Editor's Note: Click here to subscribe to our newsletter.

This week, Jeffrey Thorn, CEO of 420 Kingdom, discusses why he sold his HR outsourcing company to start a high-end cannabis delivery service based on aeroponic cultivation. 

In 2000, Jeffrey Thorn founded a human resources outsourcing company that specialized in helping cannabis companies with payroll and benefits. A few years ago, he lost his passion for the business. He’d show up at 10 a.m. and be gone by 3 p.m. What’s worse, he didn’t like his employees anymore. He sold the business and was looking for a new project. At the time, he was 53 years old and didn’t know if he had the energy to put in the time and effort to lead another successful startup. 

A new cannabis venture wasn’t his first inclination. Thorn had voted against cannabis legalization in California, but he admits that he was naïve. He wasn’t a big user (he prefers mushrooms), but he realized that the community included doctors, lawyers and many other people using cannabis for medical and recreational reasons. It wasn’t just a bunch of potheads, he says. 

Thorn had heard the all-too-familiar stereotype that the cannabis industry was a pot of gold and all you had to do was show up and plant weed. Like many others before him, he quickly found out that’s not true. Like any other business, it takes a lot of work — but he found that he really enjoyed it. While it’s not easy, he says he’s in it for the long haul.

Please make sure to like, subscribe and share the podcast. You could also help us out a lot by giving the podcast a positive review on Apple podcast or whatever platform you use. Finally, to email the podcast or suggest a potential guest, you can reach David Mantey at David @cannabisequipmentnews.com with “Email the Podcast” in the subject line.