Joe Andreae of Culta

In this episode of the Talent Cannabis Podcast, host David Belsky interviews Joe Andreae, CEO of Culta, discussing his journey in the cannabis industry, the evolution of cannabis markets, and the challenges faced during the California cannabis bubble. Joe shares insights on building a strong team, the impact of COVID-19 on cannabis brands, and Culta's strategy in the Maryland market. He emphasizes the importance of collaboration within the industry and outlines his future goals for Culta.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Talent in Cannabis is the Flower Hire podcast featuring candid conversations with leaders and professionals shaping the cannabis industry. Each episode goes beyond job titles to humanize executive careers, exploring real journeys, lessons learned, and what it truly takes to build and lead in cannabis. Flower hire talent in cannabis. Today we're talking to Joe Andre, who is currently the CEO of Colta. Joe, thanks for joining.

SPEAKER_01 0:56

Thank you for having me.

SPEAKER_00 0:58

Talk to me about Colta specifically and what your goals are right now as CEO.

SPEAKER_01 1:03

Colta is um one of the original Maryland cannabis licenses. It's been in business for about 10 years. And our goal right now is to shift into um uh what I would call underserved product categories and bring some exciting product types from the West Coast that the operational team here has a lot of experience with to an East Coast market that does the where the consumers don't have much experience with those products.

SPEAKER_00 1:28

And you find in your time in Maryland there's a there's a thirst for those like real uh products that you find on the on the West Coast in terms of the markets that have differentiated into like the what the resin rosins, the infused pre-rolls, like like what are we what are we talking about here?

SPEAKER_01 1:43

I think I think there's a very clear and distinct customer journey in cannabis. It's not unlike how I look at like grocery. When you're very young, all you want to eat is fast food. And as you get a little bit older, you find your way to a grocery store and you're kind of agnostic, you want the cheapest one. And as that food starts to react differently with your system as you age, you find yourself making your way to Whole Foods. Um, and you know, I look at that very similarly to pre-roll and distilute vape, to I'm gonna make my meal at home, grind your own flour, prepare your own hash, to I really care about what I'm putting in, and then you know, your your life cycle kind of ending at tier one flour and solving those concentrates, which I think is today the end of the road, right? I'm not that that road is ever changing and evolving in cannabis, but right now I think there's a very people look at them usually in value tiers. I don't see them like that. I think that they're just stepping stones and that it's part of your consumer journey.

SPEAKER_00 2:39

I mean, it seems like you've been following my shopping patterns for what I feed myself for the last several decades. Um I'm I'm I'm with you so far. Let's take a step back. At one point, I don't know, was it 10 years ago, you know, cannabis years like dog years, you know, Joe hadn't had never worked professionally as uh in in the cannabis industry because there was no you know cannabis industry outside of the traditional market except for some you know legacy medical markets on the West Coast. So talking about your career before starting field extracts uh back in California in in 2016, I think around the time that Prop 260 Prop uh 64 had passed. Um, why did you decide to bring your talents into the cannabis industry?

