Michel Navedo

The Million-Dollar Mistake and why DATA is the real HIGH. Is it Sexy? No. Critical. ABSOLUTELY. Picture two cannabis companies: CannaChaos 🌪️: Their inventory data's a mess. SKUs? Inconsistent. Units of measure? All over the place. Trying to forecast demand? Good luck. DataBud Ltd. 🌟: Clean, standardized data across all systems. Every SKU, every gram accounted for. Real-time inventory visibility? Check. CannaChaos is flying blind. DataBud? They're playing 4D chess while others play checkers. ♟️ Here's the kicker: Most canna-businesses are closer to CannaChaos than DataBud. They're drowning in bad data and starving for insights. Why? Because they overlooked the unsexy foundation: master data management. Spoiler alert: Without clean data, your fancy BI tools are just expensive paperweights. 🧱💸 I've seen cannabis companies burn millions (LITERALLY MILLIONS) on 'cutting-edge' tech, only to realize their data's too messy to use it. It's like buying a Ferrari but filling it with mud instead of gas. 🏎️➡️🥾 The future of supply chain isn't just automation or AI. It's having a single source of truth for your data. 🔮 Imagine: Generating accurate reports in minutes, not days ⏱️ Predictive analytics that actually predict 🔮 Inventory optimization that doesn't require a ouija board 🧿 That's the power of solid data governance. Is it glamorous? Hell no. 🥱 Is it the backbone of a scaled, efficient supply chain? Absolutely. 💪 So before you drop cash on the next shiny supply chain toy, ask yourself: Is your data house in order? 🏠🧹 Because in the cannabis rush, the real winners won't be who has the flashiest tech. It'll be who has the cleanest data. 🧼🏆 Tony Richards and Niki Rogers you know what I'm talking about!

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Jay Z might have fumbled the ball https://lnkd.in/gVBqGf9R Cannabis is more of a culture/community then most outside investors want to accept. Yes it is a CPG that anyone can use but the culture/community often has the power to decide which products and brands will be successful. With Jay Z not being apart of the culture/community, trying to sell a $50 ultra premium product that is normally priced at $5 is a huge risk. He would have to OVER DELIVER in such a big way to get it to stick that Monogram probably never had a chance to be successful. I think launching Monogram as a brand that Jay Z was known to personally use and eventually invested in, is a much better genesis story. I also believe that Monogram's Head of Product DeAndre Watson would have been better to use as the face of the brand over Jay Z. DeAndre's background as a serial entrepreneur with 20+ years in California's black market is much more compelling to the culture/community. If it was me I would set up Monogram as a brand that started off in the black market selling $50 hand-rolled blunts that Jay Z became such a fan of he decided to invest in. As long as Monogram used some of that $500M to focus on delivering the best genetics I think this could of easily turned out differently.

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A follow-up to yesterday's post on the unsustainability of cannabis cultivation: "whenever possible, grow outdoors" This is a passage from famed indoor breeder and grower DJ Short's book. Seems simple right? Just replace indoor grows with outdoor grows and problem solved? Unfortunately it isn't that easy. The main issue is unintentional genetic effects from the war on drugs. Allow me to explain. The drug war drove breeding indoors. Rounds and rounds and rounds of selective breeding under highly controlled environments means outdoor adaptive traits were lost (read: pest/disease resistance, drought and stress tolerance, ect). It's not the plants' fault. It's not breeders' faults. It is what it is. However, don't expect to plant acres of Cali dispo hype strains outside and be successful. Add the complexity of states outright banning anything but indoor, or microbial tests that essentially prohibit outdoor. Add the perceived quality differences in grow styles ingrained in the culture and the consumer. THIS is why we desperately need genetic improvements. This is why we need S3 Genetics This is why we need #BetterCannabisThroughScience

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They aren't competing with other forms of cannabis. It's like saying people don't want to drink their sugar, they prefer to eat it. They do both. Everyone that consumes cannabis drinks liquid. Add cannabinoids to that liquid, why wouldn't they drink that? Cannabis drinks are competing with other beverages, because they're beverages with cannabis in it. When they go to a party that doesn't allow smoking, are they going to pop a gummy and walk around with empty hands? When they get on a airplane, are they going to eat a gummy and then not get their free beverage? I want cannabev in both those scenerios. Non-alc beverages are 6% of the adult beverage category. Those drinks have zero cannabinoids or alcohol in it are are expensive. That category will get eaten up by cannabev. Pictured is one of my favorite cannabev brands, Happie, who also has their own flower farm. So it's not drink or smoke, it's do both.

