High Touch with Jake & Duffy

Every cannabis brand is fighting for shelf space. But Jaime Lipowitz realized early on that shelf space was never the point—the person standing in front of it was. Jake and Duffy sit down with Jaime Lipowitz, founder and CEO of High Buds Club, who built a 7,000-member budtender community from scratch with $5,000 and zero outside funding. It started with a single moment in a Venice Beach dispensary...

Some people find cannabis through opportunity. Jesse Redmond found it through his father—a man who spent decades managing chronic pain with opioids before cannabis changed everything. That personal story became the thread that pulled Jesse out of a successful finance career and into an industry he couldn't walk away from. Jake and Duffy sit down with Jesse Redmond, Chief Strategy and Investor...

Cannabis has no shortage of storytellers. What it's short on is people who can turn those stories into assets that actually get priced, sold, and survived. In this episode, Duffy sits down with Seth Yakatan—dealmaker, capital raiser, and one of the loudest voices in the room when it comes to what's real versus what just sounds good on a slide deck. Seth has spent 30 years closing deals a...

When people talk about retail disruption, they usually focus on pricing, scale, or e-commerce. But in this episode, we get specific about the thing most operators miss: how hospitality turns a “routine run” into a real experience—and why that matters even more as new categories like hemp THC explode. Jake and Duffy sit down with Jon Halper, CEO and owner of Top Ten Liquors, to unpack the playbook...

What can cannabis learn from luxury fashion retail? Melissa Hanson, VP of Operations at Flowhub, brings decades of experience leading teams at Michael Kors and scaling cannabis retail at MedMen and Sunburn. Now at Flowhub, she’s focused on helping dispensaries operate smarter, smoother, and more profitably. In this conversation, Melissa explains why true retail excellence comes down to people, pro...

In cannabis, fast growth used to be the story. Now? It’s all about staying power. In this episode, we sit down with Patrick Rea—investor, mentor, and co-founder of Canopy Boulder—to unpack what staying power actually looks like in a volatile, still-maturing space. Jake and Duffy trace Patrick’s journey from the natural products industry to building one of cannabis’ first accelerators, to his curre...

Most cannabis brands obsess over strains, stores, or scale. But Ryan Cook has always approached the industry differently—by designing cannabis businesses from the ground up with intention, precision, and soul. In this episode, Jake and Duffy sit down with Ryan, co-founder of The Clinic, The Lab, and The Bank, to explore how world-class operations translate into unforgettable customer experiences....

When Kristi Ryder stepped into her first dispensary job, she didn’t smoke weed, didn’t know an eighth from a gram, and definitely didn’t see it as a long-term career. Fifteen years later, she’s leading sales and field strategy at PAX, one of cannabis’ most iconic and innovative brands. In this episode, Jake and Duffy sit down with Kristi to talk about her journey from behind the bud bar to the for...

When people talk about cannabis marketing, the conversation usually starts and ends with compliance hurdles. But in this episode, we go deeper—into how brands actually earn trust, scale innovation, and show up meaningfully in consumers’ lives. Jake and Duffy sit down with Angela Pih, a powerhouse brand strategist behind top names like Papa & Barkley, CannaCraft, StateHouse, and CCell. From fas...

When people talk about cannabis brands, they usually focus on flower, flavor, or maybe THC percentage. But in this episode, we zoom out—and zoom way in—on what makes a brand actually matter. Jake and Duffy sit down with Emily Paxhia, co-founder of Poseidon and one of cannabis’ earliest institutional investors, for a wide-ranging conversation on what separates products from platforms, and trends fr...

When people talk about “experience” in cannabis retail, they usually mean the furniture, the lighting, maybe even the packaging. But in this episode, we zoom in on two overlooked pillars of customer experience: training and inventory . Jake and Duffy sit down with Danny Gold , COO and Head of Product at Happy Cabbage and former co-founder of ZolTrain, to unpack how real-world retail is shaped by t...