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Architect-turned-chocolatier Christine Smith is the CEO and founder of Gr\u00f6n, the best-selling, handcrafted cannabis-infused edibles brand. Smith founded Gr\u00f6n herself with no outside investment, cashing out stock from her architectural firm to purchase her first chocolate machine.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Thanks to Smith\u2019s vision and business acumen, what started out as a \u201cside project\u201d has grown into a company of 200 team members selling millions of products every month. Gr\u00f6n is now available in its home state of Oregon, plus Arizona, Nevada, Missouri, New Jersey and Canada. New York, Ohio and Maryland are all scheduled to go live this year.\u00a0<\/p>\n
One of the reasons Gr\u00f6n is such a leader in the space is its use of minor cannabinoids for enhanced, tailor-made experiences. The newest product offering for its Sugar-Coated Pearls line is Tangelo, which includes the latest hot Cannabichromene<\/a> (CBC), known as the \u201chappy cannabinoid\u201d for its uplifting euphoric effects.<\/p>\n Smith spoke exclusively with\u00a0Cannabis Now<\/em>, sharing highlights from her career, insights from the new Tangelo product and advice for other women with aspirations of joining the cannabis industry.<\/p>\n Cannabis Now: Tell us about your journey to becoming a cannabis entrepreneur. What inspired you to leave architecture and found Gr\u00f6n?<\/strong><\/p>\n Christine Smith:<\/strong> Like many things in life, it was a happy accident [laughs<\/em>]. It was back in 2013 and I\u2019d been practicing architecture for about 16 years. I loved my job, but I had lost the creative side of it. Medical adult-use in Oregon wasn\u2019t legal yet, but it was starting to bubble up (Measure 91<\/a> was approved in 2014), and there was a lot of excitement and opportunity.\u00a0<\/p>\n I started looking at the cannabis industry and thought I would get into it from the package design and creative consultant side. As an architect, I did a lot of land use planning and regulation reading, so I was very familiar with regulations and rules. The design side was a natural segue for me to go on. I didn\u2019t realize that by creating this company in a new sector, I could combine everything: my love of food, my ability to lead, my architecture and project management experience.<\/p>\n CN: Tell us about your inclusion of minor cannabinoids in Gr\u00f6n products.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n CS: We lead on the cannabinoid front up here in the Northwest. We work closely with FloraWorks<\/a>, a local company that\u2019s leading the development of all these minor cannabinoids in a meaningful way. We were the first company to dive into CBN in 2019. CBN was on the market but wasn\u2019t used in high ratios as it was too expensive. We spent time researching what makes it effective for sleep products\u2014and it was a one-to-one ratio. We took a leap of faith that the price would regulate over time.<\/p>\n With Tangelo, we looked at what we were, what we could do, and other cannabinoids in the same meaningful way. CBC was starting to appear in the market, so we looked hard at finding a ratio that could deliver an experience. Our CBC Pearls have a 2:1:1 ratio of 100 mgs of THC and 50 mgs of CBC and CBG. It delivers an incredible high that\u2019s very euphoric, very uplifting. We\u2019re finding tremendous success with the product; within 30 days of launch, we\u2019ve seen it take up to 20% of our revenue across the\u00a0Pearls<\/em>\u00a0product line.<\/p>\n CN: What are your views on the current state of the cannabis industry, in particular, the climate for women working in the sector?<\/strong><\/p>\n CS: I\u2019m not sure everybody agrees with me, but I think it\u2019s an exciting time in cannabis. We\u2019re now ten years into this. There\u2019s been ups and downs; if you\u2019d wagered money on this\u2014and a lot of people did ten years ago\u2014you\u2019d have thought we\u2019d be five years into full legalization, everybody would have got their money back, and it would have progressed a lot faster than it has. And I\u2019ll tell you, I\u2019m not sure I see a path in the next three or five years where we\u2019re there even now; it\u2019s way down the road.<\/p>\n But what I do see is some stabilization. I\u2019m very excited to see the industry mature and turn into a real industry where you have real operators bringing CPG goods to the market and selling them to sophisticated retailers. The industry is starting to mature\u2014and so are consumers. We\u2019re starting to see people who are driven to brands, and we\u2019re able to respond to that. You\u2019re starting to see retailers educating consumers effectively, not just budtenders trying to sell whatever has the highest THC. I think it\u2019s exciting, and it\u2019s progressing quickly. So, the industry is maturing faster than where we\u2019re seeing federal legalization happen. [laughs<\/em>].