Maxime Kot, president and co-owner of The Cannabis Business Advisors, has a remarkable knack for keeping up with the cannabis industry’s breakneck pace. In addition to securing numerous cannabis licenses for operators across 17 states, Kot has pivoted her national consulting firm to meet the demands of new operators in recreational states as the demand for licenses in medical markets has cooled.
“The landscape has changed from being harder to secure licenses to now it being easier,” she says. “So, just like the industry, we have to be fluid and we constantly have to change our focus on what the industry needs. While it’s easy to get licensed in some states, it’s never going to be easy to open.”
Kot says opening a facility is the most common challenge her firm is seeing lately, but it isn’t necessarily a new obstacle or a new service offered by her company. It’s just that the new recreational states seem to be less concerned with creating barriers to entry and more interested in establishing their markets. Although the demands from her company’s clients have grown in scope, from businesses looking for help expanding and scaling to needing assistance with mergers and acquisitions, they haven’t replaced the company’s main licensing work.
“A good 50% to 60% of our business is still focused on licensing because there are a lot of southern states that still need our help, and they haven’t legalized yet,” she says.