Why mindset matters and other lessons from the Green Equity Summit

MN CANNABIS NEWS

Congratulations to Lucky Strains in New Brighton for being the first licensed retail dispensary in the Twin Cities! Kare 11 reports, however, that they do not yet have a supply of licensed flower to sell.

OCM’s table of license review shows that as of yesterday, there were 18 approved microlicenses and many more micros had been moved to preliminary approval. Of concern to me and many others at the Green Equity Summit this week? No testing labs have yet been fully licensed.

Breaking: MN-DEED has finally chosen the recipients of the state grants! Follow me for more info as it it becomes available on how entrepreneurs can apply for those grants & low-interest loans, and exactly who is eligible. They are:

CanNavigate provides grants to community-based entrepreneurial support organizations (ESOs) and organizations with cannabis regulatory experts to help individuals navigate the regulatory structure of operating a business in the legal cannabis industry. There is an emphasis on serving individuals whose social equity status has been verified and people facing barriers to employment. Grantees include: 

• Minnesota Association of Black Cannabis Professionals and Communities United Through Justice and Inclusion - $400,000 

• Minnesota Cannabis Institute - $234,601 

• Minnesota Consortium of Community Developers - $308,935 

CanStartup provides grants to nonprofit lenders to fund loans for new cannabis microbusinesses. The program prioritizes social equity applicants and supports job creation in communities where long-term residents are eligible as social equity applicants. Grantees include: 

• Propagate Community Development Corporation - $500,000 

• Seward Redesign, Inc. - $100,000 

• WomenVenture - $500,000 

CanTrain provides grants to eligible organizations to create and implement workforce development programs to provide support, navigation services and training to individuals leading to a relevant career in the legal cannabis industry. Grantees include:  

• Minneapolis Community and Technical College - $403,530 

• Minnesota Training Partnerships - $126,116 

• Minnesota Cannabis College - $250,000 

• Urban League Twin Cities - $320,000 

• White Earth Tribal and Community College - $500,000 

And MN-OCM also announced recipients of its grant programs today, saying, “11 organizations that have been awarded funding from the state’s CanRenew grant program to help fund projects addressing a range of community needs, including economic development, public health, violence prevention, youth development, and civil legal aid. “ 

REPORT FROM GREEN EQUITY SUMMIT

The Minority Cannabis Business Association (MCBA) held a 3-day Green Equity Summit in Minneapolis earlier this week! They brought an impressive array of speakers from legal states to help Minnesotans understand what it takes to stand up a successful and compliant business.

A few of my takeaways:

• What a pleasure to hear visiting cannabis industry folks say that we have already built an especially collaborative and vibrant community of small operators here. They are impressed by us!

• Eric Taubel kicked off the 3-day conference, in his first official talk as Executive Director of Minnesota’s OCM (rather than Interim - congrats again, Eric!) “I took this job to weaponize law for good,” he said. And he brought 12 members of his staff with him to join the conversations the first day - a huge statement for transparency and commitment to equity by the OCM.

• I loved this visual from Mark Slaugh, who works with social equity operators in Colorado: Legacy operators who have been operating underground now can pop up into the light, like a plant emerging from the soil! But the rules and regulations for operating in the highly-regulated legal market are vastly different up here, and you need to know them so you can play the game.

• I attended the Tribal Panel on day one, and met Melanie Franks, the Tribal Liason for OCM. White Earth is the only one of the 11 tribes that has actually signed a compact so far, but more are expected to be signed soon. A compact is required to be able to sell wholesale from the tribal market into the OCM-regulated market, and also to open stores off of tribal lands.

• Dr. Adams: “There is no social equity in business.” (Meaning: you might have gotten licensing advantages of some kind, but now you have to fully compete, and it’s tough out there)

• On Day 2, we talked about mindset. Mark Robinson, a New York social equity license holder, got us fired up with his story and winner mindset even after 12 years in federal prison. "When I’m in that shark pit, I’m going to punch the sharks in the face,” he said. “When you’re in that snake pit, start eating snakes.” That’s now one of my favorite lines.

• Toni Forge, a cannabis attorney, spoke about the importance of using written contracts, even though that’s a huge difference from the legacy market. All multi-person teams should have an Operating Agreement between all owners of the LLC - if you go to raise capital, people won’t take you seriously if you have not done that.

• And she and other speakers cautioned licensees about how common predatory arrangements are in cannabis, saying that after taxation, the top reason people fail in this industry is that their investors take over their business. Do due diligence on investors and get an attorney’s help to review contracts for investment before signing!

• Jeanette Ward of the Nu Project laid out the ways to fund a company: Self-fund, sell equity, buy debt, or get grants. She urged Minnesotans to take advantage of state grants to the greatest extent possible and praised MN for making more money available than most states have. Beyond that, she favors debt, though warns that it is normal in this industry to pay around 20% interest.