SPEAKER_01 3:20

Yeah, actually, um I'm one of the few weirdos that's really only done this my entire adult life. When I was 19, I joined the Marine Corps and I had a plan to be a career marine. I never thought I would do anything other than be in the United States military. And I broke my leg in boot camp and I got out, I got a job at a restaurant in Maryland, and a group of servers were going to California to trim for the summer, and I flew out with them. I took a one-way plane ticket, I never came back. Uh and while I was there, uh so that was 2008. Cannabis was medical. Uh SOCAW was a little different from NORCAW, but we had like pre-ICO and um hardship exemption licenses. So I filed for a hardship exemption license. I missed pre-ICO by six or seven months by the time I'd gotten there, that window had closed. And I did that in 2008. In the medical world, we were all nonprofits. In my elementary mind, I built a system that I thought would work for it. Uh, and that system included getting involved in the picks and troubles. So my only career outside of cannabis in real life is I owned a chain of hydroponic retail stores and a website and an LED lighting company from 2009 to 2012. During those same years, my partner uh at the time, Brad Melshinker and I um moved out to Colorado. And so I had my first licensed vertically integrated cannabis business in uh December of 2009, January of 2010. Um so I've been doing this for the last 16, 17 years straight. And um, the business that Brad and I built in Colorado evolved a lot over the years. Today it's well known as 710 Labs. At the time, um, it was called the Greenest Green. And uh when I when we left there, um I went to Oregon and I had 11 uh medical and recreational licenses in Oregon, again, fully vertically integrated. And 710 had gone to California and had created a sub-brand um called Field, and then that moved on again. You know, can't, like you said, dog years, right? So it's I don't uh I don't call it 710 Labs, right? It it wasn't what you think of when you close your eyes and picture it today. It's a completely different world. Um those guys those guys have built an unbelievable beautiful business, so I'm very careful about associating myself with it. But Field started in the what I would call 710 Labs basement, and I was anxious to get back to California. So in 2017, I moved from Oregon back to California uh to take on Field. Um and again, you know, pre-prop 64, Field was basically a a secret session, you know, a pop-up shop brand, it more or less. Um and so there was a lot of time and dedication spent to kind of closing down the first version of what Field was and starting uh what we called the bridge to cannabis 1.5. Um, and then uh building uh what we affectually affectionately refer to as the mirage around that business. Um and we're really proud of what we did there. Uh now I'm rambling.

SPEAKER_00 6:24

Where oh, I mean, so wow, it's amazing just going back to like the early days of commercializing these different form factors that have come to define adult use markets. And you look at some of the genetic stuff that occurred around Northern California and all the offshoots of all of those, you know, folks that at one point were on the same team completely. And and so you were part of because obviously Colorado uh was ahead of California in a lot of ways, especially in terms of you know, like the mass-produced sort of vape and oil and and the different ways to to make oil. And and so you basically field was you you learned from you were working on the button of what was happening in that whole commercialization funnel, and and you took that to field extracts in California right when you know adult use had passed. And you're like, this is what what worked in Colorado, we're doing this in California.

SPEAKER_01 7:16

Exactly. I mean, yeah, if you for any of us that are uh any of you can call it legacy, but in any brand that's been alive for more than seven to ten years, we've all had to work together for most of it. So it's uh there's a lot of overlap in cannabis.

SPEAKER_00 7:31

A lot of overlap and and ultimately a lot of respect for people that have been in the game as long as you have in terms of what it is that they're doing and what they've built, even if you went your separate ways at some point. You know, you know how hard it is to stay relevant and on the button and on top of your game over the course of time and reinvent yourself as the industry shifts, as the market shifts, as if the market gets bigger. It's it's it's a lot. So, you know, was talk to me about about California in the early adult use days. I mean, there's a big bubble. I mean, it was unbelievable going to Hall of Flowers at that point. All these brands that were you know had these CPG execs thinking they were gonna build the best next Coca-Cola and putting this beautiful packaging out there that was basically just white-labeled crap product.

SPEAKER_01 8:16

There's a lot of pressure on the brand. I mean, the the running theory, and I think probably still the fumes of the running theory is um real brands are built in California. To that I would agree. I mean, you know, the California, New York, Europe funnel, I think is is long established across most brands in typical industries. The access to capital in a in a industry that has been so capital constrained was a bit like giving a teenager a signing bonus. And it was unique because it was spent.

SPEAKER_00 8:47

You know what I mean? Like that money came in, you know, the first time that many people could ever invest in cannabis brands. You had these folks that that were credible, yeah, that were getting money from friends and family, whatever it was, and they were really going for it because there wasn't any understanding of how challenging it would be.

