Starting in November of 2015, we asked the cannabis community to nominate and vote for their favorite individuals, products, and organizations in the field for the inaugural Laurel Awards.

We weren’t sure what to expect, but we quickly took stock of the major players in the industry as more than 1,100 initial nominations and well over 7,500 official votes were submitted. The top winner by people’s choice in each of the ten categories will hold the honor for one year.

One thing that certainly was unprecedented was the major sweep that occured, with one up-and-coming technology company taking the Laurels in five different categories, including the top-level awards. This company had a small team of employees to vote, but hundreds of supporters, customers and fans throughout the cannabis community.

CONGRATULATIONS TO

Flowhub

Winner of the 2015 Laurels for:

Most Disruptive Technology

Best Enterprise Technology

Cannabis Product of the Year

Cannabis Company of the Year

AND

Kyle Sherman

CEO & Co-Founder of Flowhub

Winner of the Laurel Award for Cannabis Entrepreneur of the Year

Sweeping both the Disruptive and Enterprise technology categories, as well as ALL THREE of the top-level 2015 Laurel Awards, Denver-based Flowhub was the software that made the biggest splash during 2015, and a great example of growth and success as a cannabis company.

Essential Technology

Flowhub is a seed-to-sale software solution, meaning it helps growers, manufacturers, distributors, and retailers accurately track the complete life cycle of a cannabis plant, from the day its seed is planted to the day it is plucked off the shelf and sold to a patient or recreational customer.

The entire solution runs on a system of bar codes, which can then be scanned by Flowhub’s signature NUG device. It snaps onto a smartphone for easy scanning and uploading into the corresponding mobile app, creating a giant database of cannabis plants that can be updated in real time.

Using the personalized bar code, a plant’s growth and flowering progress can be easily tracked via mobile app – every time the barcode is scanned, it updates that plant’s profile. Then, once it’s harvested, its bar code will follow it through transportation, manufacturing, and retail process, making it easy for all parties to stay compliant and track inventory much better than with paper and pen.

Fully integrated and compliant wherever medical or recreational cannabis is legal, Flowhub is the community favorite for streamlined, high-tech seed to sale tracking. It’s loved by cultivators and retailers alike and has saved countless hours of needless work.

Good People = Good Times

Started just under two years ago, Flowhub is a young company that has already made a huge imprint on the history of cannabis.

Its CEO and co-founder, Kyle Sherman, was inspired to create Flowhub after experiencing life on a grow, and struggling with the capabilities of existing technologies.

A tech-savvy problem solver, Kyle searched everywhere for a software that could handle the demands of a large grow operation. When he didn’t find it, he set out to create it himself – the ultimate startup entrepreneur move.

Together with co-founder Chase Wiseman, Kyle built Flowhub up from the ground, and they now boast a downtown Denver office and a stellar team of 18 employees.

When it comes to a great company, the culture and employees are huge factors. Flowhub’s entire team worked diligently to nominate, vote, and tell their friends to support their company over the course of these awards.

Flowhub was also recently covered in CNN Money’s fun feature on companies that allow toke breaks during the workday.

His words: “Our philosophy at Flowhub is to get s*** done. If it helps our employees get work done, then we don’t care if they consume at work.”

With this policy in place, they’ve seen top results. Clearly, it pays to have a little fun in this industry.

Congratulations to Kyle and the entire Flowhub team – an outstanding example of a cannabis company moving toward the future.

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New ideas and innovative business principles are our bread and butter here at Cashinbis. So when we caught wind of a brand new educational trade show specific to the Native American community, we knew we had to participate.

Native Nation Events hosted their first cannabis-related event, September 9th and 10th at Harrah’s Resort in North San Diego County. The luxe resort hotel and casino recently underwent a multimillion dollar renovation, and the new event center is a popular spot for conferences, conveniently located between the San Diego and Los Angeles metro areas.

In addition to being a hotspot for cannabis, the Southwest is indisputably the epicenter of modern Native America; with several major tribes active in Arizona, New Mexico, and Southern California, Tribal Councils are actively on the lookout for lucrative, accessible and climate-appropriate new ventures in order to secure a prosperous financial future for their respective tribes. Cue the cannabis industry and its nearly unlimited potential.

Fantastic Speakers

Unlike many cannabis expos that cater largely to the vendors, host company Native Nation Events really went out of their way to stock this speaker lineup with in-depth seminars. Each session offered a wealth of information, and the session seats were filled almost all day, between meals and the brief networking breaks.

