Become A Featured Company

Exclusive Q&A Interview with CuraLeaf CEO, Joseph Lusardi

Rachelle Gordon

November 26th, 2018

Uncategorized

The cannabis industry is growing at a rapid rate, and there a few distinct companies setting themselves apart as true leaders of an entirely new landscape. Curaleaf, Inc. operates 31 dispensaries in 11 states, boasting 250 unique skus, from flower to edibles to concentrates, ensuring each patient gets the exact desired outcome they are seeking, and recently launched a CBD line to further extend their reach.

 

CFN Media sat down with Curaleaf CEO Joseph Lusardi at the recent MJBizCon in Las Vegas who provided insight on the company’s meteoric growth and offered advice for newcomers to this budding industry.

Joseph Lusardi

CFN:  What is the history of Curaleaf?

 

Joseph Lusardi:  Our journey really started on the East Coast from our founding in New Jersey; we come from a highly regulated, highly compliant model. We’re working our way West, where the regulatory regimes have come about in a different way. California, for example, had no state regulatory framework until this year. As we move from East to West, the journey certainly becomes different and we have to make our brands and business relevant for those markets.

 

We serviced 38,000 unique patients through our stores last month, which I’m enormously proud of. When you come into our dispensary, the foundation is education. We spend a lot of time with our patients making sure that they have a comfortable and informative interaction that’s not intimidating.  They can learn how to use cannabis to work with whatever condition they’re trying to deal with.

 

CFN:  You recently held the biggest RTO in cannabis history. How did you achieve that level of success?

 

JL:  We raised money from over 100 institutions around the globe and we believe that we got that level of support because we take the mandate seriously to be a steward of people’s capital. We’re going to deploy that capital into the market, in a way that creates a lot of shareholder value. We’ve built our company 50% through organic growth and 50% through acquisitions. We’ll continue to grow our business organically but we’ll also do a creative deals in markets that have good economic conditions in order to create additional value for our shareholders.

 

CFN:  Why should potential investors consider Curaleaf?

 

JL:  We are on track to be the biggest largest retailer of cannabis in the United States. We will open up a retail location approximately one per week between now and the end of 2019, so we are very aggressively putting down a retail footprint. I want to emphasize that we are trying to create the most accessible cannabis brand in the country. We may never be the coolest company on the block but we’re going to be the company that anyone can come to and learn about cannabis.

 

CFN:  What do you see ahead for the cannabis industry as a whole?

 

JL:  Three more states adopted marijuana reform this month, which is great news overall and will create positive momentum for the industry. At no point in our history have we had more public support for cannabis; it was polled at 90% for medical and 63% for adult-use in Gallup a couple of weeks ago. The sentiment is behind the industry and I think that the lawmakers and legislators are recognizing that this is a popular issue, and there are millions of people now using cannabis everyday, in their daily lives. We are very optimistic that we will continue to win regulations that are favorable to the industry.

 

CFN:  What advice do you have for new entrepreneurs or investors interested in entering in the space?

 

JL:  First and foremost, this is an emerging market and emerging markets are by nature volatile.Therefore, there certainly will be periods of volatility but, generally we believe the macro trend is that cannabis is going to continue to develop positively in the United States and become more regulated. From a investor perspective, we think that there will be a lot a lot of money flowing into cannabis but we think there’ll be a sector rotation out of Canada and into the United States – it’s simple math. The US market is going to be ten times bigger than Canada and the money will alternately flow to the largest and the most sophisticated and well-run companies.

 

CFN:  Massachusetts saw their first legal adult-use cannabis sales this week. As an company with East Coast roots, how do you think this will affect reform efforts in the region?
JL:  34 states now have enacted medical and/or recreational marijuana laws because of compassion for a lot of sick people that use cannabis in their lives to manage horrible diseases. More mature markets such as Colorado have showed that states can develop a highly regulated adult-use framework and generate a lot of tax revenue. That’s the next catalyst – states generating tax revenue. We think Massachusetts is certainly going to be a highly successful program, which will create pressure on all of the major markets on the East Coast.

 

To learn more about cannabis companies, sign up for our free newsletter using the form to the right.