SPEAKER_01 9:05

But it was like we got to-there's a lot of bad advice. I mean, the advice at the time, like the the running theory, and it was not really up for debate. The running theory was that the value you were building in in California was brand equity, not a strong business, and that losing money in exchange for building brand value was gonna pay off. And five or six people probably felt that pay off, and several thousand evaporated a billion dollars like a fart in the wind. And it was uh truly uh remarkable. I mean, from 2017 to 2019, just being there, it it was uh it was an unbelievable time to be alive. Like there was literally, we made it rain and um and uh only doing cool things, things that were, you know, things for brand recognition, things for brand awareness. So it was it was very cool to be there. You know, field was guilty of a lot of that, um, but on a much smaller scale. And um I I think we had the luxury of not being cultivators, so having to have like a real supply chain and a real input, you know, real bill of materials, a real cost of goods, a real margin-driven business. Uh the value, I think, in the end was can we are we accretive to a producer? Thank God we slid in where we did when we did, because that became more and more true in the in the last six years. So yeah, it w it was, you know, a lot, a lot of what we do is very creative, but a lot of what we do is copy and paste. So we we took all of our hard lessons and money lost and tears cried from Colorado, California Medical, Colorado wreck, Oregon wreck, which was we don't even need to talk about, but easily the bloodiest time to be alive, and then the California bubble and then the California eruption. And the California eruption is remarkably similar to the cali to the Colorado wreck, right? Color when Colorado originally we didn't have to be vertically integrated, we could just do business like anyone else. When they forced vertical integration, it was effectively arranged marriage, figure it out, and the California bubble burst is very similar. It was MA by force, not by choice, and it was MA by which investors had defaulted on what, not by strategic alignment. Um, so you know, the similarities are remarkable.

SPEAKER_00 11:25

Well, in California, it was just no, there was also no cash moving through the system whatsoever.

SPEAKER_01 11:29

For sure.

SPEAKER_00 11:30

No one was paying bills, people were out of money. Like it was it was unbelievable at that time, just the the amount of facilities, like manufacturing facilities that had tens of millions of dollars were dropped into that never had a plan on what brands they were gonna launch out of them or who was gonna be their customer to do manufacturing. You know, and but I do remember what you mean in terms of being alive and being around. And at that time, because I I started Flower Higher in, you know, early early 2017. We had an office at Venice Beach. It was like, you know, ease was there, med men was was had like five thousand.

SPEAKER_01 11:58

And you walk into that ease office. I mean, you felt like you were in young silicon battle, like this is gonna erupt. We're here. We're like it was, and the money sure made it seem real.

SPEAKER_00 12:08

Right. But then what happened in 2019? There was a shift in the broader economy that was like, yeah, we're not paying for audience anymore. How are you gonna make money? And that came in the VC world, and all these tech bubbles and these, you know, unicorn, you know, billion-dollar companies that didn't have revenue to support it, and and that bubble burst, and then cannabis being so risky and and you know, already a little bit out in left field, really forced very quickly the sentiment towards how I don't care about your audience as a brand, there's no brand equity. How are you gonna actually make money and return my capital to me? And that hasn't all gone away anywhere, but but definitely, definitely in cannabis. So Field ended up uh, you know, um tucking into to Glasshouse, uh, and obviously that is the most valuable cannabis business on the West Coast from a public company perspective. There's some private companies based on the West Coast that have more more revenue, right? Um, but from a public company perspective, you know, got got in and out at the at the time when there wasn't out. Yeah. From that was a big run, though. That was a four-year run for Field or five-year run.

