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A Cannabis Companies Tool Kit

If there is an industry that has more dichotomy wrapped around it, haven’t seen it yet. On one hand you have a generational wealth creation opportunity, massive pent up demand, a plant with thousands of use cases, an industry on the brink of breakout that is ripe for entrepreneurship and investment. Yet, on the other hand you have massive constantly changing regulation, burdensome tax regimes, restricted sales and marketing channels, no institutional capital, no easy banking solutions, a global pandemic, and oh by the way sometimes it’s legal, sometimes it’s not.

The cannabis industry is not for the faint of heart.

So, I salute entrepreneurs everywhere who saddle up to battle this dragon of an industry. In the vein we at Entourage Effect Capital, went out to our portfolio companies, industry contacts and entrepreneurs and said what are you biggest pain points? What tools are you missing? Then we compiled resources to help all of you brave enough to fight the good fight. The resources fall into these groups:

1. Financial Tools

2. Marketing Tools

3. Operations Tools

4. Fundraising Tools

5. Hiring Tools

I hope this serves you, we know it is hard out there but the impact at the end of your journey, well those are worth all the late nights and coffee fueled days. Aren’t they?

For as one grows, we all grow.

FINANCES

1.) CBD Credit Card Processing - Nuvo

What a world. We have hemp and CBD supposedly federally legal AND YET companies who are selling services in this space get kicked off of credit card platforms left and right. While that might sound minimal it can mean profits locked up, missed sales, time spent all because promises from a service provider are not kept. So, we partnered with Nuvo to be a go to support in the industry as they process CC’s for CBD and Hemp knowingly and carefully.

As a guideline (although obviously rates get better the more you process), Square charges CBD sellers 3.90% plus 10 cents per transaction for in-person tap, swipe, and dip payments. Online payments will cost 4.20% plus 30 cents per transaction, Visa/MC/Discover/AMEX, will typically cost a merchant between 3.25% and 3.90% as an all in effective rate for eCommerce which is lower than Square (but they are finicky on CBD).

Nuvo's rates coming in at 3% to 3.6% look sizably more attractive.

NUVO CREDIT CARD PROCESSING CBD/HEMP:

Just for EEC friends offer: Companies get first 5% off their rate and expedited onboarding

Code: EEC - https://form.jotform.com/nuvo/cbd-inquiry

MARKETING

We know you cannabis companies do not have unlimited capital, in fact you have massive capital constraints due to tax burdens and payment terms. And yet, you need marketing, you need pitchdecks to raise capital, and nothing will kill you faster than a bad first impression. So here are two resources in that vein to help you on the cheap

2.) Pitchdecks & Design - Fivrr

I use Fivrr all the time for projects that I'm not skilled at (aka design, pitch decks, graphic, data aggregation) for a couple $ they make me $. It’s the most cost-effective tool I’ve used, just click the link and search pitchdeck for instance. You can get a gorgeous deck done for $100-$200. I’ve used them for pitchdecks, website graphics, business cards etc etc.

3.) Marketing Tool: SEMRush

I use SEMRush to do competitor research on varying websites for our startups, to maximize our SEO (especially important since paid marketing online doesn’t work) and for leveraging organic traffic as well. At $99 a month it’s made us at least 10x.

4.) Public Relations: KCSA/Mattio Communications

In an industry that traces illegality having a PR agent is basically a must. You need to be able to craft your own message and shout it from the rooftops ESPECIALLY as you can’t do online paid advertising in cannabis. We use KCSA but I also adore Rachel Mattio and think her team is killer, so you have two great options. The amount of press we’ve received at their best is pretty astounding.

5.) Affiliate Program Creation: Ambassador

I am OBSESSED with this group. One of my friends Sam Parr from The Hustle (an online newsletter for Silicon Valley insiders) used this program to scale up his newsletter to first 300k super fans but now millions. Last I checked it was 3.6MM+. His copy writing is second to none and this program they used through Ambassador was dare I say, genius. I keep pushing more of our companies to use this tool.

OPERATIONS

6.)

15 Tools to Save Your Startup