Andrew Duffy, Founder & CEO, Best in Grow
As a leader and intuitive relationship builder, Andrew has a history of success defining strategic vision and launching new products in rapidly evolving industries. A skydiver and an avid outdoor rock climber with a Harvard education, Andrew is enthusiastic about taking calculated risks for big rewards, both personally and professionally.
Today Andrew is also CEO, and CoFounder of Best in Grow, a pioneering platform providing cannabis producers and retailers with scalable team management tools and actionable, people-centric data insights.
https://bestingrow.io/
andrew@bestingrow.io
https://www.linkedin.com/in/ajwduffy/
EPISODE TRANSCRIPT
[00:00:01] You're listening to Thinking Outside the Bud where we speak with entrepreneurs investors thought leaders researchers advocates and policymakers who are finding new and exciting ways for cannabis to positively impact business society and culture. And now, here is your host Business Coach Bruce Eckfeldt.
[00:00:30] Are you a CEO looking to scale your company faster and easier. Checkout Thrive Roundtable thrive combines a moderated peer group mastermind expert one on one coaching access to proven growth tools and a 24/7 support community created by Inc. Award winning CEO and certified scaling up business coach Bruce Eckfeldt. Thrive will help you grow your business more quickly and with less drama. For details on the program visit Eckfeldt.com/thrive. That's E C K F E L D T.com/thrive.
[00:01:07] Welcome, everyone. This is Thinking Outside the Bud. I'm Bruce Eckfeldt. I'm your host. And our guest today is Andrew Duffy and he is co-founder and CEO of Best In Grow. I'm gonna find out a little bit more about his background, about the business, about the cannabis space. Some interesting stuff they're doing. I think the whole kind of dispensary experience, the expense free process is a fascinating one for those who have been to a dispensary and kind of know how it works. I think we're we're seeing a revolution going on over the next couple of years in terms of how that plays out and best and growth is going to be a big player in that. So I'm excited about this. I'm excited to hear Andrew's thoughts and understand more about what they're doing in the space. So with that, Andrew, welcome to the program.
[00:01:45] Thanks so much, Bruce. I really appreciate it.
[00:01:47] So let's talk a little bit about you and your background, how you got into cannabis. The best and grow. And then we can talk about the work that you're doing and we'll chat about the cannabis space and what you see happening to the dispensary experience and in that process. So give us your background.
[00:02:01] Yeah, absolutely. So I graduated from Harvard with a degree in behavioral economics, and that sort of has colored everything I've done in my career since then. You know, I'm all about understanding people, understanding how people fit the system and being able to create good methodologies for predicting their behavior through time based on what we've seen them do in the past. And often that's not as rational as you'd expect, particularly relative to our old economic models, rational consumer. And so I took that sort of mindset into the finance world as my first my first job out of college. I worked at Bridgewater Associates, which your readers or your listeners may know is one of the largest hedge funds the world, one of the most successful in history, and is run by a really interesting man named Ray Dalio. So there I was working on a couple of different projects across portfolio structuring, across economic research, across commodities trading, where I really settled in and found my niche was in there, disruptive technologies division, where they were building out technology tools basically to take into account all of the new knowledge we had about how the psychology of the consumer works or more specifically in this case, the psychology of the investor and more broadly how we can apply that to the market. So in that resonated really not a lot. Yeah, it was really, really interesting was fascinating place to be and a great intersection of sort of the new wave of technology as well as the new wave of academia and research that we can start to build into our ways of understanding and sort of manipulating markets.
