2019-09-01 Entrepreneur Magazine

58 / ENTREPRENEUR.COM / September 2019

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Top Cannabis Companies

How to Succeed

in Weed

Ten top cannabis entrepreneurs share their

biggest lesson from the industry.

by NICOLE PAJER

C

annabis is an ever-growing, ever-changing, ever-

crazy industry—so anyone who jumps in must be

prepared to pivot fast, react faster, and go with

the flow. In other words, they must do what all

entrepreneurs do...but, at times, more intensely.

How do the best manage? That’s what we asked—by

calling 10 of the companies on our first-annual top

100 cannabis companies list.

The list was produced by our sister publication

Green Entrepreneur, which evaluated companies

based on four I’s—influence, innovation, impact, and inspiration.

You can read it all at our site GreenEntrepreneur.com. And here,

on these pages, executives from 10 companies on that list share

their biggest lesson from the journey so far.

Future State Brands

HQ/ Los Angeles

“Focus on delivering a tangible benefit to your target cus-

tomer. How? Ensure that your brand experience will improve

their life—or at the very least, surprise and delight them.”

—DRAKE SUTTON-SHEARER, CEO AND FOUNDER,

FUTURE STATE BRANDS

Future State Brands is a global consumer goods and marketing

company with a mission to lead cannabis from the black market to

the supermarket. Its portfolio includes lifestyle and wellness brands

across hemp, CBD, and THC, including flagship PRØHBTD, Hempa-

thy, Ceeby Dee’s, Hot Nife, The Patch Co., and Heavy Grass. The

company also counts several exclusive partnerships—with Licensing

Expo, Advertising Week, Beanstalk Licensing Agency, All Def Media,

Postmedia, and Regulated Solutions, among others—in its arsenal.

Wana Brands

HQ/ Boulder, Colo.

“Expect things to go wrong, and be prepared to pivot

and adjust your strategies and tactics. Plan B is

your friend! Things move very quickly in this industry,

and it’s easy to get left behind.”

—NANCY WHITEMAN, CEO AND FOUNDER, WANA BRANDS

Wana founder and CEO Nancy Whiteman is generally credited with

inventing, or at least popularizing, the now ubiquitous cannabis

gummy. The chewy morsel has proved a solid foundation for the

company, which has grown into one of the largest cannabis brands in

Colorado, offering vaporizing, CBD, and capsule products. Whiteman

has plans to expand into other legal states.

Photograph (top) / JOHNNY AUTRY