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Good morning California Cannabis Industry, Today, in the economic evolution of cannabinoids (both cannabis and help), there's one question remaining: WHO WON THE RACE TO THE BOTTOM?  I'd love to hear your thoughts.  

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Instead of wine, let’s look at craft cannabis vs craft beer, which holds 24.7% of total US beer market share at retail! This means craft cannabis will be the same? Right? Not really… At wholesale, (where they actually make their money) craft brewers only hold 13.3% of sales. In some ways, yes, there are models in this category that could be feasible for cannabis companies to follow, (Tilray thinks so…) But that’s the point….TILRAY is the #6 ‘craft brewing’ company in the country… Simply put, ‘craft cannabis’ doesn’t equate to ‘craft beer’. “Craft Brewers” are defined by the Brewers Association as: SMALL Annual production of 6 million barrels of beer or less (approximately 3 percent of U.S. annual sales). Beer production is attributed to a brewer according to rules of alternating proprietorships. INDEPENDENT Less than 25 percent of the craft brewery is owned or controlled by a beverage alcohol industry member that is not itself a craft brewer. So… you can own 3% of total national market share, and Anheuser Busch can own 25% of your company, and you’d still be considered a craft brewer. This includes companies like: Boston Beer Co. (2,793 employees), $2B in sales Sierra Nevada (1,050 employees), $320M in sales Tilray , (1,600 employees*), $152M in sales *includes cannabis employees One vital point being missed in the comparison between wine and beer and cannabis… we have to note that both wine and beer exist in complex supply chains, wher the grower of the grape very often may not bottle or brand (i.e.selling bulk), and where beer requires hops and barley, which are grown by farmers. So… who are the cultivators in this scenario? The brewers? Or are they barley farmers?

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Holistic Approach to Revenue Operations A common error in management is compartmentalizing sales, marketing, and operational roles too rigidly: that all teams are aligned and working towards common goals. Marketing should generate leads that sales can close effectively, while operations should ensure fulfillment capabilities match sales efforts. Recognize that while sales teams are directly responsible for driving revenue, other departments like marketing and PR play crucial supportive roles that prepare the ground for sales to succeed. Each function strengthens the other, and their activities should be integrated rather than segregated

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I think all the drinks manufacturers and canna-beverage hype is completely fake. I don't believe consumers prefer to drink Cannabinoids. The data doesn’t support that. I do believe cannabis-drinks are more costly to produce/deliver to a consumer, are more costly per inch of shelf space, ultimately for a lower dose/cannabinoid count per dollar spent, and therefore economics will inevitably maintain the drinks-category in 1-2% total marketshare territory.

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Why are value brands and high end brands dominating the cannabis space? It’s the natural progression of a commodity CPG product: Phase 1: Price Shopping The market is new. Supply has not met demand. Goods are overpriced and most shoppers buy the most THC they can, for the least amount of money. Novelty goods move well becuase there is still novelty in dispensary shopping, but there isn’t a ton of differentiation in SKUs. In general, consumers are not smoking as much as they would like. They come into a dispensary with $100, get a half oz or less, and wish they left with more. Phase 2: Value Shopping The market is somewhat mature. Supply has met demand but not necessarily outpaced it. Shoppers are searching for the best intersection of price and quality (aka value). Overpriced novelty goods start to die out, and good brands begin to differentiate themselves. In general, customers are smoking close to their fill every day, but they don’t have a ton of extra cash to try new things. They come into a dispensary with $100, get a cheap oz from a brand they trust or a half oz of nicer product, plus an infused preroll or two, and feel pretty damn good about their purchase. Phase 3: True CPG Shopping The market has matured. Supply has exceeded demand and prices are near the long term ‘true cost’. Shoppers repeatedly buy from brands they trust becuase they provide consistent value. They have ‘daily smoke.’ High end goods that demonstrate consistent value begin to take up a larger portion of baskets. Why…? Becuase customers can finally get as much product as they want for the $100 they walk in with, PLUS a lot more than a couple infused prerolls. They come into a dispensary, spend $60-70 on an oz or a premium half, and still have $30-40 to spend! What are they spending it on? PREMIUM PRODUCTS. They toss in a jar of Jeeter, a 710 Pod, or a Cookies 1/8th… Lastly, becuase dispensaries (and the brands they carry) have diversified and build their menus strategically, when a customer has $3.50 left, out of the $100 they walked on with, the store can capture that as well. Retailers need to make sure their budtender sales process integrates with this type of behavior. Are they letting customers know what their ‘running total’ is before they get tot the close of the transaction, so the customer can max out their spend? Do you have a variety of $10 or less items to fill in those gaps? Do you have a solid offering of premium products in the $20-40 range that your budtenders are incentivized to sell as add ons? Likewise, brands in developing markets need to do their part to ‘arm’ retailers with a line of products that serves the shift in behavior we’ve seen in developed ones. Start thinking more about MSRP and use that to justify your cost targets and wholesale pricing. Position your brand as a daily solution or a premium treat, or be lost in the muddle of the middle. More than anything, PROVIDE CONSISTENT VALUE. The rest will follow.