SPEAKER_01 13:12

Yeah, I I you know, I think Field held dominance from 2017 to the end of 2019. From 20 COVID really had a had a devastating impact on Field, um, mostly because I think the brand came to life by being out and about. Um, it was a very event-driven brand. Is it a playbook? And and you know, I think premium products in Los Angeles just struggled during that time. I realized luxury spend was up, but it was like a glitch in the matrix up. Most most of the people I care about in LA felt COVID pretty negatively. Um and I think the city is still recovering, frankly. So it's um it is a blessing that we were able to find a safe home like glasshouse. And frankly, like what myself and the field team was able to learn in that transaction and the building of the glass, you know. I mean, when we when we joined Glasshouse, there was no glasshouse. There was a glasshouse farm, but not a brand, and and the glasshouse group didn't exist. And I was just personal friends with Graham and he knew what I was going through. And he introduced me to Kyle, and Kyle was my guardian angel. He saved my life and uh and gave us the opportunity to stay alive for long enough to become a part of the glasshouse group. And building that taught our team um more about cultivation at scale, more about supply chain at scale, more about production planning at scale than we'd ever been subjected to. I'm I've done this my whole life, but I've done it in groups of 10, 20, 30, 40 people. Having 1,500 employees overnight. Um, it was a different set of battle wounds and ones that were a lot more transferable at an executive level. While I've been say it depends on when you got into cannabis, how I look at your job title, because the first 10 years I was in, you either worked here or you owned it, right? There wasn't we didn't have layers. There was no director, VP, CO, you know, none of that. So when the real world came in and we had to find our place, it was hard for all of us. And I uh I was blessed to be given the opportunity to go straight into a CEO role, so I didn't have to really change my mind frame, but I watched a lot of owner operators struggle joining that world. So, so the experience of Glasshouse and having to wear different hats, and you know, there was only four of us in the beginning. We rolled that thing up like an idea out of nowhere. And um, I give all of that creative brilliance to Graham and Kyle because they saw a picture. They had they had a good view, they had a great perspective, and they took their time and they did exactly what they said they were gonna do over a huge stretch. Um, cannabis, as you know, swivels on you. So to be able to maintain that focus and actually get one thing done over a five, six, seven year time period is unbelievable. Um, and yeah, it was an absolute blessing for me to be there. Most of the field team, I think, would agree with that. And it uh it was it was definitely my launching pad into being willing to not be a CEO, um, and forced me to be ready, but mostly be willing uh to hold a bunch of different roles after that. So, you know, everything from uh VP of strategy to EVP of Rem, you know, all these sort of what I would have called random roles um, you know, provided me with an unbelievable opportunity. I got to work in some of the best organizations that are still out there today, uh, held titles that were really fulfilling for me and and the learning process. Um, and then luckily the world didn't make me wait two lifetimes to get back to the seat that I enjoy the most, which is the one I'm in now. And I feel 10 times more prepared than I would have been if I had walked out of California and Colorado straight into this role. I would not be half the leader that I am today.

SPEAKER_00 16:57

I mean, there's a lot of you know, a lot to that story. I think, you know, you go into an organization that wasn't public yet, but was accountable to a financials and a and a numbers and accounting and budgets and forecasting perspective, a level of rigor that is a four-person, you know, brand with manufacturing you just didn't weren't accustomed to, but to be able to take that as an opportunity to learn from that and then you know take that with you into other very large operators that um you know, uh quite frankly, the bigger the business, the more important is a team. Right. As a as a CEO, you know, it's the toughest job you're you're gonna find, and where's the burden for all good, all bad, and and you know, and and and all that stuff. But uh, you know, when it's thousand employees, thousands of employees, and there are lanes where highly talented people that are you know competent to run a you know 50 person or a 250 person organization, you know, you know, now, you know, are are are part of a team of of like-minded individuals. And it's and and so you've seen a lot um, you know, from early to to kind of the high the bubble stage West Coast to the rise and fall of the West Coast and the first, you know, adult use markets that are still, by the way, California is still a number one market. It's not a fall, it's still the biggest adult use market out there. It's just uh hasn't gotten any easier to operate, you know, out there for sure. But then to take that and look at other markets and other states and how their adult use markets are picked up. And I'd I what I keep thinking, what I get excited to hear from you about as you share your story, is talk to about hiring in the cannabis industry. Like, you know, what is your advice for someone who like is looking to build a team? Um, you know, and and what are maybe maybe there's some like things you learned early from maybe making some mistakes on on people or holding on to people too long or or whatever. What what would you say about that?

