Blunt Business

Ricardo Baca is a 20-year veteran journalist and cannabis futurist, widely respected in both modern media and drug-policy circles. He was appointed The Denver Post’s first-ever cannabis editor in 2013 and founded the news vertical The Cannabist, where he extensively covered the advent of the U.S. adult-use cannabis market and related issues around the world, as seen in the feature documentary Roll...

We discuss Cannabis Attractions and Exhibits to Visit with April Arrasate  the Executive Director, Core Social Justice Cannabis Museum, and Founder & CEO of Seed Dispensary in Boston. We also hear from the Co-Founder of The House of Cannabis, Robert Frey. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Our next guest has 25 years of experience working in the food and beverage industry and has guided multiple startups from concept to table and shelf.  Her expertise is in the intersection between food, science, and technology. She entered the cannabis industry in 2015 and is known for being a provocative thought leader in the realms of the future of food and cannabis consumable innovations. Advert...

Today we catch up with Chris Chiari about his work on Denver’s historic Patterson Inn, the keystone of The 420 Hotels portfolio. We discuss the obstacles to building up cannabis hospitality and what the upcoming Las Vegas consumption lounges are currently dealing with.   Chris Chiari is a driven entrepreneur and award-winning film producer with a wealth of experience in corporate strategy and regi...

Our next guests represent a widely recognized cannabis line of flowers, G-pens, exclusive merch, and lifestyle products, that recently announced a partnership positioned to take the brand on its way to global expansion, and its products are set to be sold at top dispensaries across the nation gaining access to 22 states and 15 countries. The announcement from last November we prefaced at the top o...

Khari Edwards is an experienced leader in healthcare and government. During his 25 years of public service, Khari worked for several elected officials, non-profit organizations, and city agencies with a dedicated focus on strengthening communities by advocating and addressing racial, health, and civic disparities. He most recently ran for Brooklyn Borough President after serving 8 years as the Vic...

Today we welcome back a guest, CEO, and Co-Founder of Simplifya Marion Mariathasan, who appeared on the program in May 2020 during the peak of COVID. He manages the cannabis industry’s leading regulatory and operational compliance software platform.  Under RMA, eligible cannabis operators can easily opt in and take advantage of best-in-class insurance coverage and services with partner carriers an...

Our next guest is an entrepreneur, investor, and corporate dealmaker with more than a decade of experience building and scaling businesses personally and professionally. She has presented alongside Tony Robbins in the U.S. and Canada and has six cannabis licenses that are minority or women-owned.  She has more than a decade of experience building and scaling businesses, including a tech platform a...

Paul Dunford is Co-founder and VP of Knowledge at Green Check Verified. Paul has extensive experience leading digital transformation initiatives predominantly in the healthcare and retail verticals. Previously he was retained by a Fortune 100 insurance company to design and implement a sophisticated solution for managing their field sales teams.  At Green Check, Paul leads the compliance team that...

Our next guest is a nationally recognized marketer with a background in cannabis, fashion, beauty, and wellness. She is recognized among Green Entrepreneur's list of "Top 25 Cannabis Brands that Killed it in Marketing in 2019 and has been awarded three Cannabis CLIO Awards.  Before joining Statehouse Holdings, Angela led a dynamic team across marketing, research and development, and scient...

Angela Mays, CEO and Founder of the Blunt Accountant runs an innovative cannabis accounting firm that works with new licensees and new plant-touching business owners to help them become IRS compliant. She created CannAccounting in a Box™, a turnkey accounting solution designed for newly licensed plant-touching startups to ensure they are IRC 280E compliant and audit-ready before they open their do...

Qredible Transparency, Integration, and Quality for Cannabis, CBD, and Hemp as we talk with their CEO, Brian Fitzpatrick. Qredible is a cloud-based platform for transparency, integration, and quality in the Hemp, CBD, and Legalized Marijuana supply chain. Brian Fitzpatrick is the chairman and CEO of Qredible and has been a CEO and Executive Leader of software and related platform companies for ove...

