Colton Griffin of Flourish Software

What does it actually take to run a cannabis operation? Colton Griffin has spent nearly a decade building the answer.

On episode 6 of the Talent in Cannabis Podcast, David Belsky, CEO at FlowerHire, sits down with Colton Griffin, founder and CEO of Flourish Software. 

Flourish Software is the operating system powering cannabis cultivators, manufacturers, distributors, and retailers across the country. 

Before cannabis, Colton was deep in supply chain engineering for some of the most complex warehouse operations in the country. When he saw how cannabis operators were running million-dollar businesses off spreadsheets and gut instinct, he knew exactly what needed to be built.

In this episode, Colton shares what it really takes to run a tech company in the most regulated, fragmented, and unpredictable industry in America.

They cover:

• Why 80% of a software implementation is change management — not the tech itself
• The real cost of not knowing what's on your shelves (and what it's doing to your cash flow)
• Why cannabis operators need industry-specific software — and what happens when they try to bolt SAP onto a grow operation
• How Colton thinks about AI right now
• What rescheduling actually means for medical operators on the ground today
• His honest advice for entrepreneurs who want to build in cannabis

This one's for you if you’re an operator, the builder, or ever inherited a spreadsheet that was supposed to be a "system."

Host: David Belsky | Guest: Colton Griffin, CEO, Flourish Software

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. We're going Colton, the CEO of Flourish Software. Colton, thank you for joining us today.

SPEAKER_01 1:05

Thanks for having me. I'm excited to talk.

SPEAKER_00 1:07

Well, so talking about Flourish Software, it's what is it and by whom is it used?

SPEAKER_01 1:14

We're an operating system for the cannabis industry. So we service cultivators, manufacturers, distributors, and retailers. It's an end-to-end platform to run all things supply chain and regulatory compliance end-to-end. So it's a single, single point of truth for the business, uh, helping folks get make things and move things point to point and get stuff out the door. Uh and we've been working with operators, you know, from startups through like large multi-state multi-state enterprises to help them grow and scale their businesses and stay competitive in the in the cannabis space. It's been a lot of fun doing it.

SPEAKER_00 1:54

Wow. So you you're you're making a software platform that enables fact-based decision making for licensed cannabis manufacturers, distributors, and retailers.

SPEAKER_01 2:03

Helping people take that baby step off of spreadsheets into real software to make the drills.

SPEAKER_00 2:09

Man, well, it's a real that's a real thing. You know, we as FlowerHire, one of the most common roles that we fill is a director of operations for a production facility. And one of the requirements is can they look at Excel, not only look at it, but live in it? Yes. That uh so there's definitely a gap here. And, you know, you and I started in this at the same time in 2017. I remember I met you early on, and uh, you know, and and you were exploring this um this need for a robust uh you know supply chain manufacturing, you know, ERP solution for this industry. Um tell me, what did you do before before flourishing and why did you decide to actually take your talents into this industry? Did you have like a cannabis story?

SPEAKER_01 3:04

I have more of a supply chain engineering tech story that loves cannabis. Uh I uh found myself in this space somewhat by accident. Um my career started sort of this intersection of supply chain operations, enterprise software, and data analytics. Like so the million square foot warehouse shipping hundreds of thousands of dollars a day out the door. And I was responsible for coming in and building the operational insight for them to do that more efficiently. Look at labor, look at inventory, look at fulfillment metrics, um, and then also across systems. So, sort of that transition as everyone was figuring out how to merge e-commerce in with a brick and mortar. Uh so I worked with you know dozens of different types of companies, large companies, uh, on supply chain system work, which was uh which was a lot of fun. Uh it was a little nerdy, uh, it paid well, uh, but you know, still very corporate. Uh and so we saw an opportunity to apply that skill set to this space. Uh and I've been a huge fan of like of the power of hemp and and the power of uh cannabis. Uh and you know, fan of legalization for a long time, an advocate for it. And it just, you know, started started, I was in Atlanta when we started the business. So, you know, it was a little bit further away from from Colorado and Oregon and Washington where everything, you know, first legalized. Uh, but you know, it was uh by 2017, it was you know coming to California and uh clear that this was this was uh something that wasn't going back. So uh we you know we jumped in and and said like let's make our mark and and help make all this work and build something that's truly useful and truly you know new uh and sort of bring some sanity to the complexity uh of this of this cannabis industry.

SPEAKER_00 4:56

Well, uh thankfully you did, and I think that that seems like an appropriate background for someone that's starting a software business to have worked doing a similar thing for other industries and coming across a gap and being a fan of the plant enough to try to solve it on behalf of the industry. And and now, you know, eight, nine years into the journey. Has your like ideal customer profile changed much? Because I remember obviously when we saw each other first, you were on the West Coast because the west side of Los Angeles seemed like it was going to be an an epicenter of the modern legal cannabis industry, and now it's you know um it's it's definitely spread, I would say, across the across the country as uh you know, in that point there was like 160,000 people working in legal cannabis, and now there's like half a million people working in legal cannabis. So there's been a trajectory, you know, of growth, but has your customer profile that you look for changed?

