Building Smarter Cannabis Retail with Ryan Ogorek of Sweed

Ryan Ogorek didn’t plan on building a career in cannabis, but once he found it, everything clicked.

In this episode of The Canna Connect Show, recorded live at Lucky Leaf Expo, Ryan shares his journey from traditional sales into the cannabis industry and how that shift gave him a sense of purpose and direction.

Now with Sweed, he’s working directly with dispensary operators across the country, helping them simplify operations, stay compliant, and actually scale their businesses in an industry that moves fast and changes even faster.

This conversation explores what cannabis retail looks like behind the counter, from pricing shifts in mature markets like Colorado to the early opportunities taking shape in Minnesota.

Ryan also breaks down how Sweed is rethinking point of sale by building a fully integrated system that connects marketing, e-commerce, inventory, and payments into one place. The goal is simple: make it easier for operators to run a smarter, more efficient business.

Along the way, we talk about AI in cannabis retail, the importance of community in Minnesota’s market, and why every operator should be thinking about both growth and exit strategy from day one.

If you’re building in cannabis or planning to, this episode offers a grounded, real-world perspective on what it actually takes to succeed.

Listen in and stay connected with the community.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:01

The thoughts, views, and opinions expressed on the Canna Connect Show belong solely to the individuals and do not reflect those of Canaconnect and its affiliates, sponsors, or partners. Can a Connect does not promote or facilitate any activity that violates state or federal regulations. Everything you hear here is strictly for educational and entertainment purposes. It is not legal advice. It is not financial guidance, and it's definitely not medical direction. Seriously, don't take our word for it. Even if someone on the mic sounds like they know what they're talking about, and they're probably crazy smart too. Regardless of how legit our guests may be, you should always do your own homework, consult with your attorney, and understand the risk you're taking before you do anything when it comes to cannabis. Our intention is to keep it real. If you've got a problem with anything we've said, take us to court.

SPEAKER_02 0:48

Welcome back to the Canada Connect Show, live from Lucky Leaf. We are day two. We are in the afternoon. We are we are making our way through Lucky Leaf weekend. It is Saturday. I'm sitting with Ryan from Swede. Hey, Steven. Hey, it's good to see you again. Always, always a pleasure. You know, I think ever since I've been coming to the larger national shows that come into the Twin Cities, I've been seeing you in one form or another. Tell for the folks that don't know you, give a little background on how long you've worked in the cannabis industry.

SPEAKER_01 1:20

Yeah, so I'm coming up on eight years in August, very proud of that stat. Um, got into the industry in 2018. I was working jobs and sales, and I was I was miserable. I didn't like what I was doing. I was people would ask me what I'd sell, and I said, Don't talk about it. I it doesn't matter, let's just keep drinking. And you know, that really wasn't a sustainable lifestyle. So I said, Hey, what can I do that's gonna give me purpose, gonna give me passion, and I can get up and be excited every day. I got into a company called Work and they were doing HR and payroll for the cannabis space. And I was like, this is it. Like, I'm helping people with their cannabis business, I'm starting a new industry, I'm passionate about this. Yeah, I found my niche, and right it was just this aha moment of I got it. And have you always been in Denver? Um, as far as cannabis goes, I originally came from Cleveland. Okay, moved out to the Denver area for some sunshine. Yeah, because Cleveland is a very, very gray place. Um, I love it very much, but still gray.

SPEAKER_02 2:11

I hear you.

SPEAKER_01 2:12

Um, so yeah, uh made my move out there about 13 years ago, been in Denver ever since, and cool. Yeah, really catapulted me to get into the space. I don't know if I'd be in cannabis if I was in Ohio. Were you living in Denver when uh Colorado went wreck? I moved just when it happened in 2014. So I was like kind of on the ground as it was all kind of bubbling up.

SPEAKER_02 2:32

It passed and then it got implemented in 2014. Yes. Okay, yeah, yeah. I remember going out to Colorado for a ski trip that that year of 2014. I think the music festival was called Snowball.

SPEAKER_01 2:44

Oh, I I don't know if I heard about that.

SPEAKER_02 2:46

It was up in the mountains. It was uh it was like at a it was like at a mountain venue, and uh I saw Kendrick Lamar perform in 2014. Oh, that's awesome! Early, early Kendrick, yeah. Um, what is the Colorado cannabis industry like compared to the Minnesota cannabis industry?