SPEAKER_01 18:50

Yeah, I think I think the two the two things that stick about out to me the most are probably um are polar opposites, right? So the the first most important thing I've learned is not to let a good person go. The speech that I give my new teams every time I come into a leadership role is people move on. People get married, people have kids, people go back to college, people have dreams, people want to start their own things. That's amazing, and that we are here to support always. If this isn't what you were born to do and you want to get to that thing, then we're here to support you. If a great employee leaves to be in the cannabis industry somewhere else, then we failed. And, you know, there are I still have um employees here from Colorado in 2009 at Colta with me today. I have employees from uh from Field 2017 at Colta here with me today. I have employees from uh worked at Glasshouse in 2021 that are here with me at Colta today. I have employees from NorCal Cannabis from 2022 when I was there that are here with me today. I have employees from Story in 2023 that I worked with and enjoyed that are here with me today. So I think my biggest piece is I probably send 2,500 text messages every Christmas. I probably send another 2,500 every New Year's. And if you enjoyed someone at all for any reason, you just never let them go. And and it's as simple as how's the new gig once a year um to keep that connectivity. And then obviously what I call our high school reunions, Hollow Flowers, MJ Biz, I go to those events on the West Coast, and being I you know, I haven't been a West pure West Coast operator since 2022, and I don't miss a Hall of Flowers, and I don't miss an MJ Biz. And the only value to me is keeping in touch um and continuing to see great people and and encourage them and support them and let them know that anything changes, they always have a home uh with us at Culta. And I think um and people appreciate that beyond any measure. Um, and then the opposite is you know, I because I've kept the same core team with me for as long as I have, you don't, it's hard to realize what you don't have. Um so I got subjected to flower hire for the first time at Glasshouse, where those four people I talked about, I think were the only four that you didn't place. Um and I was forced to work with people that I that had A, I had to discover their skill set, B, I had to figure out how to make it complimentary, and C, I had to work with personalities um that hadn't been through 10 years of pain and pleasure with me. I watched a company grow and I watched personal growth that I hadn't seen in the decade before. Um, and it's because of those new ingredients. So at Culti, we've done a mix. I've taken uh a lot of the best people from all over the world that I've had the opportunity to work with if I can. But we've also leaned on you. We've gotten an you know automation specialist that, yeah, if you worked with me for the last 20 years, how could you know how to use a machine that we didn't use? Um, and we've brought in, you know, marketing talent. Yeah, well, if you're used to platforms that we haven't And you like uh it's it's amazing. So I you know, I think uh that's my big advice. My big advice is if you meet somebody and you know that they're talented, never lose touch with them. And if you look around and you think you're missing something, rather than focusing on how to improve your team, mix it up, add a new ingredient. Because I think it's change creates the most passionate and magical effect. And um it's just important.

SPEAKER_00 22:23

I agree. I I love your reaching out to a thousand people over Christmas. You know, I I I follow that myself. So obviously people that want to come back, that that want to follow you, that trust in your as a leader, it speaks volumes. Is it about offering, you know, spending more spending more money for good people? You know, like what do you what do you or is it about something else that makes people you know want to s to to rejoin in a in a different state?

