Interviewed – US Hemp Co

Denver, CO (PRWEB) December 19, 2014

Since the inception of Colorado’s recreational cannabis industry, the market has grown significantly. Apart from growers, processors, and retailers, the industry has created opportunities for all types of niche businesses. One such business is Primal Wellness, the world’s first day spa offering cannabis-infused products and related services, located in Englewood, Colorado. The spa offers a variety of massages, manicures, pedicures, yoga classes, and other services to tourists and local residents who want to experience the physical (non-psychoactive) benefits of cannabis products.

Recently, Ganjapreneur interviewed Danielli Martel, founder of Primal Wellness, as part of a series of entrepreneur and investor profiles featuring pioneers in different sectors of the rapidly growing marijuana industry. In the interview, Martel discusses her career before she founded Primal Wellness, what she thinks the future of the cosmetics industry looks like given the likelihood of new cannabis- and hemp-based products, as well as some of the obstacles that she faced while growing the business.

Coming from a background of sales, marketing, and real estate, Martel has grown Primal Wellness into a successful operation in just a few years. “We currently have contracts with almost 20 therapists and yoga instructors,” Martel says. “Additionally, in keeping with the idea of mentoring, my partner and I have recruited three up and coming young women who are passionate about health, wellness, and business, and have given them an ownership opportunity. While they will be responsible for the daily operations of the Spa and Studio, we will be supporting them through our roles as CEO and CFO and as mentors.”

Martel estimates that a large percentage of Primal Wellness’s customer base is derived from tourism. “We’ve had people visit from Boston, San Diego, San Antonio, Kansas City, Vegas, and even a few other countries. While the initial boost has been tourists, we are starting to see more activity from the local community. The yoga studio membership is quickly growing and as the members learn about the benefit of infused treatments, we are starting to see crossover. Additionally, we have partnered with several medical care providers, both MMJ on non-MMJ related, who are starting to refer patients for care.”

Primal Wellness’s road to success, however, was not without its twists and turns. While creating the business, Martel says the most difficult obstacle she faced was finding a suitable location. “It was challenging to find something centrally located, friendly toward the business model, in a community that would allow it, and with parking. We got lucky and found a location that is only 15 minutes from the center of Denver, located near shopping and dining, right off the RTD line, we have ample parking, and we are just enough off the beaten path to provide privacy and serenity.”

The full interview is available on Ganjapreneur’s website. In addition to interviews with prominent “ganjapreneurs,” the website also offers an open-source marijuana slang dictionary, a B2B service provider directory for marijuana businesses, a marijuana job feed which aggregates listings from around the web, as well as a Freelancer’s Network to help cannabis-friendly professionals find work. The site has released an app on the Google Play marketplace, and has announced that it will be available via the Apple App Store in the near future.

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Seattle, WA (PRWEB) December 31, 2014

As public support for the legalization of marijuana has grown, so has the speculation that the cannabis industry could be poised for a major boom if the US federal government changes its policy toward the drug. Like any other emerging market, the cannabis industry has piqued the interest of many venture capital and investment firms around the globe. Recently, Ganjapreneur, a website dedicated to the growing industry, published an interview with Douglas Leighton, founding partner of Dutchess Capital, an investment group which has recently focused its investments on cannabis start-ups.

In the interview, Leighton discusses how Dutchess Capital came to view the cannabis industry as an opportunity and what led to their eventual decision to invest in several start-ups. “It took us about 10 months of due diligence before we were comfortable to make the first investment,” he states. “We joined ArcView, the angel network for the cannabis industry, in the summer of 2013 and met Isaac Dietrich of MassRoots and subsequently made the first investment.” MassRoots is a popular, pseudo-anonymous social network for cannabis users. Leighton elaborates, “They are largest social networking site for the cannabis community and have grown over 2,000% year over year. They are anonymously collecting a tremendous amount of data from their user base such as a user’s strain preference, time of day they consume, consumption method among other key data collection points. They will be able to monetize this data via sponsored posts of either localized merchants and/or national brands.”

Leighton also discusses his predictions for the future of the industry as more and more states begin to legalize cannabis. “The largest market will be pharmaceutical marijuana. This will be a genetically modified version of what is used today for medicinal purposes. The power of this plant is not fully understood; once big pharma understands it, they will get involved.”

Beyond a thriving medical market, Leighton believes that every niche associated with cannabis or hemp will likely see major growth over the next several years. However, this doesn’t mean that every business will prove to be successful. Leighton explains, “investing in this industry is like playing chess without being able to see the board. Eventually ignorance will abate, the banking issue will be fixed and the drug will be rescheduled.”

The full interview can be found on Ganjapreneur’s website, or via their Android app which was launched on the Google Play market earlier this year. Ganjapreneur has announced that their app will also be available in the Apple App Store in the near future. The site launched over the summer, and has since published a large volume of business-related articles and interviews pertaining to cannabis.

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