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If you just want to make money, do not enter the regulated weed business.
That was the consensus among five women who currently work in the cannabis industry. Yes, there are billions to be made selling weed, but when you compound the rules, regulations, taxes, and instability of this booming legal market, the money alone isn’t worth it. Simply put, there are easier ways to make a billion dollars. Yet here we are. As more states legalize the plant, it seems as though a new entertainer launches a cannabis line or company each month. And they’re not the only ones; average people are jumping into the legal weed industry, too.
How are folks getting past the license application fees, which can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars and hold no guaranteed approval? How are they getting past the million-dollar barriers to entry that states like Hawaii hold? And if money is not the motive, what is?
In 2019, a report found that women accounted for only about 20 percent of business ownership, and a more recent report noted that, though the numbers are increasing, women hold only 6.2 percent of CEO positions at Fortune 500 companies.
It takes extreme diligence to break into the highly regulated weed business; as a woman, that need for diligence is magnified. Complex interviewed five women who shared their reasons for entering the cannabis industry and gave tips on how others who want to make legal money selling weed can do the same.
Susan Hwang: how to think outside of the box while following the rules
Company: BEST Dispensary; CEO and founder
Location: Mesa, Arizona
Started: 2013
Imagine a world where anything is possible. That’s the world that Susan Hwang lives in—at least it seems that way. While launching her cannabis business, Hwang powered through every obstacle she encountered. That grit and tenacity helped land her among the first license holders in Arizona, after the state legalized medical cannabis in 2010.
“There are setbacks and distance requirements to operate a cannabis business,” she says. “When I encountered that there were day cares or schools nearby or churches or residentials, I came up with creative ideas to get the variance approved or secure the special use permit.”
“Creative” is an understatement. Hwang is downright strategic. In one instance, she convinced a nearby day care to relocate to another property and created an improved business plan for the day care owner—she even found the new building. Hwang has countless stories on how she’s used the system in her favor. Since immigrating to the US from South Korea at 12 years old, Hwang has always followed the rules, while doing things her own way.
Fast-forward to 2021. In addition to her real estate business, Hwang is the owner of a luxury dispensary and the CEO (and a Class A board member) for Jamestown Center Inc., an organization holding multiple medical and cannabis business licenses that include dispensaries, cultivation sites, infusion kitchens, and extraction facilities.
What attracted you to cannabis?
Because of my science education and background in biochemistry and microbiology, I was going to be in the pharmaceutical industry anyways. But if you think of the pharmaceutical industry, you have to make your patients remain sick so they continue to buy more medicine, whereas the science of cannabis actually makes sense to me.
I never used cannabis prior to getting into the industry, but I was confident that cannabis was, and is, medicine. Because of science. Because of the effectiveness. But also the fact that I was going to be a part of the history. I’ve been involved since the medical program in Arizona began.
What was your biggest barrier to entry and how did you overcome it?
Startup capital and identifying and securing the real estate properties that were properly zoned. At the time, Arizona allowed the medical marijuana program, but not all the cities and towns allowed the cannabis business to be there. The reason I was able to be successful is because I’ve always been a person to think outside the box.
What are your three biggest tips for everyday people who want to make legal money using weed?
No. 1 is to be compliant. In the cannabis industry, rules and regulations constantly change, not from just the federal government standpoint, but state-wise and local jurisdictions, too. Always be up to date with the most current laws. If you violate rules and regulations in this industry, because licenses are limited and scarce, you can easily lose your license. If you lose your license, most of the time, especially in Arizona, you cannot recoup. Do not violate laws. Do not cut corners.
Second tip is to be determined. Because the cannabis industry is so new, there are stigmas attached to it and various challenges with thinking, taxes, legality, and even insurance companies. If you’re determined, when you face these challenges, you’re not going to just give up. You must be determined and identify what your goal is and why you are doing it. If you’re doing it just for money, there are other businesses you can do that are much easier.
The last one is to be adaptable. This industry is very unpredictable and volatile, but that’s why it’s exciting. You need to be able to evolve and adapt, because if you do not adapt to the new regulations and evolve your business to meet the market’s needs, you are going to be pushed out.
What’s your fave weed strain?
Wedding Cake. Wedding Cake allows me to be creative, and it just makes me feel good. I don’t like to use it around other people—but it seems like when I use cannabis, I like to think and process more, and I’m much less talkative.
Anything else you’d like to share?
Those who are dreaming and aspiring to be in the cannabis industry, keep dreaming, but don’t forget to come up with your plan of action. Without your plan of action, your dreams and goals are not tangible.
