Seed to CEO

Chris Beals landed unexpectedly at Weedmaps in 2015 but since then has taken the famed ancillary business public and grown it into one of the most recognizable brands in cannabis.

Beals spent his pre-cannabis life advising start-ups and deal-making in highly regulated industries such as healthcare and technology, but it took some tough on-the-job experience to prepare Beals for cannabis’ realities.

In this episode, Beals talks about:

• The importance of due diligence
• How Weedmaps handles the problem of unlicensed operators
• Taking a boots-on-ground approach to learning about the industry
• Expanding
• Preparing for federal legalization

Who is Chris Beals?

Chris Beals is the CEO of WM Technology, the parent company of Weedmaps, one of the best known ancillary brands in the cannabis industry. An attorney by profession, Beals joined Weedmaps in 2015 as president and general counsel and took over as CEO in 2019. Before cannabis, Beals was a senior vice president with Colbeck Capital Management, where he focused on deal origination in the technology and health sectors; Deutsche Telecom, where was senior corporate counsel and data privacy officer who managed and advised deal teams involved in acquisitions and partnerships; and the law firm Covington & Burling, where he advised startup and technology companies on deal structuring.

The legacy market grower and processor has leveraged this ethos to build one of the cannabis industry’s most respected and successful companies. But it also took acquiring and implementing new business skills, something that Rocourt learned the hard way.

Rocourt, a U.S. Navy veteran who did submarine duty, takes listeners on a deep dive to explore:

• How to leverage experimentation and observation for more effective cannabis therapy
• Why whole-plant and solventless medicine are superior when it comes to cannabis formulations
• Why you should be wary when investors throw money at you
• Why great products need branding and marketing to reach the public
• The importance of having first-mover advantage
• Taking a long-term view to your company’s success in the cannabis industry

Who is Guy Rocourt?

Guy Rocourt is the co-founder and CEO of Papa & Barkley, a Los Angeles-based cannabis company specializing in topicals, edibles, ingesitbles, and transdermal products. The seven-year-old company sells CBD products nationwide and THC products in California. A former legacy operator, Rocourt in 2009 started Black Diamond Vapes, a vape cartridge company he is still president of today, and in 2012 he co-founded and built NEOS, on of Denver’s first light hydrocarbon extraction facilities. The extraction pioneer is also a U.S. Navy veteran and erstwhile filmmaker whose passion and insight makes him one of the cannabis industry’s most sought-after speakers.

Key insights he’s learned along the way include:

• Don’t underestimate the amount of change and the pace of the industry; be ready to make decisions very quickly.
• Maintain a start-up mindset.
• The greatest opportunities in cannabis are with brands.
• Create competitive advantage by investing in research and development to create great brands and products.
• Build a broad distribution platform to get those products to consumers.
• Allocate your resources scrupulously.

Guest

Joe Bayern has been the CEO of Curaleaf, one of the biggest multistate operators in the cannabis industry, since 2019. Bayern is a beverage industry player specializing in business transformations. He spent six years in three C-suite posts at Snapple Beverage Group, four-plus years at Cadbury Schweppes in two C-suite posts, and eight years at Voss of Norway, where he was chief operating officer and group CEO. Bayern left Voss in 2019 to break into cannabis with Indus Holdings, from where he joined Curaleaf. He also played for lacrosse for his alma mater, Adelphi University, where he met his wife.

In this episode of Seed to CEO, Meg explores the differences in doing business in these vastly different times and places, sharing insights that include:

• How raising capital has changed over the past decade and what it requires today.
• Why developing relationships with regulators and being involved in the rule-making process is critical.
• How consumer preferences can vary in different markets and how to adapt your business to prepare for additional trend shifts.

Who is Meg Sanders?

Meg Sanders is the CEO of Canna Provisions, a vertically integrated cannabis business in the Berkshires of western Massachusetts, which she launched in 2018 with her partner, Erik Williams. But her cannabis career started back in 2010 when she launched Colorado-based Mindful. She is also co-founder and partner at the cannabis consulting firm Will & Way. Before cannabis, Meg held high-level positions in the retail, finance and nonprofit worlds.

An eviction notice on 4/20. That’s how Jesce Horton’s first foray into state-licensed cannabis cultivation ended in 2017. Part of it had to do with a one-in-a-million regulatory quirk that forced him to shut down a successful grow, and part of it was not being “passionate” about a not-so-successful retail arm. But Jesce remained confident in his process and product while never losing his love for the craft, so he tried again. The result is Lowd, Horton’s “dream company” that “embodies the art of urban craft cultivation.”

In this episode of Seed to CEO, Jesce shares:

• How his education and experience in industrial engineering helped elevate his operations.
• The importance of authenticity in creating loyalty and differentiating your brand in saturated markets.
• Lessons he learned from his first foray into the regulated cannabis market.
• How to raise capital for a second company after your first one fails.

Who is Jesce Horton?

Jesce Horton, CEO at Portland, Oregon-based Lowd, is a professional engineer specializing in automation and energy management. He started his cannabis cultivation journey growing medical marijuana in his basement for two elderly cancer patients. Jesce is the co-founder of the Minority Cannabis Business Association and a former chair and current member of the board of directors at the Resource Innovation Institute. He also sits on the Oregon Cannabis Association’s board and is an advisory board member for MJBizDaily. Jesce and his wife, Jeannette Ward Horton, founded the nonprofit organization Nu Project, which supports Black and brown cannabis entrepreneurs.