The Blunt Boardroom
Most cannabis podcasts talk about the plant, the products, and consumption activities. This one talks about the business and the business of the plant.
The Blunt Boardroom is a straight-talk podcast about what it actually takes to build, run, and scale a cannabis company. Operators, executives, and industry experts having the kind of conversations that usually only happen behind closed doors.
Host Matt Richman is the CEO & CFO of mello Cannabis in Haverhill, Massachusetts. He came from Deloitte, but when the opportunity came to diverge from a traditional career path, he chose the burgeoning cannabis industry. He has spent nine years building cannabis businesses from the ground up across Colorado and Massachusetts, and he has the financial scars and hard-won perspective to prove it.
Each episode, Matt sits down with the people who are actually doing the work. Founders navigating social equity. Delivery operators managing unit economics. Marketing firms applying AI to a federally restricted industry. Cannabis CEOs and investors evaluating the impact of the new MA rules, medical rescheduling and pending recreational rescheduling. Including a focus on the community and positive impacts these businesses make.. The conversations are direct, specific, and useful.
If you run a cannabis business, advise one, invest in one, or want to understand what this industry actually looks like from the inside, this is the show.
New episodes drop twice a month.
Episodes
7 episodes
Is the Cannabis Industry in Crisis? | The Blunt Boardroom Ep. 07 Ft. Hennessy Leilani Shaw
Hennessy Leilani Shaw has been working in legal cannabis since 2014. She started as an executive assistant at Rhode Island's first medical dispensary and spent the next 12 years building her career through inventory management, buying, and reta...
Automating Inventory and Compliance Tracking | EP 6 Ft. Hans & Brie of Outlaw Technology
Every legal cannabis plant and package in Massachusetts carries a state-issued RFID tag from the day it is a seedling to the day it is sold. Most operators treat that tag as a compliance cost and nothing else. Outlaw Technology built an entire ...
How Pre-Rolls Are Made at Scale | The Blunt Boardroom Ep. 05 Ft. Jonathan McFarlane & Maddie Bailey
In this episode, Matt sits down with Jonathan McFarlane, Chief Marketing Officer of RollPros, and Maddie Bailey, mello's post-production supervisor and the person responsible for every pre-roll that comes off the Blackbird. Together they get in...
How to Build a Brand from Zero | Ep. 04 Ft. Bridgette Cruz
Bridgette Cruz moved to Massachusetts on 18 days of Airbnb money and a job offer with no relocation package. She had a vision for a cannabis brand, a DJ alias, a background in restaurant management and photography, and no funding. She took the ...
Why This CEO Works With His Competitor | Ep. 03 Ft. Rob DiFazio
Rob DiFazio served in the US Navy's nuclear power program, and he went from operating submarines to running cannabis dispensaries. The discipline transferred. The stakes changed.Today he is the founder and CEO of CNA Stores, a veteran-ow...
How AI Is Changing Cannabis Marketing | The Blunt Boardroom Ep. 02 Ft. Varun Patel & Lauren Laplante-Rottman
Most dispensaries are spending money to drive traffic to their website. Varun Patel thinks that is not the primary problem to solve.In this episode, Matt sits down with Varun Patel and Lauren Laplante-Rottman from Spokes Digital to talk ...
Cannabis Delivery Is Changing Fast | The Blunt Boardroom Ep. 01 Ft. Christopher Fevry
Chris Fevry built two cannabis companies from scratch during COVID. No funding. No connections. Just a research rabbit hole and a co-founder willing to bet on an idea nobody had proven in Massachusetts yet.Today he is the CEO and co-foun...