SPEAKER_01 5:54

I think it's matured, uh, but you know, we we started working with forward-thinking, data-driven, tech enabled cannabis operators, and that's still who we do best with. Folk, folks that come to us and say, I'm trying to understand you know, my margins, I'm trying to use technology to competitive advantage, and I'm trying to get from point A to point B, and I want and I need a partner to help me get me there. And that's that's that was our our our best customers that took a chance on on building software in cannabis in 2017, 18, 19. And those folks are still our best customers now that come to us uh with you know real problems to solve and want to lean in and and you know and and and do that. So um uh I'd say we've refined it, but you know, it's it's interesting to think that the profile you know still resonates actually with with who we first worked with.

SPEAKER_00 6:47

Well, well, the you you had it, but but uh and the pain point is still is still real, but the the board understands the importance of having fact-based decision making in manufacturing. I mean, in you know, not in theory, but also practicality. I'm sure you have plenty of case studies that investment in your software more than pays for itself.

SPEAKER_01 7:08

Absolutely. So sometimes, you know, sometimes the first week. So, you know, um, you know, like it just you know, it really depends on the the size and complexity of the business, right? But we, you know, we've like one of the only companies that has you know transparent pricing on our website, and we built a pricing plan that sort of works with folks from startup to you know MSO. And yeah, I mean, you know, if you're if you're 150 million, 200 million dollar business, then you know, like there's a lot to unlock. You know, if you're a startup, there's still a lot to unlock to get out the door, you know, landing those first 10 customers and never missing a self, you know, and and and and building a loyal fan base. Uh I mean, you know, the fundamentals are still there. So um uh this the software, you know, it's it's easy to find the ROI, I think, on on on the on on implementing in something like us. Uh it's um, you know, it's just we just have to coach the customer to help them articulate the the problem they're solving and and just paint the path to get there.

SPEAKER_00 8:09

So well, are there any specific, like what are the nuances for an ancillary tech business in cannabis that make it a little bit unique? The challenges of commercializing, going to market, uh having a uniform product for the enterprise and the small business. Like any unique challenges you would come to mind?

SPEAKER_01 8:27

Uh where do I start? So, you know, um everything, everything, everything in cannabis is the category of plus cannabis, right? Uh, because uh, you know, we're we're not one market. We're will be almost 40 markets at this point, right? Almost the whole most of the country has a market, and then we have a derived market in the rest of it. So it's it's not one market, it's a lot of markets. Uh, and those markets are changing monthly, quarterly, yearly, weekly. Depends on where you are uh and how happy the regulators are, uh, and making it, you know, so it's super agile. Uh, and you know, there's all there's like always a new compliance requirement. I mean, we you know, we just rolled out I think four new data points in New York last Friday because with 10 days' notice, right?

SPEAKER_00 9:14

So you have you have a rules engine behind this thing where you have to have it architected in a way where you can adjust on the fly state by state based on the geographic, you know, location of your customer. Exactly. In a way that you you also have to be proactive about it too. Like you, as a business, have to stay on top of the state by state changes in the regulatory landscape for manufacturing from a compliance perspective, because you don't the customer needs to know you're trying to help them, and then you don't want to be blamed if it's not doing it.

SPEAKER_01 9:45

Constantly. I mean, and we do and we do retail as well, so it's re you know, retail purchase limits, like retail labeling, uh manufacturing, all the different labels, cultivation rules. Um uh the it's it's it's a lot to stay on top of. But you know, that's like this kind of that's why vertical specific software is the right answer for this space, right? It's very challenging to take something off the shelf and just make it fit, you know. Like you need something, you need someone that that not only understands how to, you know, move boxes through a building, right? Like that's kind of our baseline understanding of, you know, supply chain systems, inventory management, ordering fulfillment, purchasing, you know, point of sale, but you need someone that understands like the nuance of what cannabis regulatory you know mandates are on top of that. Because cannabis regulations are not always logical regulations. It logically it thinks, oh yeah, I can just do A and get and take A to B, right? Like, oh, I can just make this and I can make, I can track all this in between. But then like, oh wait, wait, wait. We have to remember these states have licensed these state track and trace systems, and the state track and trace systems have opinions on how you um have to structure your workflow. And you have to structure your workflow with these opinions in mind, right? Um, that aren't don't always all don't always make a lot of sense. And so our job is to try to help make that make sense and help you run the business while keeping the compliance aspects of that happy.

SPEAKER_00 11:15

And uh and automating it as much as you possibly can, right?

