ship service is BioTrackTHC, a so-called “seed-to-sale”
software package that frees plant-touching owners and
operators from performing their own regulatory tasks.
It tracks and manages plants and products down to
the exact milligram and audits inventories, automating
compliance while identifying key data points.
“We also provide physical and digital security and
consulting services,” says Venegas, a West Point gradu-
ate and Army infantry veteran with an MBA from New
York University. He and his partner, CFO Scott Ogur,
CFA, met at NYU and together ran a private equity fi rm
specializing in frontier markets, which ultimately led themcontrolled substance. That reality is complicating things for existing legal
ventures, as well as for federally insured bankers and state regulators,
that fear backlash from the U.S. Department of Justice, which has been
grappling with enforcement policies for years.
The National Cannabis Industry Association (NCIA), a trade organi-
zation headquartered in Washington, D.C., has been advocating since
2010 to clear the legal, social, and economic clouds that hang over its
nearly 2,000 member businesses and tens of thousands of cannabis
professionals. “With the collective power of this new industry, we have
a responsibility to harmonize federal laws with state programs that are
working across the country,” says Aaron Smith, NCIA’s cofounder and
executive director.
That’s good news for the expanding list of businesses launched
in states with legalized cannabis, whether they work directly with the
plant—growers, processors, distributors, and retail dispensaries—or
provide clients with a wide range of traditional business services. Helix
TCS, Inc. has taken the latter route, offering a suite of critical infrastruc-
ture services on a single platform. “We handle compliance, security, and
other mission-critical elements that are not part of growers’ or retailers’
core competencies,” says Zachary L. Venegas, founder and CEO of the
Denver fi rm.
Operating in every state that has legalized cannabis, Helix’s fl ag-
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Continued on S7With the collective power
of this new industry, we have a
responsibility to harmonize federal
laws with state programs that are
working across the country.