Arienne Carrington: transitioning from pharmacy to weed dispensary
Company: Beyond/Hello, A Jushi Brand; dispensary pharmacist
Location: Scranton, Pennsylvania
Started: 2019
Want to lose weight, reduce chronic pain, or treat a skin ailment? Nine times out of 10, there’s a weed strain that can help, and Arienne Carrington can direct you toward it. Carrington (whose sister is a Complex employee) has been a pharmacist for over 15 years. After taking the required online training course, she was able to pivot in her career and begin working at a medical marijuana dispensary. In addition to the cannabis course, Carrington has immersed herself in recent and ongoing research.
“Because the retail [pharmacy] world was kind of shrinking, it seemed like every time you heard about medical marijuana and cannabis, it was growing,” she says. “That got my attention, and I really started to do my own research and see how many states had medical programs.”
The New York native, who grew up in New Jersey, is a skilled pharmaceutical professional with a Pharm.D. degree and a passion for people. That passion has led her to the cannabis industry, where she’s worked to educate patients with qualifying conditions on products and treatments that can improve their quality of life
What attracted you to cannabis?
When you hear an interview with someone, Olivia Newton-John, for example, she has battled cancer at least two times. They were talking to her on the red carpet and they said, “You’re looking great. What are you doing?” And she said, “I’m taking cannabis.” And, of course, they quickly cut that off, but I wanted to hear more. The fact that it was getting traction and obviously working for so many patients, it kind of caught your attention. You kept hearing about it and I was like, this thing is getting bigger; it’s not just West Coast, Cali, and Colorado. It’s popping up everywhere.
What was your biggest barrier to entry and how did you overcome it?
I think the biggest barrier, for me, was the unknown. Knowing that it was this thing I had never dealt with in the past and all this propaganda of “Say no to drugs.” In pharmacy school, we really only had one lecture of all schedule narcotic drugs, and cannabis was in there, along with cocaine and heroin. It never really was in holistic or medical [category]. You have to do your own homework and get comfortable getting that paradigm out of your mind and shifting to a new idea.
I always try to remind people, this is a plant. You wouldn’t be thinking of it [negatively] if it was ginseng or cherries. It’s agriculture more than anything. Kind of like the mushroom debate with those kinds of psychedelics. There’s healing properties, and the cannabis is working. You can’t stay with that old frame of thinking.
What are your three biggest tips for everyday people who want to make legal money using weed?
Since this industry is very fledgling, you have to have a passion for cannabis. Reading articles, doing your homework, learning about the different available forms of consumption can be done on your own, before you even get started.
Also, what’s important is having a clean background. If you have any charges from the past, work really hard to get that expunged—if you can—because that can be a barrier to entering the space.
What you really need in this industry is to be flexible. Most of our companies are startups or very young companies. So things just change. You really have to be able to change with the times very quickly. Be able to pivot.
What’s your fave weed strain?
I’m not a cardholder at this time, but a favorite strain from the past is Jet Fuel, which is sort of a cross of two sour diesels. Everybody needs different things.
Anything else you’d like to share?
It’s a lot of just getting out of your comfort zone. If you’re really ready to make that plunge, set up your life where you’ve got a little nest egg or some kind of savings to ease that transition for yourself.
Kate Miller: the role that authenticity plays in the cannabusiness
Company: Miss Grass; co-founder and CEO
Location: Venice, California
Started: 2018
Ten years before Kate Miller launched her cannabis business, she purchased the domain name missgrass.com. At the time, she was a college student working as a budtender (a dispensary employee) in LA. Miller had no idea what she would do with the URL, but she locked it in anyways, and the rest is history.
“I had Miss Grass on the back burner and was staying up to date on the regulatory changes in our country,” she says. “As more and more states became recreationally legal, I started looking back into the space and ultimately decided it was the right time to pursue it.”
Miller and her business partner, Anna Duckworth, have worked to craft an authentic brand that’s not primarily focused on pushing product down our throats. They are more concerned with helping the world get “good at weed,” while they educate the public and learn more about this plant—“the history, the products, and the science.”
What attracted you to cannabis?
I’ve always loved cannabis as a consumer. I wasn’t calling it cannabis; it was weed back then. I grew up in Jersey; my brother got kicked out of high school for weed. I moved out West, so it was the first time I was living in a state that had a medical cannabis program. I have psoriasis, so it was the first time I was introduced to using a topical product and it has completely transformed my skin. Around that same time, I was fascinated by it from a business perspective. It’s disrupting things like pharma, recreational, and wellness categories.
What was your biggest barrier to entry and how did you overcome it?
