Ryan Michael
Age: 33
Scott Alan
Age: 32
Bridget Renee
Age: 26
Sebastian Dean
Age: 26
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.
With a broad range of backgrounds and skill sets, the four co-founders of KindTyme — Ryan Michael, 33, Scott Alan, 32, Bridget Renee, 26, and Sebastian Dean, 26 — bring a collaborative approach to deliver high-level marketing solutions for their cannabis clients throughout the country.
KindTyme provides a full suite of marketing, design and media services, including brand strategy, websites, commercial video production and packaging design.
“Your culture is your brand,” Michael says. “KindTyme helps brands discover their culture, find their voice, figure out who they are and make it all look amazing.”
Renee says the Oregon-based company has discovered that “one-size-fits-all” packages don’t work.
“Instead, we like to shape the creative idea out of the practical needs,” she adds. “Who is their brand? What is their budget? What are their short-term and long-term goals? It’s important to us that we have flexibility to tailor details of every project, so clients can get exactly what they need and we can keep creating new, unique ideas.”
As the world of legal marijuana evolves, the branding and design elements of cannabis companies have made massive leaps forward, both in terms of importance and in portraying a higher level of professionalism than the early days of medical legalization, where the pot leaf, green cross and rasta themes were the dominant milieu.
“When we started KindTyme most cannabis businesses had little to no design, or were caught in the trappings of traditional cannabis symbols,” Dean says. “There were a few brands like Dixie that were breaking the mold and finding new ways of presenting their identity, but it was not very common. The cannabis industry watched these brands take off, and it didn’t take long for businesses to realize that great design would be essential to their success.
“As the market advances, more businesses are finding themselves with the funds to use strategic design to represent themselves. Creativity and uniqueness is quickly becoming more and more important within the industry, especially when it comes to branding, packaging and marketing,” he says. “With the influx of new businesses and start-ups taking this approach, standing out and creating a memorable experience is incredibly competitive.”