A decade. 10 years. 3,653 days. Wow, how time flies! I’m flabbergasted that it’s been 10 years already. When I first talked to Garrett Rudolph in early 2014 about starting a serious business magazine for the cannabis industry, he was working as the editor at a small-town newspaper in Omak, Washington, population about 5,000. Luckily for me, he had recently quit the Omak Chronicle and was moving back to Western Washington. Also luckily for me, he said yes to my offer of a job as editor and turned out to be a tireless worker, a great editor and a skilled writer. Together, we launched Marijuana Venture with $50,000 from my savings and the belief that a serious business publication might just work in a new industry. It was a deep dive into the unknown for both of us.
As a veteran of the exploding CD-ROM business in the mid-1990s, I was intrigued by the new cannabis industry and figured there would be room for different companies in any number of corners of the emerging business. However, right from the start, there were early indications that this new cannabis space might not be the fast-growing, high-margin cakewalk many predicted. For starters, with no limits on grow licenses in Washington and thousands of applicants, over-production seemed likely. That, combined with operators who often lacked real-world commercial ag experience, seemed to hint that all might not go smoothly for many of the participants. Incidentally, what struck me about the first wave of pioneers was the seemingly endless talk of green riches. When we first started interviewing owners on the producer-processor side of the industry in 2014 and 2015, one after another told us their entire business plan consisted of growing the best weed. No marketing budget, no sales plans, no packaging or branding, and no real financial projections. “We grow the best weed” was the sales and marketing plan for most of the first several dozen growers we talked to. After a few weeks of the same comments, we’d mention to cultivators that everyone said they grow the best weed. There would be a pause, and they would respond: “But we really do.” One memorable individual told the two of us that his company would be the Microsoft of Weed and that he was destined to be the Bill Gates of Cannabis. I forget his name or company, but I remember he was late for our meeting and appeared stoned at the time.
For those lucky enough to get a decent crop out that first year, sales were good. It was a seller’s market in 2014. But things changed rapidly. In 2015 and 2016, prices dropped dramatically, and reality set in … maybe cannabis wasn’t going to be easy money and big profits? Maybe the industry would be cutthroat, demand hard work, and be anything but paved with gold, particularly on the cultivation side. Adult-use stores in Washington opened about seven months after those in Colorado, and the Rocky Mountain state got the lion’s share of national media coverage. In Seattle, Cannabis City garnered plenty of exposure locally as the first recreational cannabis retailer to open its doors in Washington’s largest city. The event was front page news in the Seattle Times and the race was on. Other stores followed and soon Washington was hot. Cannabis retailers across the Columbia River from Portland, Oregon, like Main Street Marijuana and New Vansterdam, drew record crowds and big sales. Some stores reached $1 million per month in sales.
In the summer of 2014, the first CannaCon was held at the Tacoma Dome, and the Marijuana Venture crew was there in force — all four of us! Bob Smart produced the event, and it was exciting to talk to Washington industry pioneers, most of whom weren’t yet licensed to operate. In the following years, CannaCon moved to the Seattle waterfront, then the Washington Convention Center, before eventually coming to an end, at least in Washington (Bob took the show national and produced events in Oklahoma, Michigan and other states).
In 2015, I went to my first MJBizCon at The Rio in Las Vegas. I went for several years, and MV had courtesy booths at the event. MJBiz was a fast-growing national phenomenon and seemed to double in size each year. However, for me, the long lines and tedious check-in procedures took their toll, and I think 2019 was the last year I went. One of the negatives of the show was hearing the same speakers with the same pitch and endless talk of “green rush” gold just around the corner. It seems few attendees or speakers at MJBiz every bothered to research the business conditions in the Pacific Northwest.
From left to right: Marijuana Venture publisher Greg James, American music icon Willie Nelson and former Marijuana Venture managing editor Brian Beckley.
We launched our first event with Interchange in 2016. The idea was to streamline the buying/selling process and get producers and retailers together for two days of sales meetings and product evaluations. Initial resistance (“Why should I attend, I’m a buyer and the vendors come to me?”) went away quickly as both sides realized Interchange saved them time and money while also getting all involved together in a professional business environment. Interchange changed the way the industry does business and led to countless imitators. It’s still going strong nearly a decade after the initial launch.
As the business in Washington progressed, it was obvious for many reasons that it was not going to be easier than any other business — and in many ways, it’s much harder, thanks to the endless regulations, declining prices and exorbitant tax burdens. Retailers were often in brutal price wars with neighbors and margins fell for everyone. Retaining employees was an ever-present headache, and loyalty — customer and employee — seemed to be rare for many operators.
One early conversation with Ian Eisenberg, the owners of Uncle Ike’s, was an eye opener. We were having lunch sometime in 2016, and I wanted to get his views on the state of the business. I mentioned that one producer-processor seemed to be everywhere and wondered if their product was measurably better than the rest of the growers in Washington. His response was a bit surprising at the time, but in retrospect made total sense: “They grow good bud,” he said. “Really good bud. But others do too. The difference is that their sales team always shows up well-prepared and on time. Their POs always arrive on the right date and are counted out correctly, and if I ever have a problem, they get back to me quickly and fix it.”
I wrote about that conversation in an early editorial because what Ian was essentially saying was that good operations (warehousing/shipping/packaging) are as important — if not more so — than just having great flower. No different than any other business in America. (Think Nordstrom versus Kmart!)
The cannabis industry has seen many up and downs. On the supply side, producer-processors have experienced wholesale prices that resemble an out-of-control roller coaster ride. One year supply will be down, prices shoot up and things are warm and fuzzy (or at least reliably profitable). A year later, supply goes up, prices plummet, and producers sing the blues. Next year prices might be back up or they may slip even lower … repeat over and over and you have a business that looks a lot like any other ag business. Add in broad mites, bad weather, employee turnover, high labor and rent costs and, well, you get the picture. It ain’t easy!
This past decade has been mostly fun for me. I’ve met lots of great people, gone to plenty of interesting events, and hosted some wonderful politicians and businesspeople. I’ve seen the good, the bad and the ugly when it comes to cannabis, and sadly some of the ugly has involved lost dreams, foreclosed homes that were mortgaged to raise cannabis investment funds, and lots of money go up in smoke. However, I’ve also witnessed the emergence of a new industry, the smiling faces of successful business people, and the end of repressive and racist prohibition laws.
Producing Marijuana Venture has been a wonderful experience. I’ve worked with a great team, learned a lot, and am proud of the product we’ve turned out for a decade. The magazine was never a big money maker, but was — and still is — a publication that I’m proud of. Our articles are well-written, and I firmly believe we’ve done a great job bringing sound business advice and profiles to a national audience that didn’t have a dedicated business magazine before Marijuana Venture. Along the way we also earned a MIN (Magazine Industry Newsletter) award that was presented to Garrett in New York in 2015.
I hope the next 10 years are good for everyone in this industry!
Greg James
Publisher