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I remember when I stumbled into what turned out to be a gaping hole in the cannabis industry.
It was 2016 and I wanted to get my medical marijuana card, but had no idea where to start. Researching the laws and processes in my state took me down a rabbit hole of contradictory websites, leaving me uncertain how to legally and safely proceed. That day turned out to be an “a-ha!” moment, because I personally experienced the market need for an informative and trustworthy one-stop destination for connecting medical marijuana patients with cannabis doctors.
I began brainstorming with my friend turned co-founder, Joshua Green, who I’d met while working at a Fortune 500 company. We’re both intuitive, tenacious, Black men with an entrepreneur mindset, so we clicked instantly. We kept throwing ideas back and forth, letting them evolve naturally. It kept spiraling until the potential scared us. When an idea scares you, you’re onto something special. We’d both launched other businesses previously, but this felt bigger than any idea we’d executed before.
What It Takes to Launch a Successful Business
A lot of people think you need money or a college education to start a successful business, but what it truly requires is an unbreakable backbone and a product or service that completely fills a real need in the industry you’re moving into.
We knew we were on to a winning idea, yet we struggled to find funding and investors at a time when banks weren’t working with small cannabis techs, especially not Black-owned businesses. Our experience was far from unique; In fact, a 2019 Fed’s Report revealed fewer than one in four Black-owned businesses have recently borrowed from a bank. Of those surveyed, 37.9% of Black employers disclosed they are discouraged from even applying. This is compared to 12.7% of white-owned businesses.
However, when we heard the word “no” we pushed harder than we’d ever worked in our lives to find new solutions. You must refuse to let anything stop you. To succeed in this market, you need to become a student of the cannabis industry and your customers' needs.
The Right Product, Place, Time and Strategy
Sometimes timing is everything, and that’s particularly true for cannabis, an industry whose fortunes are closely tied to changing laws and attitudes.
We launched Veriheal shortly after the 2016 election passed cannabis initiatives in nine states, four of which were on the East Coast, where we were based. We saw first-hand how quickly things changed there. As the industry grew we kept a forward-thinking mindset and prioritized bringing our company to markets with the highest need.
To help us scale at the pace of the industry, we brought in a team of developers to build our proprietary technology. We made sure this was easy to use for both our customers and our doctors. We hyper-targeted our marketing and PR tactics in these priority markets, advertising on local radio stations and billboards, a multi-state campaign — a huge and risky investment for a young, bootstrapped company.
We didn’t stop there. A customer-first mindset was important to both me and my co-founder; by listening to them, we learned they didn’t just want a medical card, but wanted counseling on the plant itself and the products available in their state. Based on that insight, we built out a customer service educated on these topics and ready to answer calls, emails and even live chats. Finally, we hired a content team to create a full cannabis education platform to house research articles, infographics and educational videos putting the information our customers craved right at their fingertips.
Keep Your Eye On the Prize, Even When Success Hits
As a first-generation Nigerian, I know what struggle looks like. Building a successful company in the cannabis industry hasn’t always been easy, but I didn’t get here by accident. Yes, I worked very hard, but I credit my success first and foremost to the winning mindset I’ve harnessed through years of practicing positive meditations and affirmations. My work not only fulfills me professionally but has allowed me to help others while providing a better life for my family and myself — something my ancestors could only dream about.
If you’re looking to start a business in cannabis, or any industry, my best advice is to focus on filling a real market need, put your customer at the center of everything you do, hire the best talent possible and take it as big as you possibly can.
