Grassroots Marketing

Nohtal is also the Co-Founder and CEO of Rise Co-Packing, the premier automation-first co-packer for trimming, pre-rolls, & turn-key cannabis brand needs, and Inventor of Jiko Joints, the first robotically infused badder cannabis pre-rolls currently available in 15 dispensaries across California.

Nohtal Partansky, Co-Founder and CEO of Sorting Robotics, an industrial cannabis-focused AI and computer vision technologies company, is a serial entrepreneur and former NASA-JPL engineer. During his time at NASA-JPL, Nohtal was assigned to a project called the Mars Oxygen In Situ Resource Utilization Experiment (MOXIE), and the mission to develop a device that can take in the atmosphere of Mars and produce oxygen for people to breathe was successfully accomplished. After leaving NASA-JPL, Nohtal immediately founded Sorting Robotics with his two co-founders, Cassio Dos Santos Jr. and Sean Lawlor. 

In 4 short years, Nohtal has led Sorting Robotics in building new innovative equipment for cannabis manufacturers and vertically integrated brands. While building Sorting Robotics, Nohtal witnessed first hand how the lack of automation in the cannabis industry creates inefficiencies that degrade the smooth operation of the value chain and diminish profit margins. Today, Sorting Robotics is solving those problems with AI-driven machines deployed across multiple states and in Canada. 

Nohtal is also the Co-Founder and CEO of Rise Co-Packing, the premier automation-first co-packer for trimming, pre-rolls, & turn-key cannabis brand needs, and Inventor of Jiko Joints, the first robotically infused badder cannabis pre-rolls currently available in 15 dispensaries across California.

Grassroots Marketing welcomes aboard Brian Geddes, the Vice President of Sales at Jane Technologies, the leading cannabis eCommerce platform.

Brian is a lifelong advocate for the plant and its unlimited potential to heal patients and enrich lives, and he believes that facilitating access to cannabis via technology is an efficient way to effect positive change. 

Brian leans on his experience in finance (with an emphasis in underwriting creditworthiness of retail tenants) and the beer industry in order to inform retail and brand conversations in his current role. 

Brian also hosts Canndid, a podcast that focuses on the personal journeys of entrepreneurs in the cannabis industry.

Petalfast Inc., a first-of-its-kind full spectrum sales and marketing agency for the cannabis industry. Petalfast helps cannabis brands achieve rapid growth via its go-to-market accelerator program in California, and through agency services available to brands nationally. Recently, they announced a partnership with Turning Point Brands, Inc. to drive distribution expansion of their iconic rolling paper brand, Zig-Zag.  

For over 140 years, Zig-Zag has been delivering an elevated smoking experience to millions of people around the world through its high-quality rolling papers. With this agreement, Petalfast will provide full service sales and marketing support to Zig-Zag products in the cannabis retail channel throughout the state of California. Press release with more information here.

Notable cannabis brands already engaged in Petalfast’s route-to-market strategy and brand management include Space Coyote, Emerald Sky, Bloom Brands, and Yada Yada. 

Grassroots Marketing welcomes Jake "The Snake" Fraczek, a cannabis enthusiast and the Author of “The Waiting Room” & “Quicksand” as well as the Host of the Damaged Goods Podcast.

Jake Fraczek is a Best-selling author, Damaged Goods podcast host and musician. Jake has released his newest book, a hilarious collection of essays titled WAITING ROOM, which is the follow-up to his first book, QUICKSAND (Writers Republic, LLC). Both books are autobiographical and grounded in the backstory of heartache, ego, and now in Waiting Room, the painful loss of his father. Jake writes with the approach of an Irish funeral, laughing through the rough parts with celebration and comfortable in his vulnerability.

His dark comedic elements blend with his unique perspective and rare life experiences to create vivid tales of galivanting, shame, and debauchery that are at times strikingly relatable and at others, humorously outlandish. Fraczek also goes by the moniker, “Jake The Snake,” (which eventually became “J the S” for short), which was his childhood nickname that followed him into his independent music career as a hip hop artist and his band, Blue Gold, who traveled the country playing shows and releasing a number of projects.

Serving Underserved Markets and Underrepresented Communities is the commitment CLEO has made. We learn more from the founders, Andrea Berrios and Spencer Perron.

CLEO is a line of Delta-8 and CBD gummies with a focus on solving the unpredictable dosing of some edible CBD and Delta-8 products. (More on their line of products HERE)

The brand lives at the intersection of what the ever-conscious consumer cares about: quality, reliability, investing in our communities, equity and education. Inspired to expand safe access to cannabis, friends and UC Berkley MBA classmates, Andrea Berrios and Spencer Perron teamed up in 2021 to reach historically underserved geographic markets and underrepresented communities.

Andrea and Spencer don't just talk the talk, they walk the walk too. Recognizing that very few CBD brands made their product information available in Spanish, CLEO leads by example translating their content for a Spanish-speaking audience. CLEO’s commitment to expanding equal-access means they fill the education gap that cannabis-curious folks living in states without dispensaries need to better care for themselves and meet their needs with CBD and Delta-8 products.