SPEAKER_01 22:51

You know, I think there's I try I try not to do the chicken little uh recruiting tactic. It is helpful that the West Coast um feels like quicksand when you're trying to uh you know, a lot of us, myself included, never expected to work at more than one cannabis company and had to, right? Like it, you know, that it just happened. And I think that gets really old, right? Like we used to be excited about the idea of cannabis companies selling. Now we dread the idea of meeting a new boss or a new banker or a new whatever it may be. So I think I've found a lot of success in just reminding people that there's a level of stability to the East Coast market and um to being able to work at a place that doesn't have an active for sale or in foreclosure sign in the front yard. So I won't say that it hasn't been helpful, but I try not to lean on it. Um the picture that I really try to paint is um, you know, if you if you have your extended family and your kids are in school, you know, and you're embedded in the California community, that's great. And I support it and you should stay there and try to make it work. Most of most of my loved ones and most of my network in cannabis moved far away from home for the for the privilege of working in the industry. Right. You know, I moved something like 24 times over 13 years. New place open, I'm there, right? And uh and I think I think that uh I think that if you're not from California and not expecting to be there for the rest of your life, becoming a California expert, if you're in marketing, if you're in CPG, if you're in product development, fine. But if you're trying to be the greatest CFO or director of operations or, you know, packaging manager, learning how to being the best at it in an independent state like California. California has the least amount of MSO activity of any market, of any monster market, right? And what that means is that you're not learning MSO practice, process, structure, corporate development. You're not on the same software platforms. My favorite example is I love trees. I loved the POS trees. I had great success with it. I loved working with their team. I thought it was amazing. Doesn't exist in the markets that I've been working in for the last six years. So, and I wish them the best that that wasn't as slight on trees. I hope that they that they get to all those markets. But all of a sudden, I'm being looked at, what do you know about Dutchy? Nothing. I hear they go down to 20.

SPEAKER_00 25:20

I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 25:21

Yeah. I mean, it's so so you know, or what do you know about Canx? Or what do you know about, you know, what ERP do you use? Or what and again, luckily, I had the opportunity to work at some of the larger California companies, so I had some exposure. But if if you're trying to build a big cannabis career that is optional, meaning you can work in multi-states, or you could work in an international market, or you could like I would encourage everyone, you know, we look at your first couple years in cannabis as your crash begin, your MBA, right? Like with if you if you go into cannabis for two years, you're getting your four-year degree in your MBA. Okay, well, are you getting an MBA that only works if you live within, you know, a certain amount of square miles? Because I I would probably I would just encourage you to look at at the rest of the country and make sure that you're at least familiar with the practices and that your skills are transferable. So I lean in more on that and just tell people, like, hey, you know, we've built a team here that have worked in 14 markets that have hundreds of years of combined cannabis experience. We're big on corporate development, we're big on internal learning management systems, we're big on, you know, have an idea, let's bring it to life. We have an unbelievable product development team. We have a full, you know, we have every lab capability known to man. Come and have fun. So I, you know, I think the automation person that you helped me find most recently would tell you he's had a new machine every 30 days to play with, and I have 10 machines that have been broken since he got there that he still hasn't had time to loop at. I mean, it's it's an ongoing, ever going thing, and we're picking machines that we know are in use by partners so that if their machine goes down, we can pick. So we're we're only looking at things that we're only using tracking systems and software that are commonly found in MSOs so that we can play nicely with them. So we're, you know, we're an independent that is um capable and willing to work with non-independents, which I think is really useful for career development.

SPEAKER_00 27:17

I'm sold, you know, and I go to an event in New York or or wherever, and it's like a it's like a reunion from the West Coast, you know, like so many, uh, so many folks have are move have moved east if they're capable. But you're right, it's not possible for everybody, and relocating is is is not is not for everybody, but there's a lot of value in terms of continued career growth and development if this industry is your long-term home. And no move is a permanent move, you know, it's like it's like you can't go back to California anytime, right? Um so so talking about real quick, Maryland, right? Strong MSO presence in Maryland. A lot were gobbled up by some, you know, by the MS early medical operators gobbled up by MSOs. Some early medical operators were MSOs, but but what is it about that structure? You know, how has Colta's an early medical operator in Maryland been able to stand up in that state that has one of the best performing AU markets per capita, definitely on the retail side?