[00:03:25] So after that period of time, I was watching the cannabis boom happen from afar. Living in Westport, Connecticut, about as far from the green rush. And I saw it happening in Colorado, happening California, happening Washington, Oregon, I thought this is really the perfect time to enter the industry and build something that's gonna be foundational because we knew that the technology stack of cannabis was going to be built today as the industry was maturing and was sort of the last bastion of places you could get in on the ground floor of the industry without having to compete in the really challenging sort of features of the supply chain and the price compression we're seeing there. So we really want to be in the technology side. And my co-founder, Jake. His background is all around consumer product diligence. So understanding why products succeed or fail in the market. And so by combining those two backgrounds, we thought what we can do here is figure out tools, tricks, systems, technologies, which can allow dispensaries to better understand the products that they're selling, allow brands to better understand the products that they're making now and what they need to make. And fundamentally alter the way that consumers engage with cannabis products by improving the functionalities of those dispensaries and all their employees, because that's such sort of a critical linchpin of how the customer gets information and really survives and thrives in this cannabis market, which is still a pretty confusing place for the typical cannabis consumer.
[00:04:48] Well, when we start with give us an overview, give us your kind of take on kind of the current dispensary experience, the dispensary process, I mean, kind of educate people, you know, illustrate for people like how does it work right now if someone's coming in and interested in purchasing any kind of product? How how does the process work and what is the experience like?
[00:05:07] Absolutely. So I'd say the most critical piece of the dispensary experience today is the bud tender. The point of sale retail employee, that person who gives you the products, recommends products to you and ultimately executes on the transaction. So I don't think the power of that person can be understated because when a customer walks in the door. We've done some research and in markets like. Colorado and Washington, which are extremely advanced markets where consumers know a lot. Eighty five to ninety two percent of consumers that walk into a dispensary take the exact recommendation of the bartender. They're getting the exact product that that bartender puts in front of them. So often the experience of the consumer that walks into the dispensary is I'm walking to the dispensary. I see a hundred and fifty different S.K. use. I see all these different products, all these different methods of administration, all these different brands. But I don't have the education necessary to effectively differentiate between all these products. So my first step is always ask the bud tender. What should I try? Today, what's good? Have you tried this? Have you tried that? This is my use case. Can you give me a recommendation? So that really, I think is the most critical part of the dispensary ecosystem that we're seeing today. That may be changing or being enhanced in the future, but those butt tenders are not only critical for the consumer that walks in the door, they're also critical for the dispensary itself.
[00:06:18] If you look at any dispensary review Web site, 80 percent of the reviews focus on the knowledgeable bud tender and the quality of the recommendations that they provided. So typically, the success of a given dispense three in creating customer loyalty is related to the quality of their blood tenders and every dollar of revenue that the dispensary makes goes straight through the bud tenders hands. The bud tender is the person who is upselling cross-selling, selling the high margin product versus the low margin product. And unfortunately they have extremely high turnover. Bud tenders are really hard to keep around and dispensary partially because they're being paid minimum wage and dispensaries aren't really valuing them in the right way. Partially because the job is just really difficult. There's so many different products that can be potentially recommended. There's so many different compliance mistakes and a plague could potentially make. And partially because there's often a bit of a disillusionment when dispensary employee who's really passionate about cannabis comes in and realizes that in large part this is a retail job. It's it's not just cannabis. It's also retail, which is, as we all know, extremely difficult and very high turnover. So, no, the typical Bud tender lasts about three months at a dispensary, which is very costly for the dispensary.
[00:07:18] And also just not a quality work experience for the bud tender. So that's hard news for a dispensary. And then on the brand side, obviously, since the bud tenders are the ones that are determining what the number one product recommended is or the top three product recommended are, that means that the bud tender is really deciding which brands succeed or huge power that the brand is desperate to understand. How can we get these bud tenders on our side or at least make sure that they know who we are so that if a customer says, Hey, I specifically need this microdots edible, that'll help me with my athletic endeavors. And I'm also an executive and I'm also a mom. Then the brand that has really geared their product towards that person knows that the bud tenders going to recommend that. So I'd say that. But tender is really critical to dispensary experience because of the lack of education outside dispensaries, because the delivery and pickup ecosystem is still really just not there yet. And a lot of states have an authorized delivery. And because the dispensary and the brand are so limited in their ability to advertise that they have to rely on that in-store experience to educate and improve the experience of customers.
