Jimmy Makoso
Company: Lucid Lab Group
Title: Co-founder and vice president
Age: 34
For the past 12 months, the editorial staff at Marijuana Venture has compiled a list of candidates for our third annual 40 Under 40 feature. This year, we narrowed our list down from hundreds of worthy candidates to come up with a cross-section of personalities across the U.S. and Canada, from salt-of-the-earth farmers to tech savants. All of them have unique stories, successes and ambitions and all represent the excitement and promise of the cannabis business. We feel honored to share their stories and look forward to watching them push forward in our ever-evolving industry.
The fast pace and ever-changing nature of the cannabis industry can catch some people off guard. But not Jimmy Makoso. Prior to co-founding the Lucid Lab Group in January 2015, Makoso made his living navigating the cutthroat world of New York City finance.
“This provided a great base to understand growth markets, deal flow management and business execution in a very fast-paced environment,” Makoso says.
That experience has served him well, as today Makoso is the vice president at Lucid, a technology company focused on delivering cannabis products on two fronts: first to consumers under the Lucid Oils brand, a high-quality extract, and second, through partnerships with non-cannabis equipment manufacturers to design and develop the next generation of extraction and processing solutions for the legal marijuana industry.
For Makoso, the best part of being in this new industry is seeing how the development of new extraction technologies has led to better products for consumers, particularly those who use the product for medical purposes. However, he says the bureaucracy that limits access to the treatments has been frustrating, even as the company gains recognition across the country and around the world.
“It’s really exciting to see what’s happening with our footprint reaching other parts of the world,” he says.
But even though he’s often the one in the spotlight, Makoso is quick to emphasize that without the team Lucid has put in place, none of this would be possible.
“We have a dedicated team of passionate professionals having unique skill sets with a shared enthusiasm for cannabis,” he says. “I can’t emphasize it enough: Teamwork makes the dream work.”