C3 Industries

In 2017, two brothers, Ankur and Vishal Rungta, and childhood friend Joel Ruggiero reunited to launch C3 Industries in Oregon. It was a time of flux for the Oregon market, as the entire industry adapted to massive oversupply, but it forced the C3 team to get their fundamentals right before an expansion into Michigan and then Massachusetts and Missouri.

“Our biggest focus is always to have the highest-end cannabis that we are proud to personally consume,” says Ruggiero, the company’s chief horticultural officer who calls himself a “weed snob.” “It’s helped us a lot that we’ve got a really high degree of trust between the three of us because in this industry you’re on a roller coaster ride constantly.”

Today, C3’s award-winning Cloud Cover cannabis brand is the centerpiece of the company, filling the shelves of 15 High Profile retail stores.

The company has an additional eight stores projected to open before the year’s end, and the trio of longtime friends and businessmen have their eyes on further expansion as well, both in a wider range of SKUs and in breaking into their home market of New York. Ruggiero and Vishal were skateboarding buddies in Western New York back in their elementary school years. A few years older, Ankur first left for school at the University of Michigan. Vishal followed a few years later, while Joel stayed local and attended Buffalo State, but the three never lost touch.

After graduation, Ankur moved to New York City and became a corporate lawyer and investment banker, and Vishal also moved to the city to work in investment banking. Meanwhile, Joel worked as a project manager for a construction company before “hitting the reset button” and moving to Colorado to get into the state’s medical cannabis industry where he gained the practical knowledge to help the partnership launch C3.

“We’ve gone from the three of us, an idea and some janky spreadsheets to a 500-person company and operations spanning four states,” says Vishal. “And I don’t think we’re done.”