<\/p>\n There\u2019s still no capital; it\u2019s still a disaster on that side. But, if you\u2019ve stayed lean, which we have, you don\u2019t have any debt on your balance sheet, then you\u2019re sitting in a pretty position. My advice is always to be smart and restrained with capital. Always look at your chessboard; it\u2019s too easy to make decisions without looking up, but you should always look up and understand your best case, your most likely case and your worst case. Be prepared for it all.<\/p>\n CN: What\u2019s your favorite thing about working in the cannabis industry?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n CS: The pace: how quickly it moves and how quickly you see the response to your actions. It may take ten years to see something in other sectors\u2014particularly in architecture. Anyone successful in this industry would say it\u2019s a little bit like being a good gambler. You make very strategic bets, and it\u2019s rewarding. It\u2019s high stakes, high rewards.<\/p>\n The team aspect is another favorite thing\u2014building this team and the rewarding nature of having a group of people with whom I get to do this with every day. There are now 200 people across the entire country at Gr\u00f6n who are part of this dream, just grinding away and doing it. Ultimately, we\u2019re all just people trying to do the best we can and provide the best products and service.<\/p>\n CN: Do you have a significant moment from your career in cannabis that you\u2019d like to share?<\/strong><\/p>\n CS: I won the \u201cCEO of the Year\u201d award here in Oregon in 2018 for my leadership within the cannabis community and industry due to my restraint\u2014in 2017, there was a lot of acquisition, and many people were taking money and going left and right. It\u2019s easy in this industry to feel like you\u2019re being left behind if you\u2019re not going and spending money left and right. I won the award because I thoughtfully led my company and team through that and out on the other side. That was very meaningful because it guided me as we\u2019ve continued to this day. And it\u2019s not natural within the industry to have that restraint. It\u2019s a marathon, not a sprint, and this industry naturally feels like it\u2019s a sprint because it goes so fast. But it takes a lot of strategy.\u00a0<\/p>\n CN: What\u2019s been your most significant learning or \u201ca-ha\u201d moment?<\/strong><\/p>\n CS: It\u2019s easy to over-leverage, to get distracted by all the pretty things and try to do too many things. I\u2019ve learned to stay focused\u2014we stay within our category, and we\u2019re the best at what we do: making fantastic edibles, particularly gummies, chocolates and chocolate candies. We\u2019re not interested in doing anything else. We are not retailers; we are not growers. In the past, we tried to stray from that path and ventured into CBD land around 2017\/18. Like the rest of that industry, we got some bruises and scratched knees and came out the other side with some lessons learned in not over-leveraging.\u00a0<\/p>\n CN: What advice do you have for women wanting to get into the industry?<\/strong><\/p>\n CS: Women are so well suited to this industry. I want to see them lean into it: ask questions, find a mentor, find a woman already in the industry who will open doors for you. Don\u2019t be afraid to find something that you love and lean into it. The industry can feel intimidating from the outside, that it\u2019s a boy\u2019s club. And it is\u2014but there are a lot of really great women in the industry who want to support and help other women. So, it\u2019s just having the confidence to reach out because we\u2019re all here. Don\u2019t be afraid to ask.<\/p>\n CN: Finish this sentence: the future of the cannabis industry in the US is\u2026?<\/strong><\/p>\n CS: The future is bright; the future is inspiring.\u00a0<\/p>\n The post Christine Smith: The Maven of Edible Experience<\/a> appeared first on Cannabis Now<\/a>.<\/p>\n
Architect-turned-chocolatier Christine Smith is the CEO and founder of Gr\u00f6n, the best-selling, handcrafted cannabis-infused edibles brand. Smith founded Gr\u00f6n herself with no outside investment, cashing out stock from her architectural firm to purchase her first chocolate machine.\u00a0 Thanks to Smith\u2019s vision and business acumen, what started out as a \u201csideContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":234,"featured_media":73667,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6286,605,50,2636,17552,111,5388,185,86,420,510,4229,5429,1319],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73666"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/234"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=73666"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73666\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":73668,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73666\/revisions\/73668"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/73667"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73666"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73666"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73666"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Christine](\"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/Tangelo-Sugar-Coated-Pearls.jpg\")
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\nRead More: Christine Smith: The Maven of Edible Experience<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"