As a woman, a lot of times in business, you find yourself in a room filled with just men and a lot of men lead with ego. Obviously that’s a generalization, but I find that a lot of men lead with, “I’m the shit and I know this,” and early in my career, I took that as they do know everything and that guy is an expert. It almost diminished my strength and value. I think the obstacle I needed to overcome and learn throughout this journey is that everyone is figuring it out.
Now, when I’m in those rooms, I almost use that as my strength. As a woman leader, I think females tend to lead with more feminine characteristics: compassion, empathy, and inclusion—all things that this plant facilitates. So having women leaders in this space actually complements each other well. Now, when I’m in those rooms, I use that as my strength.
What are your three biggest tips for everyday people who want to make legal money using weed?
Do it. It’s the early days. There’s still so much opportunity in this space. Jump. I say naivety is the best trait for an entrepreneur because what you don’t know is good in the beginning. If you knew everything that’s ahead of you, it’s almost more intimidating.
Also, there are so many skills that are transferable to the cannabis industry. There’s cannabis lawyers, operators, supply chain, marketing, ecommerce, retail. Know what you’re great at and what you’re passionate about and try to approach [the cannabis industry] through that lens.
No. 3, approach it authentically. Two years ago in the industry, more capital was being poured into this space. We saw a lot of white men in business suits approach the industry and come in and operate. As an authentic weed consumer and founder, I don’t think that’s gonna cut it. I think the people who have an authentic connection to this plant and the mission are the ones who are gonna succeed in this space—not the people just approaching it looking at the dollar signs.
What’s your fave weed strain?
There’s a specific strain that means a lot to me because it was my favorite strain when I moved out to California. I very rarely see it. It’s called Snowcap. It is a very uplifting, energetic sativa-leaning hybrid. I’ve connected with so many incredible people in my life on this strain. If you guys ever see it in dispensaries, please let me know where.
Anything else you’d like to share?
Support the right people in this space. This industry and this plant has racist roots, and the people who should be making money are the people who have built this industry on their backs. So be conscious consumers. Make sure you know who you’re supporting. Vote with your dollar and support the good people.
Amber Senter: how everyone can get a piece of the weed-infused pie
Company: Breeze Distro; CEO
Location: Oakland, California
Started: 2016
In 2014, before Amber Senter even thought about making money in the regulated weed industry for herself, she co-founded the nonprofit Supernova Women. The women of color-led organization “empowers people of color to become self-sufficient shareholders in the cannabis industry.” Equity and inclusion have formed the basis of Senter’s business model since Day 1, but her history with the plant goes beyond its lucrative property.
“In February of 2014, I moved to California because I had recently been diagnosed with lupus and I was looking to move somewhere warmer,” she says. “I was living in Chicago at the time, and I was also wanting access to cannabis to help treat the lupus.”
After she relocated to Oakland and launched her nonprofit, Senter followed up with Breeze Distro, a cannabis manufacturing and distribution company. Since then, Senter has used her organization and business to break down barriers for herself and others within the Black and brown community—even launching the first social equity cannabis program.
What attracted you to cannabis?
I started smoking weed when I was 18. That was back in 1998, and I noticed right away how it made me feel a lot better. I used to deal with a lot of upset stomach and digestive issues and cannabis really helped me. So immediately, I was like, “This is it right here,” and I became a daily smoker.
Access to cannabis, especially prior to there being legal framework and dispensaries, was hard. And it was also very expensive, so I started growing weed because I was looking for higher quality, because that was what I needed to help me feel better. At that time, I didn’t realize what I was dealing with. So I just became very familiar with the plant, essentially doing my own [research and development] at home.
I just really love the plant. I’m an avid gardener, so I really love everything about it. When an opportunity showed itself, it all worked out great.
What was your biggest barrier to entry and how did you overcome it?
The biggest barrier was definitely access to capital. When I started this business, it was prior to legalization, so it ended up [costing] less than it [costs] now, because with legalization, it’s much more expensive. I got a loan for $50,000 and basically started Breeze Distro in 2016. After I proved the business was viable, I was able to go out and raise $250,000—that was a friends-and-family round. I have a business partner, and a lot of that $250,000 was from frat brothers, his friends, and people he went to college with. We were able to leverage his network to get started. It’s been a crazy journey and it hasn’t been easy, but it has been really rewarding.
What are your three biggest tips for everyday people who want to make legal money using weed?
I would definitely recommend that you bring your skill set into the industry. Don’t try to figure out something that you haven’t done before. I have a lot of people hitting me up saying that they want to run a dispensary, and it’s like, “Have you ever done retail before?” and they’re like, “No.” You have to be savvy with retail if you want to run a dispensary. Same with cultivation. Got a lot of folks who say they want to be cultivators, but can’t even grow tomatoes.