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$1 Mil+ for some of these combines these days just to cut and process a crop. It’s become increasingly common these days for people to look at these million dollar machines and assume farmers are stacked with cash. Reality check: Farmers don’t enjoy paying that much for a machine (most of the time). These machines are designed and built for the ever increasing demand of larger operations needing more harvesting capacity per combine. This comes from increased need for efficiency to remain profitable but also a decrease in the labor force that used to exist to operate more machines. Love it or hate, this where the industry is now. With that said, these larger and more expensive machines are depreciating rapidly compared to there smaller equivalents. The problem with only catering to these larger growers is that most mid-size and smaller operations have no need for such monster machines, which leads to nearly no resale market. It will be interesting to see how the market plays out long term for these machines. #agriculture #farming #agronomy #farm #combine #harvest #food #bread #ruralamerica

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If you’re serious about #cannabis #cultivation, you need to check out the latest episode of "Inside Cultivation." No fluff, just hard-hitting insights that can take your grow right to the unparalleled level! In these episodes, we’re tackling: The cold hard facts about #nutrient #solutions that actually work—no more guesswork! How the latest tech is changing the game for growers everywhere. Proven tactics to boost your yield and potency—because anything less is just unacceptable. This isn’t a casual listen; it’s your roadmap to dominating the #cannabis #industry. If you want to be at the top of your game, you need to absorb this knowledge and apply it. Let’s get real and start cultivating success like we mean it! #CannabisCultivation #AdvancedNutrients #InsideCultivation #GrowHard Link: https://lnkd.in/gHDAmKMt

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Cali Cannabis Brands May Take Over but Maybe Not Cali Firms Californian (and BC) weed brands have a well-earned image and mojo – which will soon come under serious attack.  The foe is in plain sight:  shrewd MSOs & LPs who will use marketing precepts to beat the West Coasters at their own game.     In cannabis few brand values count more than pedigree, exclusivity, and authenticity. West coast brands have this in spades backed up by plenty of expertise and genetics. However, right now any MSO or LP can freely copy (with slight modifications) or create their own ‘Cali’ style brands.  As I type, I can sense the outrage and pushback by some.  Read on. Yes, true authenticity and community is not easily replicable to a connoisseur.  But for much of the current market as well as most future consumers, it’s a different story.  According to research, they care far less about the 'real thing' if their other needs are being satisfied.    The producer payoffs are great if you get it right.  To wit, the supply of Louis Vuitton handbags is small and exclusive.  Conversely, the market for fast-fashion Chinese knock offs is much bigger.  We’ve already seen Cali-inspired brands (e.g., Aurora’s San Rafael '71). However, these were early efforts, launched without deep consumer knowledge and constrained by onerous branding regulations.  This track record should not breed complacency.  Consider what’s going in the UK beer industry. Madri, a fake Spanish lager is eating share leader Carlsberg’s business. Madri has been criticized for marketing itself as “the soul of Madrid” despite being brewed in Yorkshire by Molson Coors.  The boss of Estrella Galicia, which has brewed beer in the Spanish region of Galicia for more than 100 years accused Madri of a “lack of transparency” over its heritage. This spat is part of a larger row around other so-called world beers that are actually brewed in the UK for British drinkers.  The Italian lager Birra Moretti, for instance, is brewed by Heineken in Manchester, while San Miguel, which was founded in the Philippines but is based in Spain, is made by Carlsberg in Northampton. Brand cooption is widespread in consumer goods.  For example, Haagen Daz is not a craft European brand;  it was invented in the Bronx in 1960.  Fashion accessories Parfois (French for "sometimes") is actually a Portuguese company.    Importantly, copycat brands don’t have to be great or authentic but rather skillfully created and able to create strong product-market fit. Countering this threat requires proactive effort including: 1. Establishing/meeting regional appellation programs & quality standards; 2. Creating IP-driven differentiation and; 3. Sustained, effective investments in brand building not only to protect but also build on home field advantages.    Let’s talk.  I help firms address these threats and capitalize on growth opportunities. #cannabis #brands #cannabisindustry #MSOs #beer #alcohol #LPs #California #BC 