SPEAKER_01 11:18

Um we're focused on right now. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 11:22

Um, so let's talk about selling into this industry for a second. I see you out there at events and obviously have for a long time, and and obviously founder sales does does work a lot if it's for the enterprise, like you almost say you have to be. You have to you have to hand deliver your best foot forward to the more enterprise class of this of this industry. But but you know, I know you have a you have a team, you have a great team um that believes in the mission. What do you look for when you're looking for industry sales? Like, do you have to have industry experience to like the guys from software, the old world of SaaS AEs and and and and what BDRs do they translate into this industry? Well, what do you think?

SPEAKER_01 12:10

It's it's sales is challenging. It doesn't matter what you're selling. Uh and Canada sales is just a I feel like a little bit of a different flavor. Uh so what I'm looking for is someone that's really smart uh and knows how to talk to people uh and listen. Uh and you know, I feel like it's hard to come to the table without some understanding of the mechanics of what we're selling into because you know, you've listened to some of these pain points and they're just, you know, they're not something you would have ever heard or thought of if you hadn't been around it, you know? Uh and so being able to help that customer sort of identify and articulate that pain and and how we're solving it is is is critical. So I think some level of industry awareness makes sense. And industry awareness isn't like, what's my favorite strain, right? Or how do you smoke, right? It's like, how does the mechanic we're selling software, enterprise software for you know cannabis enterprises. And you know, you have to understand how that how the business works. What why is accounts receivable such a big pain point in the space? Can you talk about that for 30 minutes with the CFO? Because if not, you're not gonna get cooked on this call.

SPEAKER_00 13:18

You gotta understand like what they're dealing with and have that in mind as as you communicate your value.

SPEAKER_01 13:26

I don't think you have to be able to, you know, like build extraction machines and like, you know, or you know, or or or be a breeder to like, you know, talk to a cultivator, but you need you need to understand the what you know what the what a clone is, you know, and like you know, the mechanics of uh of you know growing indoor versus outdoor, right? I think you know it's it's just um.

SPEAKER_00 13:48

So is the CF is the CFO like if a company has a CFO, meaning they're let's say 200 employee plus, you know, and not like you know, or or whatever, is that your buyer? Because it because you it's like you have finance is the money, right? And then from an operations perspective, like you have, you know, it could be a founder, could be uh a COO, could be somebody, and then if it's full vertical and you're you're you're a value add to the entire stack of business to retail, then there's a revenue or commercial aspect of it. Um, like you know, that's what's always interesting to me, and this is for any private business, like they're all their own little kingdoms, and where where does the decision making actually lie on this? But should it be CFO and is it often the CFO that's the that's your your custom your biggest initial customer?

SPEAKER_01 14:42

Uh often, yes, often the CFO is the is the sponsor of this or an owner with a CFO mindset, right? Um, uh right, I'm set around knowing their numbers. Uh, but I I encourage like in the sales process, like I try to get all three at the table. I mean, that's our pitch, right? We're connecting sales, operations, and finance into one unified system, right? Which you walk into every business. I mean, it's crazy. People have been operating for 10 years. You walk in and it's still spreadsheets and leaf link and QuickBooks and MetS.

SPEAKER_00 15:14

And both sides blaming each other. The production side and the sales side blaming each other.

SPEAKER_01 15:20

No one knows what the numbers are. You're like can't call in modifying orders every other day. Like you're paying someone to sit here for eight hours a day, like retyping invoices into QuickBooks and reconciling. And so, like, our you know, I I just I'm like, can we all get on the phone and all like align around we around one single, you know, point of truth um to run the business? And you know, typically there's one one of those levers that sponsors the project a little bit stronger than the other. Just, you know, or every organization is a little different.

SPEAKER_00 15:48

Right.

SPEAKER_01 15:49

Um, but uh, but our I don't feel like our job is done until we're connecting all three. Um, because I think you have to have that alignment. You know, we're as a as an operating system, we're not a point solution, right? We're not we can just print labels, right? You could just use flourish to print labels. We could just invoice if you wanted to. Like we have and we do have customers that just use us for like one feature or one little solution here and there. And, you know, but like our our best customers, the customers that pay us the most, the customers that get the most out of the system, you know, are getting end-to-end buy-in, and we're we're running the whole the whole business. And so, you know, that's I I I really push us, push our prospects to bring everyone to the table and get buy-in. Because I that's just what's gonna be long-term success.

SPEAKER_00 16:30

Right. Well, they're gonna get their most ROI, the relationship's gonna be the stickiest, and you're gonna, as somebody who's obviously trying to build a business that's also trying to help operators solve a problem, like that's what you're trying to do. You're trying to help these businesses succeed and and and you know, and you're helping them navigate often some difficult conversations internally around how this where the gaps are, right? And there's some major sensitivities there, you know, that sometimes uh you get you get all the the the back the back channeling on by the way, this person's gonna hate this because of X, Y, and Z, but but it's okay. I I I I'm I I'm don't worry about them and their reaction. Like you get that prep from some of your your your sponsors on like the internal dynamics, and that's fascinating as a as a as a school of understanding, you know, like human human behavior and how some of these companies are operating internally, right?