SPEAKER_01 28:10

Like what is the how is so I think I think Colta did um a handful of things that were really smart um really early. And and one of them is um they had an extremely passionate founder. I met I got connected to Colta in 2014 when the founder came out to Cal to Colorado um to tour our facility because he was planning to apply in 2015 in Maryland. And then I came back and checked on them in 2017 and again in 2021. So I've I've kept my eye on Colta. And, you know, he did a beautiful job. I mean, he he he spent a lot of time on the West Coast trying to recreate the cultural vibe inside of the store. He aligned himself with, you know, everything started from seed in this state. Um, and he aligned himself with uh what I would call like the not just the trendiest genetics providers and breeders, but the strongest. So, you know, he he had built an almost, you know, at the time I would call it like a cookie level, cookies level menu without that brand power. And then when the MSO started coming, their defense mechanism, and they did it quickly, was they did every licensing deal you could possibly do. So Willie's, Marley's, Cookies, all all of it, Old Pow, all of it. They just they made it rain, California, and that sort of carved out their space for a while. The licensing deals are complicated in limited license markets because it's you're sold out one way or the other. So I think some of that productive paranoia in in setting up those things, they then realized maybe weren't key to staying alive and and started to shed bits and pieces over time. Now, today we don't have any more licensing deals. So A, I think they were premium providers and had a unique and high demand menu. Then they were premium brands and had a unique brand set. And today we're trying to be premium products and have a unique product category mix. Um, so it's been an evolution. We also had the luxury of the production site, had a lot of contiguous space and a lot of buildings. So as we grew, we've been able to grow into our existing space. You know, it takes a really long time to stand a facility up. It takes even longer to take one down and a new one up and move and loss of revenue. So everything we've done over the last seven, eight years has been all been truly accretive, which is nice. And now, you know, having spent a bunch of time inside of MSOs, MSOs are very good at what they're very good at. And they're not so good at what I would call the real weed shit, right? Like so when it, when a new product type comes out and it's manufacturing based, or when, you know, when you're trying to start a tier one or premium offering, but your QCQA isn't doesn't have the situational awareness of a legacy group, they they they're kind of lost, right? So what we're here to do is provide support. You know, we recognize that they're always going to be a lot bigger than us. So, you know, Field had a real strategy, and that was that if you were a great flower brand, if you were cool, we would do a collab with you. And the idea wasn't so much that we were stealing your cool or loaning you are cool. It was that what I wanted was when these big funds came into California, I knew Field was small. We were doing, you know, six to ten million a bit, depending on which gear you want to talk about. You know, it was a fairly small for California operation. Our brand recognition and brand awareness was unbelievable. And my whole plan was you come into California as an investor or a fund or Altria or whoever. I just wanted it to be impossible for you not to see. So if you go and you do due diligence on the 10 biggest flower providers, I wanted you to flip through their docs and notice that they did a lot of business with me. And that I kept popping up and that the common denominator was we're everywhere. And so that as these new groups come in and try to build their ecosystem, they realize that we're fundamental to an ecosystem. So it's the same thing here. I believe we're going to see a new wave of MSOs. I think these are all MSO lights. And I think that with Schedule Three and all this fun stuff, over the next 10 years, we'll probably see institutional capital. And as that capital comes in and they come to a state like Maryland and they start looking at the true leaves and veranos and vireos of the world, I want them to see that all of those people depend on me for something. Input material, toll processing, packaging, whatever it may be, third-party distribution. I it doesn't matter really. What matters to me is that we're everywhere as part of everyone's ecosystem, and we're helping where you're falling apart. And I think that makes us non-threatening. It makes us collaborative partners. And, you know, the reality is because I am so concentrated, passionate, and focused and have always been, it's been my favorite part about concentrate. The flower guys, they they battle all day. We're the best. No, we're the best. No, we're the best. The concentrated guys are like, oh, we'll do collabs with all of you. Right. We love all your stuff. Let's all be the best together, right? And I think, you know, taking that approach mentality. Concentrates is is the least crowded swim lane. It is the most discerning customer, but with the most discerning customer comes the most educated customer. So, you know, we have to spend money marketing to get a new customer. We don't to get an existing, right? Flower is constantly trying to keep their existing. So yeah, so so really, Maryland, my focus is to help everyone, to be a part of every MSO's ecosystem, to be focused on categories that that frankly they're not, right? And then it does not make logical sense for them to because they're small in the grand scheme of things. But owning it would be really big for us. Yeah. So rebuilding premier brands, reinstituting the assumption that if you buy something in a culture retail store or anything associated with culta whatsoever, that it will be fresh, high quality, innovative, fun. Yeah, just just starting that process. But I want to say from scratch because they've they've done it and they're, you know, because the iterations of it over time have been purposeful and have made a lot of sense, and I think have served a real purpose in the Maryland market. And we're just trying to continue that evolution.