Most notably, Tom Fleming (former FinCEN Assistant Director) gave an eye-opening explanation of exactly what it means to launder money, and how to avoid accidentally getting into it by doing business in our industry. He cleared up misconceptions that banks absolutely won’t do business with cannabis at all; rather, he explained that banks are still wary, due to federal guidelines, but will in fact consider working with companies who are 100% compliant with state law.

Other great sessions included talks on tribal sovereignty and cultural issues to be aware of when integrating cannabis into their world, advantages that the tribes have in this industry over the rest of the United States, understanding the difference between marijuana and hemp, and cannabis economy basics.

Each speaker brought something different to the table, and whether or not they were a member of a tribe, most also tried to speak on issues that related directly to the Native American audience. For example, Dr. Sue Sisley elaborated on her FDA-approved study on the effects of cannabis on veterans with PTSD, adding that it would be advantageous for Native American tribes to start thinking about offering their lands for federal research, due to all the restrictions on labs off the reservation. This is one of several opportunities that the Native community has been presented with due to their unique federal status.

Focus On Tribes

Though we got some great networking in with others in the industry, we are exceedingly glad that the focus remained on the tribes rather than on the vendors. Making the industry approachable, accessible, respectful, and teachable is what we are all about, and Native Nation Events did a great job of balancing a great marketing opportunity with a respectful and educational atmosphere.

Tribal leaders and members that we spoke to were open-minded individuals, some of whom were hearing about cannabis for the very first time. They share the hope that cannabis and hemp can potentially be a reinterpretation of the casino for their culture, ushering in new jobs, new uses for their land, and perhaps even a healthy alternative to alcohol and prescription pain medications, the abuse of which has negatively and disproportionately impacted Native Americans just like many other minority groups.

For the tribes that are already going about doing business in this space – we commend you. It’s certainly not easy, but like many of you, we believe that this plant heals nations and has exciting potential as an entrepreneurial venture.

We hope that this was a successful event for the Native American attendees, and will certainly keep this growing movement on our radar.

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(Re)United and It Feels so Good

Last Wednesday the House of Representatives renewed an amendment that blocks federal prosecution of Cannabis operations; provided they are in compliance with state law. This week the Senate has also jumped on the bandwagon, passing the similarly worded Mikulski Medical Cannabis Amendment by a vote of 20-10. This vote marks the first time the Senate has weighed in on medical Cannabis programs at the state level. These amendments, passed within a week of each other, combine to send a very reassuring message to the medical community. Government officials are seeing the positive impact being made by the industry, both financially and medically.

With as many as 275 million people spread across 39 states in which medical Cannabis programs exist, patients all over the country are continuing to rely on the advancement of treatments.

For all intents and purposes, the amendment, proposed by Senator Barbara Miluski (D-MD), contains the same language as the Rohrabacher-Farr amendment that passed through the House last week.Generally speaking the legislation prevents the Department of Justice, or any other federal agency, from allocating funding to prosecutions, raids or arrests of Cannabis programs if it is legal within the state. The objective behind passing a similar amendment through the Senate was to unify government branches and further strengthen the separation between state and federal government pertaining to Cannabis regulation. As expected, activists supporting medical use were very satisfied by the result of the voting.

“Today the Senate is joining the House of Representatives and recognizing the only responsible course of action is for the federal government to leave state medical cannabis programs alone and let them provide their citizens with this much needed medical option…Along (with) the recent vote to end the gag order on VA doctors recommending medical cannabis we’re seeing undeniable Senate support for the policy changes in the CARERS act.” – Government Affairs Director Mike Liszewski – Americans for Safe Access

‘The Carers Act’ Mike Liszewski is referring to represents the next step in the legislative process and would make the protections afforded by the Mikulski Medical Cannabis Amendment permanent. If successful, this amendment will provide the groundwork for unprecedented cooperation between federal and state officials. Most importantly, given this newly developed cooperation, it will directly lead to more research and development in the medical field, as scientists and investors become less weary of the industry. In the past, some potential researchers have referred to the study of Cannabis science as ‘career suicide’, citing the legal ramifications caused by the rift between state and federal law. The importance of this research cannot be understated and ongoing federal legislation will only open the door for more opportunity and discovery. With as many as 275 million people spread across 39 states in which medical Cannabis programs exist, patients all over the country are continuing to rely on the advancement of treatments. For a long time the irony surrounding medical Cannabis development was that, in order to show medical benefits to government officials, research and testing had to be provided. However, without the governments support of legalization, most researches steered away from the industry to avoid legal woes.

According to the Colorado Center on Law and Policy, by removing criminal penalties the state has saved anywhere from $12 million to $40 million dollars over the last year.