SPEAKER_01 17:29

I mean, I you know, I I started my career in a consulting world, right? So, you know, going into a warehouse and like migrating them off of a green screen onto a GUI, right? Where with a mouse and a keyboard, and being and the person set there and tab, tab left, left, right, up and down the keyboard, being like, I don't understand, like so much faster on the system. I'm like, yeah, but you have to understand that your business needs to be able to ship to people that are ordering online. And so you have to change the system, otherwise, you're not gonna be in business. Uh and so, you know, that change management, I feel like in cannabis, the tech is we we make it easy, right? Our job as engineers and the software providers to make the tech easy, right? We we plug in your API keys, we you know, we even are just relying releasing like this whole MCP connector to update item attributes with like 180 item attributes. It's a little overwhelming, but we've done a lot of tooling to like make the software piece easy. It's like 80% change management. So 80% like saying let's take a look at the at the job that we're trying to get done and let's think through it, and then this is use the tech to help make it better, right? And lean into it. And you know, I don't it's not it's not as it's not a lot of backstabbing and and back, you know, and stuff like that. I always come into a project thinking that people are are trying to do the right thing, you know. Um, but sometimes there's like uh information asymmetry, right? Like folks are in jobs or roles that you know, maybe the organ maybe they've just gotten really successful and now this operation is sort of, you know, uh, I don't say outgrowing them, but they need to scale up, right? Uh, you know, and their heart's still there, but they need to learn, they need to learn how to use these tools to their advantage and stop doing things the hard way. All right. Um, and so, you know, that's a lot of a lot of what it comes into these projects is and then everyone's busy, you know. Everyone's like, I'm so busy. I'm like, well, that's what we're trying to do is take some of this off your plate so you can be focused on, you know, the business, not you know, retyping data into different screens.

SPEAKER_00 19:30

Right. Well, you know, you're you're right though, and that a lot of times when Flowerhiger gets called in, if you're looking at something again, the production facility role, like a multi-site retail leader, a multi-state wholesale leader, it's because there's somebody there that the owners or whatever's come to a decision, they've been loyal, longtime employees, but the role's outgrown them. And for those folks, if they can embrace a solution that's more technology forward, it can actually help them, you know, keep control of the organization really believes in them, you know, um, and wants to empower them to continue to be successful, you know. So um I I definitely see that. Okay. So talk to me about Flourish and the biggest challenges of operating a cultivation business or manufacturing business and the problems that your platform will solve for specifically the uh the production side.

SPEAKER_01 20:22

I mean, you know, it's all around margin and cost and what I should be making, what I should be making next, and how what I made is performing, right? So, you know, you there's like a huge SKU proliferation in cannabis, right? Like we're walking into operations, not uncommon. We're managing like three to seven thousand SKUs, uh including all the precursors and component inventory. And it's just a lot. Uh, and so figuring out, you know, what's moving, what's not moving, you know, understanding like like when you get to a certain scale on your customers on the wholesale side, you know, what what's the margin mix by customer? Um, right? Like what customer you know needs to be, you know, sold to next, or like what's their reorder frequency. Um, and and so a lot of just that visibility is what we're starting with in the first, I would say the first 90 days, right? You get because people are like, oh yeah, I know this, I know this, I got this. I'm like, but you know, it's all in spreadsheets. It's not really you know, it's not metric. I mean, metric doesn't even have invoices.

SPEAKER_00 21:23

It's not if you're not having it sent to you in a morning dashboard on a daily basis, you know.

SPEAKER_01 21:28

It's not structured. Um, and so um, you know, uh just getting getting an understanding of of of that is is generally like the first bite, you know.

SPEAKER_00 21:40

So it sounds like getting an understanding of what products we sell that are the most profitable for us to manufacture and which stores are buying the right most of that, or which ones are performing.

SPEAKER_01 21:53

You know, which stores are not buying the the other the other SKUs you're buying, right? And what inventory, you know, like. You're your production guy is asking you to go buy you know $10,000 worth of more flour, right? And you look in your inventory system and you're like, well, what about all this flour sitting here, right? Or this jar of distillate that's sitting here. Oh, it does, it's not the right color, right? Or it's not, oh, I didn't, I didn't, I forgot it was over there, right? And there's, you know, $3,000 or $5,000 of inventory of cash just sitting on the shelf tied up, and you as the owner being asked to go and like put out more cash for more product, right? So having a system in place where you can get visibility to where your cash is at any given time and understand, you know, and make some real decisions about the procurement side of your raw materials, uh, about you know, making sure that, oh, like why didn't we ship this? Oh, we didn't have enough on stock. Well, why didn't we have enough in stock? Because that's another week or two weeks, or maybe we're we're losing the whole slot, you know, shelf um slot on the shelf because we weren't able to fulfill that order on time. Because you know, retailers are not very forgiving, they're not gonna let it sit empty. And so, like that, like just getting that mindset in place and that tool set in place, you know, where you can see what you have is is is really game-changing for running the business, even if you're running a good business, right? But like having that as just part of part of what you're bringing in, and then and then it's all in the details. I mean, you know, some folks like it I mean, sometimes it's like label printing or like adding like trying to print like 20 dynamic data points onto like one little tiny label, like across 30 different, you know, like formats of those labels. And you know, or two or three stickers on that box at the same time, and then you know, it's like and you know, and what's the cost of of mistyping something and having to re-sticker the whole batch, right? Or drive it halfway across the state and then realize that happened to drive it back and re-sticker it and re-re-deliver it, right? So there's some risk avoidance and some, you know, that's those are kind of the details when you get into the details, but it's important, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 23:56