[00:08:15] Yeah. And I don't know how many people listening have have actually gone through the country and been through the process. But it is it's fascinating. I mean, you you start out with really security and you have to give out I.D. and all this stuff and check in and like walking into an army base. Yeah, it's intense. And then and then, you know, it really varies. I mean, I've seen some that are, you know, a little shady and a little bit like, you know, you kind of have to talk to people. And it's it's a little feels like a back room. In other cases, it's like it's like Best Buy.
[00:08:43] I mean, they've got, you know, glass cases and blimps flying around all these kind of crazy things. So the experience really varied.
[00:08:50] But it all comes down to this bud tender. And, you know, when you go in and you see the all the different products and all the different methods of application and the different cultivars and, you know, you know, it's just it is overwhelming even for someone who has tried to do a pretty good job of keeping up to date on all these things going in, getting the information making decision is is hard. And the other one is you don't know exactly what they have in stock. And then you may you know, they may be things that are very similar, but you don't know them. So this bud tender becomes hugely important in terms of what what actually gets purchased, you know, a huge amount of influence over the process.
[00:09:26] I don't think that that's something that's really specific, even necessarily to the cannabis industry. I think it's specific to the types of products that require an effective point of sale influencer. So if you look at industries like outdoor gear or cosmetics and beauty, there is still a huge amount of influence for the point of sale employee even though you could go on Ari ICOM and learn about a kayak and purchase it. More people feel comfortable going in to get that expert opinion because there's a high consequence of purchase that has to work for you. Otherwise you'll be in danger. There's a wide variety of SKUs. And typically it's an expert who's used that product before talking to a novice who hasn't tried that product before. So that dynamic is something that we see in retail all the time, but it's something that in cannabis is even more extreme because the lack of customer education, the lack of really reliable information. So even when you talk about those small mom and pops vs. the big multi-state operators with huge change that feel like an Apple store, the linchpin of that interaction is still the. Engagement with a bud tender because customers will go to the place where they feel comfortable and cared for, even if it's a seedy or experience or they don't have products and talk as often.
[00:10:36] So I think that that human experience definitely comes first. But you're right. The dispensary experience itself has really started to diverge pretty significantly. I was in L.A. this past weekend and and that was a really great example of how there's a massive variety of dispensary experiences you can reasonably have all the way from the totally unlicensed back alley dispensary to the small mom and pop that's making its way in the world to the medicines that really feel like the gleaming, polished experience that you'd expect from high end retailers that we work with today on any given vertical B that computers or, you know, high quality luxury clothing. Those different experiences differ pretty widely. But because the cannabis industry is so dependent on that point of sale employee to effectively guide customers through their decision making process. The ones that succeed are actually the ones that have the best relationships between their bud tenders and our customers rather than necessarily the ones that are spending the most on iPods and the front of the store or having, you know, a really cool billboard campaign in L.A., that kind of deal.
[00:11:38] Yeah. So we have this huge industry that it all kind of ends up becoming dependent and focused on this experience that someone has with a particular bun tender at a retail experience and a retail environment. And that's really going to drive drive the success of the dispensary. You know, in terms of developing.
[00:11:52] Exactement. Customers, it's then how does best thing grow fit into this? How have you kind of analyze this and looked at what you can do from technology and, you know, all the all the stuff that you've developed over the years being in finance and psychology?
[00:12:04] Yeah, absolutely. So the two big pieces of the platform are really about enhancing bud tenders in two different ways. So on the one hand, Bud tenders have a really large set of requirements that they have to execute on from just an operations perspective. So you're given bud tender is not just a point of sale retail employee. They're essentially a mini compliance officer for their entire business. They have to execute everything perfectly or else their dispensary can get shut down. I imagine some of your listeners are familiar with Sweet Leaf, but just to briefly go over it to Colorado dispensary chain that had tens of dispensaries shut down, I believe it was more than 20 shut down and a multi multi-million dollar business was ultimately shuttered because they weren't effectively managing the amount that customers could purchase at any given store.