SPEAKER_01 3:02

Colorado has matured, so they've been through this boom cycle that where people are charging 50 or 60 bucks an eighth or 80 bucks a gram, 100 bucks a gram for rosin. Yeah, and it's it's kind of fallen out a little bit. We're seeing it like eighths are probably 15 to 20 bucks. Ounces can go from 60 to 120, depending on the cultivator and the quality. Um, but we're really seeing it more normalized where it's it's a standard product, and here's the price to it. Um it it's not really sustainable as far as cheaping three, four hundred dollars an ounce. That just doesn't last forever. Doesn't last forever. Okay, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 3:37

I mean, right now, you know, or out the gate, last year we were seeing four thousand dollars a pound. Yep. Uh I think we work with a company called Frostbite out of Roseville, Minnesota. Nice. They've got local flour for 40 bucks an eighth right now. Nice. Uh kind of gives it, kind of gives the listener and viewer a perspective on where the price per uh eighth and price per pound is. Um, how quickly do things change inside of a cannabis industry? Because it's a state-by-state market.

SPEAKER_01 4:04

Yeah, it's gonna be interesting to see in Minnesota specifically. I think it's the first few years are gonna be very profitable for folks. Yep. What I would recommend to everybody getting into this business, even if you want to be long-term, yeah, have an exit strategy after two to three years. Sure. So there is an opportunity for you to get out, it hits your time. Okay. Yeah. Right, right. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 4:22

Two to three year exit strategy. That's a great piece of advice. How much have you learned through the years? Like, if you think back to when you started at work to now you're an account executive at Swede, like, yeah, where do the learnings take place? Do they take place daily? Like it's a lot to learn in a new industry.

SPEAKER_01 4:37

It's every second. Um, luckily, I was researching state laws and things prior to even getting in the industry because I just love this plant. I love what it does for people. So I've been naturally interested, which helps me out a lot in my position. But it's it's every single day I'm learning something new because this industry is moving at the speed of light. I mean, new developments are happening every single day. There's new regulations, some are maybe happening at the federal level soon, too. So we're seeing it and we're living it in real time. Sure.

SPEAKER_02 5:05

And how did you find Swede? And what what do they bring to the market that's unique with Sweet?

SPEAKER_01 5:10

So I heard about Sweet a couple of years ago. I was uh out with a colleague at lunch and he said, Hey, there's this new company out there, they're only going after these MSOs, they're working with the big dogs, but they are this amazing piece of software that's coming out. Like that if you call them up today and said, Hey, I want to sign up with them, they'll probably tell you we'll put you on the wait list. Yeah. But then what happened with Swede is that um I couple like last year I heard, hey, they're actually hiring, they're building out a team. And that's when I was like, okay, now's my time to get involved. I've been keeping my eye on this company that's kind of like a sleeping giant working in stealth mode. Uh huh. And maybe I can get a piece of that and see what they're all about.

SPEAKER_02 5:46

Great. And how would you describe Swede if folks haven't heard about the way they approach point of sale technology?

SPEAKER_01 5:52

Yeah. So we're an intelligent all-in-one point of sale. We do your marketing, e-commerce, native apps, menu boards, integrated payments, say kios, delivery. Like we do every channel for the retailer, making sure it's super easy for them to run their business.

SPEAKER_02 6:06

Wow. And what has it been like working for a company like this?

SPEAKER_01 6:09

It's been spectacular. It truly has been. Um, I'm I'm helping people scale their business and I'm solving problems every day. Yeah. Operational challenges related to compliance, inventory management. We have solutions that are where people need to be and we're meeting them where they were at with the solution. Sure.

SPEAKER_02 6:25

Absolutely. You know, one thing that people are talking about more and more with software is AI. Yeah. How is AI built into the suite platform and how can it help the dispensary operator?

SPEAKER_01 6:34

We've peppered AI into just about every facet and we're going to continue to bring it in. So we've got AI product recommendations, we've got AI market segment creators. So it works just like ChatGPT. You type in, hey, I want to see all my customers that are female over$100 in average spend. Wow. Boom. We can make that segment, and then we can send out a relevant text message to it or an email campaign and start to retain your customer base networks. And it all works as one unified system. That was really what appealed to me about Suite. It's built as this one cohesive unit. Compared to Frankenstein or some of the others out there in the space where they acquired some pieces and then bolted it all together. Yeah, we built it all at the same time. So it works cohesively.

SPEAKER_02 7:14

Wow. And you know, your technology might be light years more advanced and better, but you're not also charging like 40 times more, especially in this market.

SPEAKER_01 7:23

No, um, in Minnesota, we've learned like you need to be price conscious and meet people where they're at. So we do work with people on a case-by-case basis to find something that's going to fit their budget as well as make sure that they're getting the value out of the software. Well, sure.

SPEAKER_02 7:35

And culture-wise, you've been coming into this market for a number of years. What stands out to you and what do you like about the Minnesota market?

SPEAKER_01 7:42

I love how localized it is. And the fact that everyone gets together uh every single Wednesday at Earl Giles, but shout out to that party last night. It was amazing. Great job on hosting. Yeah, you do awesome. Oh, it was um, yeah. The fact that people are working with each other and they communicate with each other. Um I go into some other markets and it shoulders up. And hey, I don't know you, you don't know me. We're competitors, we're after the same business model. Yeah, here people are working together, and that's really good to see.

