Khalil Moutawakkil
Company: KindPeoples
Title: Director
Age: 33
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.
Like many young cannabis entrepreneurs, Khalil Moutawakkil got his start growing cannabis in the hazy, semi-legal days of California’s early medical marijuana program. But starting a family shifted his eyes toward long-term goals.
“I had my first son and decided it was time to do something in the more legitimate spaces of the cannabis industry,” he says.
That leap into legitimacy turned out to be KindPeoples, a medical dispensary in Santa Cruz that started with just nine employees and has now progressed into multiple adult-use retail stores with a workforce of nearly 100. The incredible growth is the result of constantly reinvesting revenue back into the company, Moutawakkil says.
“We haven’t had a quarter where we’ve declined in revenue since our opening,” he adds.
Having the right management team has also been critical, Moutawakkil says. To ensure compliance and consistent growth, KindPeoples brought in an “awesome” financial controller, an inventory manager with a background in the medical industry, a marketing manager to promote the brand and a retail operations manager to streamline sales and customer service.
“We have invested in internal sales training and a budtender education program,” Moutawakkil says, “so each of our staff members is really up-to-date with our curriculum and understanding the differences of all the product categories we carry and really understanding why we carry each product.”
The company has also taken a different approach than most cannabis retailers, allowing customers to shop for cannabis in a manner that more closely resembles picking produce at a grocery store.
“It’s not a jewelry store,” Moutawakkil explains. “It’s not a $2,000 ring. You should be able to touch it and experience it for yourself and make your own decisions and throw it in a basket like you would at Whole Foods.”
KindPeoples, which was granted eight of the first 20 recreational cannabis licenses in California, plans to open its third retail location in Santa Cruz in the fall.
“I count my blessings every day,” Moutawakkil says. “Anyone that knows me knows I’m a family guy. I’m super loyal and appreciate the closeness of my friends and my community, and to be able to also provide living wage jobs to 100 employees, that’s incredible.”