Mitch Kahn is the co-founder of Grassroots Cannabis which began operations in 2014. Through his leadership as CEO the company has since grown to have 61 licenses and operations in 11states with more than 800 employees. Mitch recently led his company into a merger with Massachusett-based company, Curaleaf, in a stock and cash deal worth $875 million.
Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:
- [2:05] Jeremy welcomes his guest, Mitch Kahn.
- [4:23] The initial difficulties of getting licenses and growing the business
- [6:02] Understanding the power of your people.
- [7:58] How Matt Darin, MItch’s business partner, convinced him to start the business
- [14:52] Mitch talks about his retail model
- [17:53] What retail experts helped improve in Mitch’s company
- [23:45] How Mitch first met his partners, Matt and Josh
- [24:58] The security challenges of a cash-dependent business
- [27:20] MItch shares how he raised the capital he needed
- [32:21] Leveraging relationships and business experience
- [36:17] What it takes to lead a huge company
- [39:31] Building the right culture for your business
- [42:30] Why Mitch doesn’t recommend a specific business or leadership book
- [45:19] Mitch’s low moments in business and what he learned from them
- [47:28] Mitch’s best moments in business and why
In this episode…
Have you ever started a business that almost everyone thought was a terrible idea? What about a business with questionable reputation? How do you even get started with it in the first place?
Mitch Kahn of Grassroots Cannabis and his partners defied the odds and started a business that didn’t sound too great at the beginning but is now America’s largest medical and adult use cannabis company. They took a leap of faith and braved the initial resistance they faced from starting the business, getting the funding, and convincing people that what they were doing made sense.
Tune in on today’s episode where MItch shares with Jeremy how Grassroots Cannabis began and everything that has happened between then and now. Mitch talks about his business model, his leadership style, and the kind of grit you need to start a business that you believe in even when nobody else does.
Resources Mentioned on this episode
- Grassroots Cannabis
- Mitchell Kahn LinkedIn
- Matthew Darin LinkedIn
- Josh Joseph LinkedIn
- Intro Music by Kidd Russell
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Episode Transcript
Jeremy Weisz 0:22
Dr. Jeremy wise here founder of inspired insider calm where I talk with inspirational entrepreneurs and leaders, like the founders of our experts, they end up selling to Kellogg for $600 million. But they talked about the early days that weren’t so easy and p90x founder Tony Horton talked about how he made you know, this is interesting Mitch, he made money as a street mind like the way he made food and rent money was you put us out on the street and do street Miami to make his money before he obviously went out and sold hundreds of millions of dollars. p90x Atari founder Nolan Bushnell. I talked about how he was Steve Jobs mentor and Steve offered him 33 scent of Apple for $50,000 and why he said no, and many many more. So check out the interviews inspired insider calm. The episode is brought to you by Rise 25 which I co-founded with my business partner john Corcoran and Rise25 we help b2b businesses connect to their dream 100 clients and referral partners and basically what that does, it creates a systemized incoming referral pipeline that creates ROI and this is using a podcast for me. podcasting is much more personal. It’s not about just about your business is about leaving a legacy for yourself and your guests like we are today because it was inspired my grandfather who was a Holocaust survivor, and him and his brother were in concentration camps in Nazi Germany were the only people to survive. And his words and legacy live on because of an interview the podcast foundation did with him which you can watch on my about page. So yes, podcasting will help your business and I think every business should have a podcast period, but it also helps you leave a legacy and your guests leave a legacy. So definitely You can email us and go to Rise25.com or support at Rise25media.com. I am super excited today to introduce Mitch con. Mitch co founded Grassroots Cannabis in 2014. Through his leadership as CEO, the company has grown to have 61 licenses and operations in 11 states with more than 800 employees. And I checked the stats. I think yesterday, Mitch, you like doubled in size from yesterday to today. It’s like I had to fact check this because they’ve grown so quickly just in the past year. And clearly it was a Massachusetts based company signed a merger agreement with Grassroots Cannabis for 870 $5 million in stock in cash. And the deal will make the company the time you know, the largest medical and adult use cannabis company. Mitch, thank you for for joining me.
Mitch Kahn 2:52
My pleasure. Jeremy, appreciate you have a crazy,
Jeremy Weisz 2:53
crazy schedule. You’re up late. You’re up early. I want you to just to give people a sense of You were talking about before we hit record and you started with three stores now you’re at what you started with certain growth facilities now you’re at what what you know give us just a quick where you were and where you are
Mitch Kahn 3:12
now so so this started you know to say it started as a lark would be a bit of an oversight you know, over dramatization, but we really started this as an opportunity we saw a real opportunity to, to be involved in an entire industry from the ground floors, my partner and I applied for originally three lights, five licenses here in Illinois, we want three of them. So we started in we applied and started the company in 2014 opened our first three stores in early 2016. And since early 2016, and you know, literally three and a half years, we have you know, we have grown to as you said 61 licenses, 11 states 800 employees you know, we’re We are the largest private cannabis company in the country today and too, about to hopefully complete a merger with purely which will make us that they’re the largest public company in the space and we will be the largest company here by far and we’re excited about that. us so it