Our next guests represent the industry-leading cannabis software suite and point-of-sale platform for cannabis retailers and delivery services, recently launched a new e-commerce product that combines the best of their software with technology provided by their most recent acquisition.   BLAZE ECOM is a native e-commerce technology that indexes retailer product menus, improving retail sites' S...

Adam Bierman is the co-founder and former CEO of MedMen Enterprises, the first American cannabis unicorn. During his decade at the company, it grew to five states, 32 retail stores, and 1500 employees. In 2019, MedMen lost 95% of its value and Adam chose to invest even more in the company despite advice to diversify.  This led to lawsuits and MedMen essentially disappeared from the industry. Adam...

This week's episode of Blunt Business featured a roundtable discussion on advertising and social media with Ashley Fields, the Senior Vice President of Marketing Communications at Cann, and Aaron Rivadeneyra, the Director of e-commerce at Kiva. The two discussed recent updates to Twitter's advertising policies, which allow cannabis businesses to advertise in states where it is legal, with...

Our next guest operates a compliance strategy and services provider serving the hemp and cannabis industries nationwide. She brings a regulator’s keen eye and wide-reaching knowledge of evolving compliance and safety mandates to support businesses in tightly regulated industries. Allay Consulting and The GMP Collective are now joining forces amid the rapid national growth of the cannabis, hemp, an...

Adam has 30 years of business, strategy and leadership experience in both Private and Public Companies. In 2021, Adam believed the timing and opportunity was right for him to bring his passion for business, innovative financing and entrepreneurial spirit to the Cannabis sector by creating funding products for all areas of this early stage, growth industry by founding FundCanna. FundCanna provides...

Sarah Evans is a tremendously talented singer and songwriter who has left an indelible mark in the world of country music. She has released ten studio albums, the most recent being 2020's Covers collection, and has five number-one hits. She has won numerous awards and accolades, including the Academy of Country Music's top Female Vocalist accolades, as well as numerous American Music Award...

The guest was Roy Bingham, the CEO of BDSA, who provides businesses with cannabis market intelligence, consumer research, and advisory services. He was welcomed on and apologized for the 50 emails. Roy thanked Leo and mentioned that everyone in the company is smarter than him. The host remembered meeting Roy's team at the NCIA's Cannabis Business Summit in 2016 and said everyone was deligh...

Today welcome back a returning guest who has extensive experience helping scores of clients, from individual entrepreneurs to publicly traded companies, navigate complex cannabis disputes and successful business strategies. She is a partner and lead of the cannabis practice at Holland & Hart, based in Denver. Elevations Hotels and Resorts, based out of Arizona, announced in January they will c...

Our next guest is a legacy cannabis entrepreneur. Serving California and Michigan recreational cannabis markets, he is here to tell us about a recently launched cannabis brand that they say “gives customers a sweet escape in the form of aptly-named vapes, edibles, flowers, prerolls, and concentrates.” Gelato Canna Co. is not even a year old and has already landed its product line of vapes, edibles...

Our next guest’s company is quite familiar to Cannabis Radio listeners. We featured this company last fall and we are happy to welcome back the folks from Paybotic, the premier payment solutions company that excels in tailoring solutions to the cannabis industry.  Paybotic specializes in advanced technological solutions for payment processing providing financial solutions to help cannabis business...

Our next guest has years of experience in cannabis investing, including financing, fund management, and consulting for early-stage cannabis businesses. He advises entrepreneurs looking to gain in-depth expertise on raising capital or securing financing, working with investors, and the legal ins and outs of starting a cannabis business. More private lenders are entering the space and bringing with...

Our next guest oversees a fast-growing card network brand allowing cardholders to spend at general everyday merchants but also at Cannabis related merchants. They have created a new credit card that has been developed as one of the first payment processors to allow the use of their technology for the Cannabis industry.  Similar to Discover and American Express, SuperNet acquires new credit card ho...

Our next guest is in based in the fast-growing New York State cannabis market where he counsels clients on various business matters including, structure, expansion, formation, and sale. He also deals with the dissolution of business entities and partnerships, regulatory compliance, internal and external best practices, compliance audits, and general advice concerning complex and novel issues of la...