I mean, you're providing that real um, you know, important inventory management and and also visibility to what you should manufacture and what you shouldn't. And I imagine in doing all that, like you gotta you're pulling data from a variety of sources, right? And in order to do that. Um and the magic's kind of in how you stack that up and how you give it to your customer. Is there a difference between like how like a like what's the difference between how a vertical business? Let's say they have a healthy mix, 50-50 wholesale resale revenue, you know, a perfect vertical business. Like, how does your platform come into play that extra layer for the retailer to make more money and have less waste?

SPEAKER_01 24:42

I mean, it's like being able to have like a single point of truth for your item catalog and not maintaining, you know, two sets of data around the two, you know, channels of your business is just like a tremendously less overhead of just admin data, admin burden on top of it. Let's just see revenue across the business, right? And then look at inventory levels, you know, um retail versus non-retail and like sell through and like decide, you know, like how much uh we have new harvest coming in, how much are we gonna you know classify A versus B. I mean, that being able to have that visibility and do that is um it just it really like kind of just makes it all gel. And um, you know, when you're transferring inventory between facilities, not having to sit there and retype it all in, you know, like being able to just like one click receive, it's like so much less operational burden for the for the team. Uh and um and yeah, and it's just you know, like uh uh having yeah, that's it's really a lot of about visibility, right? And and um and sort of like a single point of truth for how the business is functioning.

SPEAKER_00 25:52

So I wouldn't call myself an ERP expert, um, but as a recruiter, when ERP usually comes up, it's when clients are looking for a finance or leader or CFO, and and they're always they're talking about like QuickBooks, you know, Sage or Acumatica for this industry, uh Odoo with some customizations, right? So is your ERP system like those or what what's the difference?

SPEAKER_01 26:17

We would integrate with the QuickBooks. So we don't have the general we don't have the general ledger built in to flourish. Um we would co-deploy with either QuickBooks or Intact, um generally. And most most businesses are I mean, you can you can take QuickBooks pretty far, um especially if you don't try to rely on it for inventory, right? It's not very it's not really an inventory management solution. So um uh so uh that yeah, that usually gets people like like you know quite a ways down the road. And then uh mostly I see people upgrade to intact um alongside us if they're on if they want something a little bit more robust past that. Uh and um and then yeah, we're handling the the intake, the everything within the four walls, um, and everything out the door.

SPEAKER_00 26:59

So so talk to me about like you you hear some people say there's just not a cannabis specific ERP. Well it's like it's not that's not true that there is, and you actually need one cannabis specific if you're gonna do the the the effective four walls work if you're not gonna drop you know seven figures on custom development, right? So, you know, it is you think a company like yours is a is like a no-brainer bolt on for like an Oracle or an SAP at some point here.

SPEAKER_01 27:27

Um I mean I think you know we'll see how those companies think about their strategy on this. I um I know I think we'll see. So I mean Oracle and SAP are just they like we're built for the workflows, right? Like, I I mean, uh, you know, we we partnered with Net Suite actually like many years ago on a kind of a proof of concept with them and like you know, and sat down and like watching Net Suite try to like configure, which is an Oracle, you know, company watching them try to configure like grow operations in Net Suite. It was like, okay, let's like create a purchase order to purchase the uh the the veg plants into the flower room. And it was like it was like what that what is going on here, right? Um uh so I I don't know how like those companies are gonna be feeling about cannabis. I mean, I think you know, we we got some movement on the rescheduling on the side, right? And so that that's gonna bake in over the course next couple months, and we'll probably have some some some movement on that over the summer for adult use. Uh, but you know, it's still like it's still gonna take a minute for those for them to be like super comfortable coming in. And then, you know, like it's just too heavy of a solution for most businesses on here in the in this space, right? Um uh cannabis is dominated by small businesses. I mean, and and every business in cannabis is a small business in the broader world of of business, right? I mean, you know, some ones are 5,000 to 8,000 employees, right? Exactly, right? Like, so you know, um, so it's so I mean I think there's just a lot of power in having you know a platform like us that's like built for the business, for the industry, and that's used to working with you know with small businesses to to do the job. And like sometimes people come in with like an an SAP mindset. I'm like, man, you don't even like you're on spreadsheets, dude. Like I don't I don't think you're ready for you know auto replenishment because you don't even issue purchase orders.