Don’t get into cannabis thinking you’re gonna be a millionaire and hit it off and make all this money. This is a really hard industry to operate in. Granted, it’s rewarding, and this is a non-toxic plant. You’ve got to really understand and know that when you get into this, the margins are slim because of the taxes, and it’s not easy to operate in.
The third thing is, you’ve got to have a lot of grit. It takes a lot of heart to make it in here, but obviously I’m doing it, so I think that it’s worth it. You’ve got to be strategic.
What’s your fave weed strain?
I love Zkittles. It’s like Skittles. It’s just so tasty. I’m all about terpenes, the taste, the smell. I go through the whole process when I’m rolling up a joint, smoking a joint. I’ll even take a puff of the joint then go back and smell the weed, because it really opens up the smell of it, and Zkittles is crazy. It tastes so good.
Anything else you’d like to share?
With Breeze Distro, we have launched the first shared social equity manufacturing facility in the country, in partnership with the City of Oakland. Manufacturers can come to our facility and we help them make products and then we, as the distributors, launch those products and distribute them to retailers throughout California, making sure that Black and brown brands have a place on the retail shelf. EquityWorks! Incubator is the name of the incubator. Check it out.
Devon Richardson: how to carve your own path in the weed industry
Company: Point Seven Group; VP, business development and marketing
Location: Brooklyn, New York
Started: 2015
Devon Richardson moves with precision and fearlessness, and has navigated a variety of roles within the weed industry. After developing a successful career in IT sales, she pivoted, left New York, moved to Denver, started networking, and began working as head of development for a cannabis marketing agency.
“I was pitching all day, which allowed me to really see the trends of the industry. Then, at night, because Denver was the epicenter of the industry, there were networking events all the time, so I started to understand who were the key players in this space.”
After a while, Richardson created her own cannabis marketing and PR firm—actor Tommy Chong was one of her first clients. After closing her firm, Richardson went on to work for several other cannabis companies. At one point, she led expansion efforts for LeafLink (the Amazon of the weed market). Her role required her to keep track of regulations all over the country, as well as in the Canadian and Jamaican markets. Now, Richardson has begun a new role with Point Seven Group, a women-led cannabis consulting company that secures licenses for new businesses and guides their operations.
What attracted you to cannabis?
In college, I wrote a paper on cannabis. I’ve been a consumer since I was a teenager, and it was always something that I used for anxiety, but recreationally as well. I always just wanted to understand what was behind the medicinal value. The benefit of the roles I’ve had is that I’ve been able to sit in front of doctors’ panels, and these doctors are reporting on their findings and it’s fascinating. The plant is medicine first, and the medicinal conversation is very different [from] the adult use or recreational side.
What was your biggest barrier to entry and how did you overcome it?
This industry has typically been filled with a lot of very wealthy white men, and they are of a very strong, A-type personality. They are people who are open to high risk. They have a lot of money, and typically they have extreme personalities—the adrenaline junkies of the world. Their behaviors can be very challenging to manage—that is leveling out a bit more. There is a lot of misogyny in this industry. I have sat at the table with many multi-state operators (MSO executives) and I’ve been asked how many men I’ve slept with, how many times I’ve been pregnant. I sound like I can take a punch to the face.
How do I overcome it? You have to stay strong on your feet. Sometimes you have to come back with a response that puts them in their place, but you still have to do business with these people in certain situations.
What are your three biggest tips for everyday people who want to make legal money using weed?
Take note and assessment of where you’re coming from with your experience and value, and how it can apply to the space. Leverage networking events and think outside of the box. How can you talk to people about your experience? Look at recruiting agencies like Vangst—Vangst is a very popular recruiting agency in the space. And consider whether you want to stay in the state that you’re already in or if you’re willing to move for an opportunity.
One of the best [pieces of] advice that was given to me in the beginning was to work all over the industry. There’s no guide book, so you have to define your own journey. As you take on different roles and experiences, you’re gonna understand where the gaps are in the industry that need to be solved. Either you can solve them yourself by starting your own company or you can join a firm that’s trying to solve that problem as well.
Also, for women in general, as they look at this space—define your worth, stand up for yourself, and if you’re sitting at a table where you’re not being served, get up and build your own table.
What’s your fave weed strain?
It’s been Harlequin for the last couple years. It’s a high-CBD, low-THC strain, and it’s just great to kick back and relax [with].
Anything else you’d like to share?
My biggest thing is knowing your worth. When you jump into this space, you have to define your own journey. I always compare it to pizza shops in New York. No matter how many there are, you’re still gonna find people opening a new pizza shop. There’s always an opportunity to bring something new to this space.