As a queer & Latinx-owned brand, CLEO is committed to growing more diverse representation in the cannabis space with a 3% donation of profits to organizations improving social equity in the industry.

www.yourfriendcleo.com

Seed Talent, a community-based knowledge platform that supports the education and advancement of cannabis industry professionals. Seed Talent has largely been flying under the radar while commanding market share in major East Coast markets and expanding west. The platform has competency tests in 20 areas of competency from novice to expert and can identify individual performance gaps and personalize the LXP to fit the user.  

Seed Talent is the first role-based skills assessment (competency assessment) for cannabis and other emerging industries. It has competency tests in 20 areas of competency from novice to expert. It Seed Talent is a proprietary community-based platform that has the ability to upskill a workforce in highly regulated industries including cannabis and verifies their skill sets to advance their careers. 

Seed Talent has emerged as the largest professional development platform in cannabis supporting about 20,000 cannabis professionals across 18 states with 10 core markets.

Grassroots Marketing discusses cold-pressed CBD products with Jonny Alberto, one of the co-founders of The Good Level.

British brand The Good Level offers high quality, full spectrum CBD oils, balms and jellies all made with UK-grown hemp. Born of the founders’ frustration in trying to find consistently high-quality CBD products for themselves, The Good Level’s range of cold-pressed CBD products offer a natural choice to support daily mental and physical wellbeing.  

The Good Level's cold pressed full spectrum CBD has all the goodness the hemp plant has to offer. Not just over 100 cannabinoids (like CBD), but all the natural terpenes, chlorophyll and flavonoids too.

Created by massage therapist and former NBA wife, Megan Blackwell, whose celebrity clientele includes some of the most active professional athletes on the sports scene and celebrities in the entertainment industry suffering from chronic pain, the much-talked about CBD-powered BESO Wellness comes to market this month. The line, born in Los Angeles through Blackwell's private practice, is becoming a national brand based on an overwhelming push from her celebrity clients to make the products available commercially and to a wider audience. BESO Wellness has launched three SKU's which are available direct to consumers at www.BESOWellness.com, distributed through Kali Botanicals, in various dispensaries in the state of California, on WeedMaps.com and at LiveLoveSpa.com.

What's unique about BESO Wellness is that the formulations feature some of the most powerful CBD, CBD/THC and Hemp ratios on the market with superlative anti-inflammatory ingredients and emollients chosen for their healing reputations from myriad of clinical research, global and spiritual traditions. The fragrance is clean, exotic and evokes sense memories of pan-spiritual significance. 

https://besowellness.com/

Hydroponics, Pheno Hunting and The Living Soil Room with David Miller and Erich Maelzer, Co-Founders of FlowGardens.

David Miller and Erich Maelzer, Co-Founders of FlowGardens, are changing people's minds about cannabis by educating them about the health benefits of the entire cannabinoid spectrum. They've been in this industry for 25 years. Their East Tennessee indoor R&D center, helmed by Erich, develops better strains with rich terpenes and cannabinoids for an unequaled entourage effect.

Erich Maelzer has been a technically savvy cultivator for decades in the SMB space and David Miller ran sales and operations in corporate America and the SMB space for 20 years.  Combining these operational and cultivation skills, their Yin-Yang approach to cannabis has created a strategy and business plan focused on quality, health, and wellness. There is a special leadership factor you'll learn by listening to their two different dynamics and it's exactly what the cannabis industry demands. This might surprise you the most...how is all this being done in a state (Tennessee) that doesn't legally allow marijuana? Maelzer and Miller share their personal journey so you can see what’s to come in cannabis.  

Streamlining the Cannabis Business License Application Process with with Jordan Smith, Chief Operations Officer of Cognitive Harmony Technologies.

Cognitive Harmony Technologies, recently launched a new platform that streamlines the cannabis business license application process, making it as simple as filing taxes online. The digital application is now available for New Jersey applicants and for New York pre-sales.

Their mission is to open the doors for equitable Cannabis Business Ownership by making the application process as easy as filing personal income taxes online. The CHT application accelerator streamlines the entire application process into one easy to use software platform. They created CHT Enterprise Application Accelerator specifically for busy consultants in the Cannabis application space. Our software platform provides the tools you need to scale and become the industry leader you deserve to be. The CHT Enterprise Accelerator automates all templates, so you upload once and all of your clients can use it. No more manual entry for each client! Plus, study guides and Green flower educational apps reduce the amount of time you spend answering client emails. Live chat enables your clients to get quick questions answered. Those that need more help can purchase consulting services directly through the platform.

With all the progress in cannabis legalization sweeping the country, the barrier to entry presented by complex, expensive and intimidating cannabis business license applications has remained the same, making it near impossible for anyone but large corporations and MSOs to succeed. Applications are consistently rejected due to missing materials and other mistakes; producing a compliant application typically requires an expensive consulting service that can cost upwards of $150K, creating a huge gap between the goodwill of legislators passing social equity laws and equitable cannabis business ownership.

Founded by a software engineer and a physicist who also launched a cannabis social equity incubator, CHT aims to allow small businesses and equity applicants to compete effectively for a cannabis business license at an affordable price, paving the way for a more equitable and just cannabis industry.