SPEAKER_00 29:32

And and you hear about the enterprise companies that have gone down that route of like and then hasn't worked very well for them to transfer onto a basis or something else yet.

SPEAKER_01 29:43

You know, um you know I've heard I've heard some stories. You probably you get to see it in a different view to me because you get to see all the um jobs that are being replaced for the people that failed to do it, you know, two or three times in a row, right? That came in and bought the pitch and bought the big consulting in and dropped, you know, ten, three million dollars on something that, you know, and then still doesn't still doesn't know what's available to sell at any given moment, you know, or you know, maybe they got because nobody could get it all across the line of actually working. It's I'd say it's like even if you're a large business, I mean, you know, the financial packages make sense, right? Like QuickBooks or Intact. Intact's is good, is a good financial package, but the inventory in cannabis with the track and trace requirements and the in and the in the integrations, like you need a partner that knows what that is, right? And and it's just not it's just there's a lot of tooling behind the screen, right? It doesn't seem that complicated to someone that's in the C-suite that's never really like touched it necessarily, not that they don't understand the business, but like touched it in a granular detail level. But there's a lot of complexity, you know, behind, you know, interfacing with the state mandated reporting systems and a lot of agility that's required to like stay on top of it. And you know, like um, and it just makes it really hard to to bring in something that's not built for this space. And have and then and then your your workforce is also, I mean, it depends, but you know, maybe not ready for it either, and the and ready for the patience it would take to kind of bang your head against the wall until it makes it work, make it until it works. So, you know, I I I kind of say like, you know, we could come in and and provide a lot of value like relatively quickly and then partner with you to build out what you need because we're still building, I mean, we're still spending millions of dollars on RD, right?

SPEAKER_00 31:32

Like we're it's not like we're built some static product, like we're we're like active, we and you know, we're we're putting out like a hundred features every month, it feels like, you know, and running a running a tech business, having a bit of a moat in terms of IP, in terms of how to build a software product that does what you do, and keep it lean and keep it relevant, you know, for you know, as long as you as you have, you know, like it's um um and it's it's impressive. Um, I want to get your take on AI specifically and AI's impact on the cannabis industry. For me as a search professional, my entire team now asks people about their familiarity with AI-based tools because our clients are asking them that question, you know. Um, but how how does AI change the game in terms of what your platform can actually do for customers and and just building it in general?

SPEAKER_01 32:27

I mean, internally, I'm a huge champion of adopting AI tooling within our company, right? Like every job function, every department, like we've sat down and looked at how can we be smarter, faster, and just better at our jobs and lean into adopting um, you know, I uh Claude mostly and ChatGBT uh uh to um to just do our jobs better. And and it is crazy how much of an impact, positive impact it's been. And so, you know, because I'm I'm a believer of not just like you know, telling people, but I I like to actually get my hands on and do it and see those, see the real world like impact of this before we go and now integrate it into our product and then teach our customers how to use this. And so that's what we're doing now is like you know, um, like we we resell HubSpot, right? We use HubSpot, I've used HubSpot for 10 years. HubSpot's a great CRM, it's a great compliment to flourish. Um, CRM in cannabis is a little tricky, it's not you know, one size fit all. And HubSpot is not is gonna way oversell you on what HubSpot you what you need out of a CRM, but you probably do need a CRM at a certain point, you know, if you're running a brand and you're doing wholesale sales, right? Um, and so when I think about like how I interact with HubSpot, like today, I would say probably 20 to 30 percent of the data that I'm putting into the CRM, I'm putting in via AI, right? I'm you know, call debriefs, like building decks, like managing all the custom fields, uh, you know, creating deals, moving opportunities through, uh getting drilling reports, marketing, all those, all the stuff. It's crazy how much we're using, right? So we're we're we're unleashing all of that within within Flourish, right? Because I want our customers to have that same experience when they're interacting with our tool. So you know, you know, we've rolled out uh new connectors into this cloud and and chat GPT and or Gemini or Grok or whatever you want to use, where you can you know use this chat interface and interface with Flourish to manage this incredible complexity through like something that's like generally like really good and really smart and like magnifies you know your um your and what what and easier, right? It's just like a different way of interfacing with software. So um, you know, we're right now in like the earlier stages of this. Like I'm working with some of my more tech tech forward companies uh customers to like pilot it and get it baked in, but we're essentially like like exposing all the tooling within the product through these interfaces so you can bring your AI, combine it with your domain knowledge, and like and and access and drive your comp your cannabis compliance operations through Flourish, you know, with the tools that you might be doing your closing and talking to QuickBooks and talking to your CRM with. And so, you know, we're we're heavily invested uh in that. Uh, we just spent um a lot of the last year building like a really powerful data warehouse behind Flourish because you know, you we generate a lot of data. I mean, we can't huge amount of data, but it has to be structured in some way that you can access it. So um, so that's unlocking like a crazy amount of value for our customers, just having like a uh a real data warehouse be behind the app, uh, that we can also partner with our customers and bring their data in with our data into like custom data products for them. And like I have customers like pinging me, like what I just built. And I'm like, well, how the hell did you just build that? Uh with this you just gave me. I was like, I it's like crazy. It's crazy to see what customers are doing. Yeah, and then you know, in the training side, yeah, um, we're yeah, we have a uh we do have a little AI chatbot within Flourish that we've loaded all of our help document to. And so like everything we're doing right now, we're training the AI to help us do faster and better. And we're trying to bring that into like everywhere you experience like the whole end-to-end flow of Flourish, like we're we're trying to bring like AI assistance. Um, but you know, because of the compliance impacts and and mainly because of the compliance systems we interface with, right? Like, you know, we have to do that in like a safe way that's like secure and doesn't like screw people up. So, you know, so it's um so as fast as we're running towards it, we're still being, you know, thoughtful about you know the process of unlocking all this stuff and and mindful of the day of the security and mindful of the guardrails and the human and the loop, you know, to to to to use it.

