As the modern cannabis industry continues to unfold, we are seeing a huge boom of cutting-edge technological advancements and software innovations. Just like in any other industry, big thinkers and entrepreneurs are designing this tech to – among countless other things – increase production, effectively navigate regulations and payment processing, and network in an exclusive space.
I reached out to four executives whose respective businesses are working tirelessly to shape the technological frontier of the new cannabis industry. Each person talked to me briefly about the problem that they identified within the cannabis space and how their company used technology and software as a solution to it:
“Technology is inseparable from the modern business world, and the cannabis industry is no exception. While the industry has been able to exist in the cash-only stone age for some time, widespread legalization is forcing cannabis businesses to modernize or be left out of the pie. Luckily the nature of a new, exploding, exciting industry has attracted tons of incredibly talented and tech-literate entrepreneurs who are up to the unique challenge of building a standardized technological framework for a (currently) grey market. Zodaka’s team, for example, was pulled from many different sectors of tech, finance, and business in order to solve the problem of payments and banking in cannabis; a major factor we attribute for the success of our system.”
— Carson O’Connell, Marketing Director at Zodaka, the safest, most reliable cannabis payment system on the market.
“Cannabis companies need a place to network, post jobs, share events, announce new products and just connect with their peers; many are not willing to be “loud” about cannabis in places like Linkedin. Leafwire has created a unique platform built 100% for cannabis and hemp that is safe and designed to power the business of cannabis and hemp. Professionals can feel free to speak freely and they won’t be censored or banned.”
— Peter Vogel, CEO of Leafwire, the cannabis industry’s answer to networking; a platform akin to Linkedin, but 100% devoted to cannabis.
“As the cannabis industry continues to mature, industry leading companies (measured by their market capitalization) are racing to rapidly entrench their businesses through a variety of different mechanisms. Although license acquisition has been one of these key strategies, the cost of licenses in strategic markets continues to be prohibitively expensive or difficult due to regulatory hurdles. Cannabis related technology offers the ability to scale globally across different regulatory environments at a fraction of the cost in comparison to the license acquisition strategy.”
— Dominick Volpini, Vice President of Cloudious9, a high-tech vaporizer company that’s developed the “Hydrology 9,” the first-ever vaporizer with a built-in water filtration system that allows the user to burn or vaporize their product.
“After writing systems around state rules and regulations, our main concern was creating an all-in-one software that is a convenience and competitive advantage for license holders. We turn real life customer workflows into streamlined software solutions. We do a lot of listening, and most of the best ideas come from our customer base.”
— Tom Wilson, CTO of GrowFlow, a 3rd party traceability software that interfaces with required state inventory tracking software. GrowFlow innovates using each state’s compliance as a guide, to create more intuitive and centralized solutions for cannabis entrepreneurs.
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