SPEAKER_00 34:18

Yeah, well, I mean, it sounds like you you you have a great hand to play, but you're doing it with humility and you're you're in the c' trying to stay, you know, connected to to all of it and uh swimming well with the sharks. You know, you are you are a shark. I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 34:34

Well, I you know, I think I we all do better if we all do better. And we talk about like California not being able to get paid, like well, we probably should have played nicer with each other.

SPEAKER_00 34:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 34:44

No, I talk about this all the time. Working in carpentaria for as long as I did, you watch the cut flower business fall apart, right? And and head off to other countries. But working in Northern California as long as I did, you know, the vineyards they play most put play much nicer. So you're not planting, you don't have 400 miles of vineyards planting the same damn grape, right? You don't have Oregon and and California and Washington fighting over the exact same thing. That you you make things regional. And so for the longest time, I was like, this is crazy. California is going to, we're watching the price per pound drop, $50. But the nurseries still haven't woken up and said, hey, you know what? We're gonna sell ventura, carpenteria, modesto, and northern California, all unique menus. So there will be less of everything. Like we just compounded the problem in such an insane way. Well, this strain's popular. Everyone grows that strain. Guys, it was a brand image fight. It was a fight for popularity, not a fight for business continuity. So if if we had just if you could go back in time and just be like, you know what, I'll keep growing Blue Dream. Everyone else stopped doing, I'll keep going, then your Blue Dreams just sold out and we could have all moved on and been happy together. But I don't think, you know, I think that the lack of communication, the lack of playing nicely with if I find out that a human huge MSO is putting $10 million into distillation, that's cool. I won't. I'll go hard on some other thing, right? Like, and I'll lean on you for what you've overinvested in. I'm happy to do that. So I think that collaboration, it's collaboration, it's it's selfish, right? I I just want cannabis to survive. I just want to be able to do this job another 20 years.

SPEAKER_00 36:16

You don't it's you don't need to do everything you can rely on partners for in areas, and you bring up West Coast manufacturing expertise that the market needs and um operate in that lane, and and there's other folks out there to lean on for in other ways, you know, and you're looking for the the path forward and and looking air it on the side of stability because you've seen it the other way for so long. So that you've been so generous with your time today, Joe. Um I'm just gonna say, let's say we talk, you're almost a year in. Almost a year in. It's amazing. Nice job. Uh air high five. We talk two years from now, you're three years in. What has Colta accomplished?

SPEAKER_01 36:54

Uh I'd like to be the number one concentrated brand on the East Coast, definitely in Maryland. I'd like to, I call it max out. So we've got about 32,000 feet of cultivation left to expand upon. I'd like to max that out. And we have a fourth retail store we can add to our lineup today. Um, and I'd like to get that done. So three years from now, I hope I say Culta cannot get any bigger. We have hit our allotments by by we've done everything we can and are fully focused on supporting our premium brands in the concentrated space. You know, I'm biased, so I'm from here and getting the comeback. I left here uh a impoverished young man with a loose goal and uh and coming back uh stable with a family and a career feels amazing. So uh again, I'm biased, but it it's uh it's a it's a hero's welcome for me. Um so I'm loving it.

SPEAKER_00 37:47

Uh are you hired for anything? If someone out there's listening to say, I want to go work for that guy. What do you what are you looking for?

SPEAKER_01 37:52

What I tell everybody is that we always want to talk to everybody and roles come up all the time. David Belski is a good person to ask if we're hiring, but always is the answer.

SPEAKER_00 38:01

So thank you very much and good and good luck for maxing out in Maryland.

SPEAKER_01 38:05

Appreciate it. Thanks.