SPEAKER_00 36:55

Well, just the idea that you've created that sort of new data warehouse, data mart, data lake, whatever you want to call it, that even allowed your customers to access to and run whatever they want to using whatever AI tools from it and value from it is pretty freaking awesome. You know, um, and just seeing how the customers are using that functionality probably gives you even more ideas for how to how to keep what you're what the roadmap could look like, right?

SPEAKER_01 37:25

It's more most of our like a lot of our team is pushing 10 years of working in deeply in ingrained in cannabis tech, right? And cannabis operations. So not our job is not just to sell you like, I'm not just selling you like a menu, right? Or we're selling you like we're selling you like an end-to-end solution that touches like a fairly complex workflow that differs state to state. And so taking this domain knowledge and baking this in to the the like AI tooling, it's like it's kind of it's just crazy what I'm seeing it do right in front of me. Like every single day I'm doing something new. And and personally, like it's returned hundreds of thousands of dollars of return. In I would say just in the last like just in the last five months it flourished, right? Like, um uh or we're we're um so I mean I because you see a lot on LinkedIn, you see a lot in Twitter, you know, you know, like a lot of clout, a lot of posturing, you know, a lot of like I'm always skeptical. I'm a skeptical of social media in general, right? Yeah, right. But but like when you do it and you use some of this stuff, like you you're like, okay, like no, this is it, it's it is real and it's really changing the game.

SPEAKER_00 38:39

Yeah, and if you're if you're not doing it, you're you're gonna miss. You're gonna Because you can cover lots of ground in minimal time. It's yeah. Yeah. Well, that's that's uh we are you're on the forefront of that. I've two questions. Uh, this has been fantastic. I have two buttons for go. Okay, the recent rescheduling, what's your prediction for how it affects adult use operators? Is uh 280 going away for them?

SPEAKER_01 39:07

Adult use, I hope so.

SPEAKER_00 39:09

Um I mean, I guess we'll see what the what'd be nice for yeah, because they could actually write off recruiter fees, maybe write off some more licensing fees.

SPEAKER_01 39:16

Yeah, they can, you know, run a normal business, which is great. I mean, we're seeing the the medical stuff already. I mean, we you know, we we we have one of the one of the the homegrown Florida cut uh homegrown Georgia licensees is a flourish customer, right? Botanical Sciences, awesome operator. Georgia passed the ability when they when they legalized medical for us to put pharmacy for farm independent pharmacies that already exist to sell legal cannabis, right? And we were in the middle of a rollout a couple years ago to reach 90% of the patient base in Georgia in like a matter of months with legal cannabis uh by dropping the point of sale into all these existing brick and mortar stores around the country, around the state for um for us to like sell botanicals uh uh products, right? Um, but then the DEA sent this letter that reminded all these pharmacies they had a DEA license. And let's just say the program was a little iced. Uh, but that's changing and it's restarting. And so, like, you know, we're um we're trying to push out like a hundred new storefronts like this summer, uh, or uh or up to 200 this summer across the state. So it's awesome. It's it's real. We're seeing it already like with my medical customers, like being okay, now I can do the things I want to do, right? Now they're all this kind of get unlocked, they can invest in their business. Like they, you know, it's it's this is game-changing on the medical world. And I think it's it's right on the medical. Um, on the adult use, I, you know, I don't see how it doesn't follow suit, but you know, the federal government does not operate on on our timeline.

SPEAKER_00 40:53

No, does not operate on our timeline. And I don't think folks will know for the next few quarters. Right. At least the next it could be still years until you get a official ruling on that too. And that's so it's like you think uh the biggest change in federal policy in our lifetime. Uh, you know, I'm in my 40s, I don't I don't know if you're quite there yet, but uh in our lifetime, we'd be meeted with more optimism, you know, and more excitement from folks in the industry, but it's just a different layer of uncertainty, even though even though it is progress, and again, for medical operators, in which there's a lot of medical-only states that are big, like Florida is the third or fourth largest revenue market right now, all medical. Pennsylvania is the top ten, you know, don't sleep on places like Arkansas with four to five hundred million dollars in medical sales, right? Like there's you know, a lot of medical sales out there. It's it's a it's a big deal, you know. Um even even a live, you know, opening up bigger marketplaces, uh, and opening up a uh, you know, but it's you know, we've gotten people get somewhat comfortable in the even if it's painful, you know the playing rules right now, right?