[00:12:50] So they're pulling out of compliance?
[00:12:53] Exactly. Falling out of compliance because one or two bud tenders were not effectively managing those processes. So that not only is a huge risk for the dispensary, but it's a huge risk for the BUTTNER themselves. So on the one hand, what we produce is essentially a full suite of workforce management tools that help bartenders do everything they need to do on a day-To-Day basis, all in one place. It's not 10 software platforms, instead it's just one. It's Web, Iaw and Android. So it works just as well on your phone and your computer. And it's ultimately designed to be as fun and usable and engaging as a Facebook or an Instagram or other sort of millennial and genze adapted social media sites because typically bud tenders are not experienced in corporate environments. They're not experienced with traditional corporate technology tools. And they're not using deskbound tools like the G Suite or Assan or Microsoft teams. They want to use something that's mobile and effectively managing their relationship with their dispensary in the dispensary and outside the dispensary. So one piece of it is just if your organization needs anything related to making your bud tenders, execute on their jobs, be that compliance, be that checklist, document management, information management, chat all the ways you might need to communicate. That's sort of our our first line of business. But what I think is really critical to moving the industry forward and moving any given dispensary forward is all about optimizing the bud tenders engagement with the customer. So our most recent product, Sparkplug, is a tool that's designed to teach Bud tenders in a gamified and daily way exactly how they can more effectively sell to customers, improve the quality of their recommendations, and then educating them specifically based on the data that we pull out of the P.O.S.
[00:14:27] about what products they are or aren't selling. So for example, if one of your bud tenders is not selling enough edibles, which is a high margin product and is something that you're trying to move off the shelf, this system will automatically detect that, push them and edibles training and then create a sales contest for them over the next two weeks where if they're able to sell this many edibles in the course of their work over those two weeks, then they'll get this or that prize. So it's really kind of an automated way to motivate and improve the quality of your employees. And we found that by improving the quality of their engagements in a sales process, you're actually improving the customer experience in a big way because a lot of retail employees, let alone bud tenders, just don't really know how to get a customer to the right product. Their job is more akin to what I would imagine a doctor is doing rather than what someone is selling at Aeropostale or American Eagle. These people are saying, you know, what is your height, weight, experience with pharmaceuticals, experience with cannabis? What types of ailments do you have? What do you want to have? Are you looking for what are side effects you're looking to avoid? And then the BUTTNER has to synthesize the all that and give them a recommendation, basically a prescription for a product like that's a huge job. That's a really challenging job. So we basically smush all of those efforts into one platform to make it as easy and automated as possible.
[00:15:43] Are you helping Bud tenders actually collect information from a patient or a dispensary visitor in terms of those ailments and desired effects? And what are they like? What are they not like? Previous cannas experience? What kind of modalities are they shouldn't like?
[00:15:56] You're actually going through that kind of information and helping you kind of navigate them to the right kind of products based on this taxonomy of questions that you can go through.
[00:16:05] Yeah, exactly. So there are a couple of different ways that we do that. One is just by educating a big piece of it, as do blood centers actually know all the products you have. Do they know how those modalities and methods of administration that you mentioned actually interact and could affect the experience the person has? So that's step one. Make sure that they know all those things. And then step two is exactly what you've mentioned there, which is information capture. So pulling in information about what this customer really wants to have, what this customer is like, and then creating a feedback loop of what that customer subsequently experience, because that's what you really have to know. You know, giving a recommendation is only better and better when you get feedback about was that a quality recommendation?
[00:16:46] How do you get that feedback? How do you know that that was a good recommendation or not a good recommendation?