Through activism, independent trials and state-by-state legislation this testing has been given life and the results are becoming more and more impressive. Not only are government officials witnessing the medical impact of the Cannabis community, but they are also seeing the tax revenue generated through proper regulation. In Colorado alone $76 Million was generated from the Cannabis industry in 2014. But that’s not all. Officials can add millions to that number due to the money saved by removing criminal penalties. According to the Colorado Center on Law and Policy, by removing criminal penalties the state has saved anywhere from $12 million to $40 million dollars over the last year. Plain and simple, if representatives can show a regulatory model that can generate over a net gain of $100 Million, federal officials will be forced to take it seriously. No, the systems in every state are not perfect. Yes, they can and will be improved upon over time. But the message from government officials is clear, keep showing positive progress and the industry will get more and more slack on the rope until one day the ties are severed.

What are your thoughts about this new federal legislation? What do you think it will take to make the federal government give up control all together?

Photo Credit: Yu-chuan Hsu

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Our heads were left spinning from insightful seminars, expansive networking, and valuable conversations about partnerships, alliances, and company growth. Early this week, the Cashinbis team traveled to Denver, Colorado for the Marijuana Investor Summit event, hosted by Marijuana Investor News and CannaFundr. Over the span of only a few days, our minds were opened to endless possibilities and we had the opportunity to meet like-minded professionals and executives involved in the cannabis space. What we learned in that short span of time is what we’d like to share with you, as our mission is grounded in education and inspiration of this ever-growing industry. So, let us share the top 3 lessons we learned this week in Denver, Colorado…

According to Kevin Harrington, there are 3 steps to pitching your business.

Tease, Please, and Seize! First, have a problem; Ask a question; Draw your investors in with a ‘need’ you see in the industry and present your business plan as a solution to that problem. As an entrepreneur, you want to create value for the industry. You want to bring a product, a service, or a new technology to a space that can utilize it. So, fine-tune your executive summary to capture your audience and present your business plan as such. Secondly, you’ll want to ‘please’ your audience  by presenting the unique positioning of your product. Present testimonials from customers and show that you’ve done your research on who that customer is and how they can utilize your product. And lastly, ‘seize’ the opportunity! After you’ve presented all the above, the final step is to seal the deal. Use your closing remarks as a lead-in to a follow-up conversation.

What it all comes down to is the team.

This is something we did not only hear in multiple seminars throughout the event, but we’ve heard it time and time again in the investor interviews we publish for Cashinbis. It’s all about the team! You can’t single-handedly succeed in this industry. You need a top-notch team that excels in areas in which you are weak. It’s about recognizing what you’re good at and what you’re bad at, and aligning yourself with those who can make you and your business stronger. It’s a common known fact that we can’t possibly be the very best at everything, which is why it’s so important that we recognize the areas in which we need help.

In Fred Gross‘ talk, The Sophisticated Investor, in Kevin Harrington’s keynote speech, and in the CannaPitch itself; when investors asked multiple companies about the strength of their team, it was apparent to us that this is of upmost importance. Whether you are deciding who you are partnering with, hiring, or outsourcing content to; you need to invest in building a stellar team that spans across an array of skills. Your team is the fuel, the power, the drive, and if you don’t have a team you can count on… your business will fall behind those who do!

As a member of this industry, it is our responsibility to ‘brand’ cannabis.

This was stressed in all realms and mediums throughout the event. If you were an attendee at the Marijuana Investor Summit, you certainly recognized the attendees’ dress code: Men wore suits and ties, women in snappy professional attire and heels. This was a business event and it’s our responsibility to represent it accordingly. Cannabis has been under scrutiny and negative propaganda for decades and it’s time that we all play our part in elevating the space from the dark depths it has been hiding in for so long. Dispensaries are upgrading their spaces with bright lights, welcoming color palettes, and crisp digital displays. They greet you with dignity and ensure you have a professional experience from door to door. We must all take note in this ‘rebranding’ of cannabis which will be the driving factor to the change in public perception. No longer can it be regarded by its stereotypes. We must all dress to impress and brand our companies in a way that inspires a new found respect for the plant.

These are all lessons that will be relevant to us as entrepreneurs in the cannabis industry for years to come. We must invest in our business, invest in ourselves and our team, and elevate each of our companies to take this plant higher into the social realm. We’d also like to encourage you to find an industry event near you. It’s imperative to be transparent and connect with other like-minded business individuals. It’s certainly a great way to expand your mind to the opportunities that lay before you.

*You can download the photos from Marijuana Investor Summit through our Facebook Page.

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