SPEAKER_01 42:05

You have a you have a bit of a a known operating system in which you're operating in, even if it's really painful. So as we go to normalize cannabis further and and eventually deschedule cannabis, that happens, like the rules will be changing. Like, you know, and it's and it's not going to be comfortable for everybody. I mean, even it's better for the customer, right? Like, I'm I'm in favor of like bigger market is better for everybody, but it doesn't mean it's better for every single individual business operating in this space because some people have some really nice moats that are very artificially created, not due to the uh the amazing product they have, but it's due to the geography, the their time to market, the skill set of their legal team, and you know, um a lot of things that are created by the government really and the regulatory environment around them. Uh and so, you know, um things can happen very slowly and then they can happen very quickly all at once. And so, you know, uh I that's how it kind of felt when when this dropped. Um it's been what two years since Biden said they were gonna make moves on this, and then it kind of sat here and then suddenly you have a 90-day window to register the DEA. Um, you know, so uh it's it'll be that's just that's that's our that's the name of the game here in this space. You just gotta be agile and you gotta adapt. And you know, you can't take um this you can't take the present for granted. You have to be able to hit it.

SPEAKER_00 43:34

All right. Last last question for you. If you were to give advice to somebody who's an entrepreneur, wanting to start a tech company or a brand um in cannabis, what would you say? Would you say don't do it? Would you say, You you okay, I love that, but you better be ready of these things. What would you say?

SPEAKER_01 43:55

To start a tech company in cannabis, I'd be like, don't do it. I don't know. Maybe there's a tech company that hadn't been started in cannabis. I feel like there's been about 500 people have thrown their hat into the ring and you know, like it's uh it's a little crowded uh for for where you're at. Um in serious, if I was gonna tell somebody like that wanted to come into this space and build something, build it, right? Shoot your shot, do it. Figure out what your angle is, understand your customer, you understand your unique selling proposition, your value prop to the business. If there's something missing, come and fill it. I mean, you know, there's there's no reason why, you know, you shouldn't lean in and do it. I mean, um, and if it doesn't work, it doesn't work. Just know that it might not work and it's gonna be really hard and it's gonna take a lot of time, and you get punched in the face a bunch of times doing it. Uh and you know, if you're opening something that's brick and mortar, I tell every business operator that I'm talking to that's pre operational. I'm just like minimum six months extra cash on hand. Whatever your date is, minimum add another six months because you don't want to control the fire marshal coming out and didn't sign off or the city council meeting or whatever eventuality that you haven't planned for. Like, so six months is optimistic. Optimistic. Usually they say they're six months out, and so I tell them give it another six, right? So by the time they're talking to me. Um, but yes, you you it's it's it's you you're coming into a regulatory, regular, regulated space, you're not in control of everything. You can do everything perfect and still be sitting on the sidelines to like so no, it's it's true.

SPEAKER_00 45:37

And I would say just do your homework. Like, you see how a great idea. Well, has that does that idea exist? What other companies or products or services or retailers or brands or whatever it is have have tried it, you know, and and who's who's doing it well, and who is there anyone doing it well and who's not? Like, really understand, um, you know, because I do love the fact about cannabis that as an entrepreneur, as somebody looks for opportunity, there is a lot of white space, but the white space is not necessarily because of lack of imagination, it's it's about the realities of trying to operate in space, you know. Um, and so that's good. Well, what did you say? I said is execution and execution challenges, yes.

SPEAKER_01 46:26

It's a it's entrepreneurs. I I'm I'm a fan. Go do it.

SPEAKER_00 46:30

Right. I love seeing people like you out in the wild, and I look forward to seeing you uh probably in a few weeks in Chicago, I'm I imagine. Um but uh Colton, thank you for joining today. Um everything about cannabis uh ERP. Um and uh I I love your platform. I know a lot of customers that have used it and say nice things. So um, you know, thank you again for coming on today.

SPEAKER_01 46:58

Thanks so much for having me. I appreciate uh letting me tell the story and and talk shop. And you know, you guys are doing amazing things in the market, and I uh uh it's awesome to see you know it's doing well and making this industry better every single day. So thank you for thank you for putting this together.

SPEAKER_00 47:14

We're we're still here. Surviving is thriving, but it maybe it's getting a little better. I think so. Maybe it's getting a little better. I think so too. Ask me in 120 days, but I don't think it's gonna get any worse this year, and that makes me excited. Um let's keep going. Thank you, Colton. Thank you.