[00:16:50] Yes. Typically right now we're doing it in a relatively sort of manual way. You can input information that you pull out of the consumer when you're talking to them. With that first engagement, you can indicate or more. So it's automatically indicated by the P.O.S. data that we get from the interaction. You can then figure out what product they purchase and then when that particular consumer comes back into the store, how to pay you to indicate, hey, what was your last product purchase like? How did that go? Did you like this? Did you not like this? And that today is one of the best ways to gather that information. There's a lot of product coming out like, you know, the go fire or other products that actually collect that at the point of administration, you know, they'll give you a vaporizer dose and then you'll put in your feedback on an application. I think that while those are really cool, innovative methodologies for getting that information, they're honestly a little bit ahead of the consumer curve. There are not a lot of cannabis consumers out there who are looking to have a personally optimized vaporizer that gives them a medically precise dose of a particular product. Eighty percent of cannabis consumers are just looking to have a fun time at this dinner party with their friends or have a good hike. So ultimately getting those more qualitative pieces of feedback actually gets a little further down the line than that. But we're always looking for ways to make that more effective and automated. So, you know, there are a couple of different irons in the fire as to how we can get that data more efficiently.
[00:18:07] And how do you balance the kind of, you know, what is best for a customer and what's best for a patient in terms of the products available versus what is financially bestor or most business from the business point of view, what do they want to push and where the margins are? Like, how do you balance those two forces?
[00:18:26] That's a great question. That's a question we get a lot, particularly from medical dispensaries, because they not only have typically a different set of regulations around how they have to interact with their employees, but they also typically just have a different philosophy. It's a different mindset around what their patients mean to them. They think of them very much as patients rather than as customers. So that's something that we adapt to specifically by attempting to combine education with sales training and sales enablement. So there are sort of three pieces to that on the education side. Everybody needs education, like I mentioned, either in the recreational dispensary where the employee needs to know what products we carry and just what their effects are and if that would be fun for them or not. That's one thing. On the medical side, it's even more critical because they have to recommend products that have to effectively fit into a treatment protocol that this person is essentially building for themselves. Obviously, doctors aren't really as involved as they should be in that process yet. We don't have a ton of research around how those products are specifically if they are people. But there are obviously some rules for the road that you can provide that will put bumpers on the experience in terms of what's a an effective and healthy dosage. What are effective and healthy ways for people to engage with these products e.g. taking a bit of an edible first before taking the whole lot of it like that's you.
[00:19:36] Everyone's had that problem. Exactly. Everyone's been there. Even those experienced among us.
[00:19:42] And I think that that piece is really critical for ensuring that the bud tender is always thinking about, OK, is this product right for the consumer first? That's always their first step in this process. And we reinforced that by figuring out exactly what sales techniques those bud tenders need to learn. So typically a good salesperson will first off figure out what will make a customer that walks into the door happy, what will be the thing that solves their need and what will then make them a better returning customer who's had a great experience. That's step one. If you can do that successfully, that everything else is gravy. And then what we teach after that is, OK, how do we get more gravy? So figure out, does this customer like this particular product? Do they like this particular method administration or. They like this particular price range. So basically exploratory questioning and processes and data analysis through time to figure out what is it that this customer is looking for and is comfortable with. So when you figured out what it is that the customer needs to be successful in their life, that's great. You set that as the baseline and then subsequently you can figure out what can we upsell this customer to so that they'll spend more money in our dispensary. And ultimately, the customer is going to be the one who decides whether that product is financially right.
[00:20:54] For that, they're going to be able to say, no, I can't afford that. No, I don't want that. And ultimately, the only question that really puts those two into conflict is the question of margin. So the dispensary itself can make a particular margin on a product based on how much money it cost and how much money they sell it for. So for branded products that come from other companies, there's obviously a lower margin for the dispensary than for a vertically integrated product that they bring through their whole supply chain. So there are some equivalences there that we work out specifically by breaking down the attributes of each product and saying, all right, how do these two products differ? And figuring out, OK, if this product is the right one for this customer preference, that that's the thing that really matters. If it doesn't matter which one they get, then ultimately let's go with the higher margin, one that helps the dispensary out a bit more, because ultimately what we're doing here is trying to helps dispensaries succeed. So you really have to balance those financial and sort of philosophical modalities effectively by gathering as much data as possible, because more times than not, the customer will tell you what's right for them. And if you're giving them the wrong experience, they just won't come back.
