Elevate Your Grind

Marc Lopez is the CTO and co-founder of Drop Delivery, the cannabis industry’s only all-in-one delivery technology solution for retailers. A twenty-something serial entrepreneur, Marc previously co-founded Greenlight Technologies, a leading order-ahead and digital loyalty software in the cannabis industry, which was acquired in 2018 by publicly-traded Leafbuyer Technologies. 

Before jumping into the cannabis industry, Marc co-founded two vape industry software companies, the e-commerce platform Vape Block, and the peer-to-peer marketplace Vape Mail in 2015, where he built the technology that both platforms ran on. The motivation to develop a peer-to-peer marketplace came from his previous startup, Uniform in 2015, a peer-to-peer marketplace for the fashion industry. While in college, and with his current Drop Delivery co-founders Vanessa and Jade Gabriel, Marc co-founded aSociete in 2011, a shopping platform for millennials to shop for their favorite fashion brands from all across the web in a simple, entertaining, and engaging way.

Emily Paxhia is the Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Poseidon Asset Management. Emily has reviewed thousands of companies in the cannabis industry and has worked with countless founders in many capacities. Emily has held board seats for multiple portfolio companies and participates as an adviser to multiple teams. Extremely active in the investment decision making and ongoing investment oversight processes, she works closely with her partners to create meaningful deal structures, ensuring that proper governance is carried out at the company level. Further, Emily has dedicated time and energy to supporting policy groups and has served on the Board of Directors of the Marijuana Policy Project. She also currently serves on the Board of Athletes for CARE and The Initiative.

Mikaela serves as the VP of Retail Business Development at springbig. During her time at springbig, she has helped many of the largest multistate operators and highest volume retailers reimagine their loyalty program and their relationship with their customers/patients. Through integrations with leading cannabis POS and e-commerce partners, springbig offers data-driven strategic marketing, retention, and relationship management tools that increase revenue.

Ashley Reynolds and her husband Colin established EMT in May of 2017 after Ashley’s personal struggle with postpartum anxiety. Finding relief through the use of CBD, Ashley saw a need for cannabis advocation to all. Reynolds believes the strong household decision makers of the world stand to benefit the most from the use of cannabis and has worked tirelessly empowering women to make smart, safe decisions around cannabis use. By providing science backed education and high quality lab tested CBD products, Ashley and the EMT Team have created a loyal following of canna-experts. Ask any customer why they choose EMT over other CBD brands and they will passionately tell you EMT is more than product, it’s a way of life, it’s culture.

Mr. Santo brings more than 25 years of experience leading lean, high-performance teams in Consumer Credit, Financial Services, Gaming and Technology, Higher Education and Specialty-Pharma. He has held a variety of senior-level positions at The First Marblehead Corporation, Fitch Ratings, International Game Technology, Lantheus Medical Imaging and, most recently, Columbia Care Inc., a leading multi-state operator in the cannabis industry. Mr. Santo holds an Investor Relations Charter® certification from the National Investor Relations Institute as well as a degree in Political Science from Boston University.

Mellow is the UK’s trusted e-commerce destination for customers & brands to learn, buy and sell CBD. Founded by a management and stakeholder team with over 20 years of marketplace and 40 years of eCommerce experience, they have rapidly turned mellow into one of the most renowned marketplaces to buy and sell CBD products. Mellow believes that furthering the CBD industry starts with education and aim to give people easy access to knowledge they can trust. Today we sit down with Co-Founders Neil Tunbridge and James Storie-Pugh to hear the exciting roadmap for mellow and the future of the UK CBD industry.

Kendra Stocking is a collaborative cannabis sales leader with over 13 years experience in sales in the cannabis, action sports and real estate industries. She is currently with Vice President of Sales at Old Pal, a west coast canna company crafting quality cannabis in California and Nevada.

Tara Wells is the cofounder of Ganja Goddess, a California-based premium online shopping, delivery and lifestyle brand, which recently launched CBD Goddess, a national, one-stop-shop e-commerce site for cannabis and hemp-derived CBD consumer and pet products. Previously, Tara was an executive producer and writer, winning an Emmy for "The Amazing Race" on CBS. Her background in production, business and marketing has made her adept at understanding the cannabis market.

Today we sit down with Lindsey Ramos and Todd Sherman of Midland Scientific, Inc. Founded in 1975, Midland Scientific is a full-line provider of laboratory supplies such as chemicals, reagents, solutions, glassware, plasticware, biological media, instrumentation, equipment, and laboratory consumables.  Midland Scientific provides scientific supplies and equipment nationwide focused on the industrial, agricultural, and biotechnology laboratory markets. Midland excels at valued added B2B partnerships, E-commerce, and vendor-managed inventories (VMI).  Midland Scientific is an ISO 9001:2016, BBB A+, and WBENC© certified business.

Jocelyn Sheltraw is the Director of Strategy at Seattle-based cannabis data analytics firm Headset. Jocelyn is the company lead on new market expansion, and is responsible for presenting all opportunities within the market and understanding the various nuances, from licensure and policies to recognizing who the movers and shakers are. She works to educate teams on what Headset does, how to integrate a data and technology solution into their overall strategy and present the findings that we are learning.