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If you’re serious about #cannabis #cultivation, you need to check out the latest episode of "Inside Cultivation." No fluff, just hard-hitting insights that can take your grow right to the unparalleled level! In these episodes, we’re tackling: The cold hard facts about #nutrient #solutions that actually work—no more guesswork! How the latest tech is changing the game for growers everywhere. Proven tactics to boost your yield and potency—because anything less is just unacceptable. This isn’t a casual listen; it’s your roadmap to dominating the #cannabis #industry. If you want to be at the top of your game, you need to absorb this knowledge and apply it. Let’s get real and start cultivating success like we mean it! #CannabisCultivation #AdvancedNutrients #InsideCultivation

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What should you pay attention to when growing cannabis? Cannabis is a light-loving, short-day crop, and late-maturing varieties are more sensitive to light, so you need to pay special attention to light conditions when growing cannabis in a greenhouse. In the greenhouse, you can choose plant lights to supplement the light for cannabis, but when choosing fill lights, you should pay attention to the power of the plant lights. High-power plant lights are powerful and can meet the light requirements for cannabis growth. When choosing fill lights, you can consider LED plant fill lights. After a long period of development and research, LED plant lights have clear data to show that they can have a good fill light effect on vegetables, fruits, and flowers. They can be used in greenhouses. It can be used in laboratories and plant factories. #growtent #growtok #growtentsetup #growtentsforreptiles #plantlady #houseplantgrowroom #growroom #lifechanges #growlightsale #GardenCare #fullspectrumled #supplier #workshop #wholesalers #gardeninglove #hydropnicplants

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Community is a buzzword right now. It seems like everywhere I turn I hear every business, every podcast, every everyone talking about #community. #cannabiscommunity refers to the larger community of #cannabis users, a counter culture reference more than anything. What about operators? We're doing something that's incredibly difficult. We're building businesses in a developing industry where there's no playbook for success, access to capital is limited, and massive volatility is the norm. I've been an #entrepreneur for the majority of my career. Entrepreneurship is a lonely endeavor. Being an executive is hard, it can be lonely at the top. Being an entrepreneur or executive in the #cannabisindustry is a double whammy, lonely and stressful, squared. The most helpful thing I've found is the camaraderie of like minded people who are going through the same thing. On the most stressful of days, just knowing your not alone is comforting. Having a peer group to bounce big decisions off of is also incredibly valuable. That's why we built the Elite Cannabis Operators Mastermind Community, to create a forum for founders and executives in the cannabis space to come together and support each other. It's a vetted community for high level plant touching and ancillary operators who are also amazing people. If you're interested in networking with like minded people, we got that. If you want to connect with experienced peers who can give feedback on major decisions, we got that. Whether you've been in the game for a long time and you want to expand your network out of state, or you're new to the industry and looking for mentorship, we got that covered. If you've been sitting on the sidelines wondering about what we're doing, I encourage you to come check it out, it's a powerful group. Shoot me a DM for info on how to apply.