SPEAKER_02 8:07

Amazing. Um, culture-wise, how are how is the team? How is the support beyond your role at Swede? Like, what do you like about the team aspect within your company?

SPEAKER_01 8:20

We've hired in a lot of intelligent industry experts and people who've been doing this for a long time in the cannabis space. Right. All of us are extremely excited about supporting retailers and just helping drive the mission forward and bringing this further into legalization. New markets, new customers. We want to be here for it all.

SPEAKER_02 8:36

Amazing. And if folks are watching this and they're not necessarily in the Minnesota market, what other markets are you covering? And what are where where can you also help the Minnesota operator based on the other market exposure that you have?

SPEAKER_01 8:47

Yeah, so we're a national company. We're in just about every legal and uh medical market today with adult use, recreational, and medical. Okay. There's maybe a handful we're still working on, but we'll be in there soon. Sure. Um big markets for us would be like California, Illinois, Florida, Colorado, okay, and then the Northeast. So you're um New Mexico, excuse me, New Jersey, New York. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 9:07

Um when it comes to um, excuse me, I was just thinking about something here. Weed's a hell of a drug, you know.

SPEAKER_01 9:19

Yeah, it'll get you some science.

SPEAKER_02 9:22

It gives you that unexpected pause. Yeah, that unexpected pause. Henry, what else should we talk about? Oh, I got it, I got it, I got it. Metric. Yeah. You know, when it comes to metric, how well does suite integrate with the seed to sale tracking? And what is your experience? And talk a little bit about point of sale and metric and how important it is to have a good point of sale partner.

SPEAKER_01 9:47

So we provide a seamless metric integration, so it's very easy for the retailer. All they need to do is pop in and accept that manifest. Products are there, testing details will be there. If it's on the manifest, we'll pull it in for them. Amazing. The challenge that point of sale companies see when it comes to metric is sometimes that data isn't on the manifest, and that's responsibility falls on the grower or the processor. They didn't add the terpenes, they didn't put the THC. We can't make up data because it's compliance related. We're not going to make anything up. If it's not there, we can't pull it in for you. What Swedes done in some markets, and I can see us doing this in Minnesota, is we kind of get ahead of that and just integrate directly with the testing lab. So we know the testing lab has the information. We'll just pull it straight from them. It saves a little bit of time for everybody that way.

SPEAKER_02 10:29

Are you up to speed on the testing challenges that we have in the Minnesota market?

SPEAKER_01 10:33

From what I understand, there's uh only a couple labs open and it's taken a few months or a month and two to test right now. That's right.

SPEAKER_02 10:39

Yeah. And, you know, we're hoping by the time this episode comes out, we're hoping that, you know, we're at 10 more labs, right? There's quite a few in the hopper. They're working on it, they're getting up to speed, they're getting closer and closer to opening. But testing is a huge bottleneck, and it's also affecting the hemp industry as well, because the way that the OCM wants to regulate things is they want hemp to be tested in Minnesota. Right now, folks are getting their uh products tested at SC labs, at badger labs, you know, all across the state. So, you know, we have a unique thing here with hemp and cannabis. And yeah, I'm hoping that both can still exist, but you know, we're definitely getting pushed more towards adult use and medical cannabis, which makes sense.

SPEAKER_01 11:18

It's all the same plants at the end of the day. However, yeah, I do see this disconnect where some are kind of going towards this hemp only model, and then we have the people who are going towards adult use that are just adopting rec and incorporate hemp into their business. Right.

SPEAKER_02 11:31

We've seen, I think we've seen the the height of hemp. I think so. We've yet to see the height of adult use and and uh and medical cannabis. Just getting started. Yeah, we're just getting started. It's gonna be very exciting. If folks want to get in touch with you, Ryan, they want to learn more about Suite, where would you like to send them?

SPEAKER_01 11:47

Yeah, come on to our website, sweetpos.com. You can fill out a request for a demonstration. We'd love to help you guys out. Uh, feel free to give us a call, email. We'd love to see help to see what we can do.

SPEAKER_02 11:56

Absolutely. And you're very approachable on LinkedIn as well.

SPEAKER_01 11:59

Oh, yeah, yeah. Find us on LinkedIn. Um, I I post every once in a while, so you might see a post from me about who to vote for to get cannabis pushed up the ladder a little bit further. Yeah. Um, because it does come down to politics a little bit at the end of the day, too.

SPEAKER_02 12:11

Absolutely. Uh, I'd love to have you back in a few months and see what's new and sweet.

SPEAKER_01 12:14

That would be great. Thanks so much for the time, Steven. Thanks for being here. Likewise. All right.