fox=MF: Senator Warren has been an outspoken proponent of cannabis policy reform in Congress for some time now. She is a sponsor of the STATES Act and cosponsor of the MORE Act and other pieces of cannabis policy reform in the Senate and has been very vocal about this issue on the campaign trail. We have been in contact with her for some time through our work on Capitol Hill, but we’ve also been reaching out to see if we can arrange for the Senator to be a keynote speaker at one of our events. Unfortunately that was not workable this year, but she was able to provide a message welcoming attendees to NCIA’s Northeast Cannabis Business Conference and recognizing the positive impact the legal cannabis industry is having in her state.

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