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Michigan cannabis sales are up “only” 2.2% YoY. Prices have dropped 24.2% YoY. Lots of people are sounding the alarm, but what does this really mean? WE SOLD 35% MORE UNITS YoY! Consumers still spent the same amount on weed, they just bought (a lot) more of it. This is the same trend we’ve been seeing for years. Your margins are shrinking on a per unit basis. To maintain profitability, you’ll have to sell more units. Consumers are happy to oblige. For a cultivator with limited amount of capacity, who can’t just conjure up more units without a massive infrastructure spend, this is an issue, but there are creative ways to continue to scale without investing in more lights. No, we aren’t seeing massive top line growth, but isn’t that a good thing? At this point, wouldn’t most Michigan operators choose stability over rapid growth at the expense of per unit profit? Don’t we generally see lower prices for the consumer as a good thing? (Yes, I know every other good has gotten more expensive while cannabis hasn’t- but that’s what happens in a brand new commodity market with an agricultural supply chain that takes years to develop.) This data set was published on the same day as news that Fluresh is closing its massive cultivation facility in Adrian, Michigan- and while the closure of a facility and the loss of jobs is nothing to be celebrated - the data and the news (on top of the rapid price compression we’ve seen recently) seem to mark a turning point in the industry. Several truths will become highly evident: Strong brands and lean operators will win out- because customers have more financial freedom to choose VALUE vs PRICE. Good partnerships will dominate- becuase they are able to scale (and operate) more efficiently than standalone competitors. Distribution is everything- becuase this is a volume game. CEOs who aren’t afraid to make the hard decisions will survive- becuase hard decisions will have to be made wether we like it or not, and how fast we respond to the facts in front of us could determine the survival of our companies.

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Pricing in cannabis is kinda wild. You can spend $30 on 1oz of flower. You can also spend $250 on 1 oz. The difference comes down to perceived quality. That also applies to concentrates. 1g concentrates are $8-$65. Rosin is considered the highest tier of concentrate quality, so it's usually ~$30-60/g. There are minimal discounts on bulk buying rosin. Customers want the best quality so you typically see buying just 1-3g at a time. ... Why am I sharing the above info? Because it still shocks me to see how a customer can be so happy and content with the decision to spend $300 on 5g of concentrates when the customer next to them is spending $40. Consumers will pay a lot for top shelf. Eastside Alchemy survives as a company because of that. What's the most expensive/cheapest you've ever paid for an ounce of weed?

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Cannabis startups are DEF a rollercoaster - 2 wks ago I was reeling from several gut punches... but today, things are looking bright: ✅ LOTS of new products in the pipeline that I'm SO pumped about... our Live Resin Vapes drop in NY before 710 and they're 🔥 🔥 🔥 . A bunch more new stuff I can't reveal them yet too… ✅ in NY, LIVE NUGS are in almost completely sold out - with most places re-ordering after < 2 wks selling a $100+ SKU! We’re getting a ton of inbound interest - shows that innovative products that deliver real value sell. Still early, but we should 2-3X our best month ever... NY as a market feels like it’s FINALLY getting its footing (hope I’m not jinxing us here). ✅ in CA, we've signed 4 MONSTER accounts since HoF and our new SKUs (esp Live Rosin Pre-Rolls and Live Rosin Vapes) are FLYING... it's painful for our cash flow to be scaling to meet demand, but feeling very positive about the turnaround in the most challenging state. About to sign up for the next big show in Sept… ❓thinking about expansion - though it's still early (wanna make sure our foundation & processes are solid in CA / NY)... but what potential partners should we be talking to in NJ for cultivation / processing / sales & distro? HMU via DM pls... None of this would be possible without our incredible team (Martin Mills, Cirona Labs, Peter Pietrangeli, Euphoric life , Lowell Farms Inc.) and our amazing retail partners. In general, I try not to get too high or too low - but feeling immensely optimistic about the state! Gotta celebrate the wins - as tomorrow I'm fully expecting to be punched in the face again LOL. BTW, in the rollercoaster analogy - which part is “good”? I assume it’s when you’re going downhill (despite Kevin Hart’s face)?! But then when we talk about life’s ups and downs or highs and lows - it’s the opposite right? Make it make sense?!

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The #cannabisindustry seems to be interested in HubSpot!!! Love it! 💚 The cannabis industry had grown leaps and bounds since I joined back in 2016. (2016!!!!??? It can't be that long... can it? 🥺😱🧓) I have seen the industry go from hiring only stoners and burners, to hiring the top executives from other industries. No longer is cannabis business done on the couch. It's grown up, put an clean shirt, and at least works from the kitchen table 😅 With professionalism, comes the software to track, implement, and grow. HubSpot has been one of the many tools in my tech stack that have helped me grow business and keep the team on the same page. What features of #HubSpot do you and your team use the most? Do you use it for #B2B or #B2C? Are there any features you wish were better tailored to the cannabis industry? 🍃 What other software providers are in your trlech stack? 🥞

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