This article was published by CFN Enterprises Inc. (OTCQB: CNFN), owner and operator of CFN Media, the industry’s leading agency and digital financial media network dedicated to the burgeoning CBD and legal cannabis industries. Call +1 (833) 420-CNFN for more information.

About Rachelle Gordon

Rachelle Gordon is a Minneapolis-based writer. Find her online at www.rachellegordon.net.

Network Partners

Follow Us on Social Media

LinkedIn

About CFN Media Group

CFN Enterprises Inc. (OTCQB: CNFN) owns and operates CFN Media Group, the premier agency and financial media network reaching executives, entrepreneurs and consumers worldwide. Through its proprietary content creation, video library, and distribution via www.CannabisFN.com, CFN has built an extensive database of cannabis interest, assisting many of the world’s largest cannabis firms and CBD brands to build awareness and thrive. For more information, please visit www.cfnenterprisesinc.com.

Disclaimer: Matters discussed on this website contain forward-looking statements that are subject to certain risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such statements. CFN Media Group, which owns CannabisFN, is not registered with any financial or securities regulatory authority and does not provide nor claims to provide investment advice or recommendations to readers of this release. CFN Media Group, which owns CannabisFN, may from time-to-time have a position in the securities mentioned herein and will increase or decrease such positions without notice. The Information contains forward-looking statements, i.e. statements or discussions that constitute predictions, expectations, beliefs, plans, estimates, or projections as indicated by such words as "expects", "will", "anticipates", and "estimates"; therefore, you should proceed with extreme caution in relying upon such statements and conduct a full investigation of the Information and the Profiled Issuer as well as any such forward-looking statements. Any forward looking statements we make in the Information are limited to the time period in which they are made, and we do not undertake to update forward looking statements that may change at any time; The Information is presented only as a brief "snapshot" of the Profiled Issuer and should only be used, at most, and if at all, as a starting point for you to conduct a thorough investigation of the Profiled Issuer and its securities and to consult your financial, legal or other adviser(s) and avail yourself of the filings and information that may be accessed at www.sec.gov, www.pinksheets.com, www.otcmarkets.com or other electronic sources, including: (a) reviewing SEC periodic reports (Forms 10-Q and 10-K), reports of material events (Form 8-K), insider reports (Forms 3, 4, 5 and Schedule 13D); (b) reviewing Information and Disclosure Statements and unaudited financial reports filed with the Pink Sheets or www.otcmarkets.com; (c) obtaining and reviewing publicly available information contained in commonlyknown search engines such as Google; and (d) consulting investment guides at www.sec.gov and www.finra.com. You should always be cognizant that the Profiled Issuers may not be current in their reporting obligations with the SEC and OTCMarkets and/or have negative signs at www.otcmarkets.com (See section below titled "Risks Related to the Profiled Issuers, which provides additional information pertaining thereto). For making specific investment decisions, readers should seek their own advice and that of their own professional advisers. CFN Media Group, which owns CannabisFN, may be compensated for its Services in the form of cash-based and/or equity-based compensation in the companies it writes about, or a combination of the two. For full disclosure, please visit: https://www.cannabisfn.com/legal-disclaimer/. A short time after we acquire the securities of the foregoing company, we may publish the (favorable) information about the issuer referenced above advising others, including you, to purchase; and while doing so, we may sell the securities we acquired. In addition, a third-party shareholder compensating us may sell his or her shares of the issuer while we are publishing favorable information about the issuer. Except for the historical information presented herein, matters discussed in this article contain forward-looking statements that are subject to certain risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such statements. CFN Media Group, which owns CannabisFN, is not registered with any financial or securities regulatory authority, and does not provide nor claims to provide investment advice or recommendations to readers of this release. CFN Media Group, which owns CannabisFN, may from time to time have a position in the securities mentioned herein and will increase or decrease such positions without notice. For making specific investment decisions, readers should seek their own advice and that of their own professional advisers. CFN Media Group, which owns CannabisFN, may be compensated for its Services in the form of cash-based and/or equity- based compensation in the companies it writes about, or a combination of the two. For full disclosure please visit: https://www.cannabisfn.com/legal-disclaimer/.

Copyright © Accelerize Inc. · All Rights Reserved · Privacy Policy · Legal Disclaimer

loading