[00:21:56] And how do you I mean, how do you do the recommendations? I mean, it's just like a Netflix algorithm that's saying, well, these torpedos and this price level and isn't it? What's the algorithm or the math that underlies kind of the related product side? And what have you been able to figure out?
[00:22:10] Yes. So that's something that we're always in process on. I guess the way I'd put it is that, you know, if you look back into if you look into the Netflix algorithm, which I haven't, but I can I can probably give you a little bit of an understanding of what it would be like, hey, I imagine are getting 80 percent of the information about what movies you're going to like from five data points. And those are things like your age, your gender, your viewing history by genre. And, you know, the typical length of movie that you like to watch and maybe some data about the actual content of that of that what actors are in there, what actors are in it, you know, whereas it placed all these different things that I'm sure they have infinite data points. But nine times out of 10, you get 80 percent of the way with just a few data points. So what you're going to find is that with cannabis consumers, it's it's relatively similar, which is that when they're asking for a particular product, the dispensary feature set of products say they have, you know, three different sets of gummies and they have three different sets of chocolates and they have three different sets of beverages is not so widely varied that it's particularly difficult to differentiate those products based on, you know, a host of variables like you don't even really need to look into the Turpin profiles. And realistically, we can't look into the Turpin profiles. So we don't have enough data about how those affect people. So more often than not, it's about us taking in a very limited amount of information about the consumer. And then you go through those five data points or so being able to then spit out what product works for them because there's only so many products in the dispensary. You know, maybe three within it, give it a better administration. And subsequently those products only differ in maybe three or four ways. So the best choice will become clear relatively quickly without too much data.
[00:23:51] So, you know, it's kind of the 80/20 rule. And so I give a small, small set of things will actually get you pretty far down the path.
[00:23:57] And I'm curious how, like one of the things I do see that happens a lot at the dispensary is you go in wanting a certain thing and they don't have that or they don't have it in that format or in that, you know, that concentrate or they don't have a particular cultivar.
[00:24:11] So how I guess do you and how do you capture kind of the request side of things and and drive kind of the well, what product should we be acquiring or developing or, you know, increasing our inventory levels? Do you capture more than just what was actually sold but what was requested?
[00:24:29] So we actually don't do that yet. But you really effectively predicted our roadmap. That's a that's a huge piece for us, because as you mentioned, one of the biggest just practical dislocations in cannabis that we have today is the supply chain. So the dispensary doesn't necessarily have all the products and stock that they should. And often that's related to the fact that they don't have time to go through their inventory all the time and see what they need to reorder or constantly be re-evaluating what SKUs to carry. They're already getting their doors knocked down by brand salespeople trying to get their product in that dispensary. So a lot of them take them the more closed off methodology up. I've got the products that worked for me. I'm not looking for new products. So that's something that we're really looking to innovate towards, is a system where they can very clearly see what products if I were to introduce them in the dispensary today, would be selling like hotcakes, would already be going out the door, would be making my customers happy because they felt like we listened to them. That's something that we're. We're always looking to capture. But what's challenging is that there isn't really a great way to transfer that data of this person asked for this product and we didn't have it, too.
[00:25:37] OK. How do we actually match that in a scalable way with an existing product SKU that's sort of out there in this brand new product? Like there's no database underlying the cannabis industry that says this is what this product is called. This is what it is. And this is who it's by. It'd be great if that existed. And that's something that we can sort of build to a degree with our access to P.O.S. data. But that's a real challenge and I think is ultimately going to be something that the cannabis industry has to deal with pretty quickly, because if it wants to be the type of industry where people come in and they rely. You feel like they're going to be able to get the products that they want, then they need to have a really good system for vendor managed inventory. They need to have a really good system for effectively slotting products. They need to have a really good system for taking in customer feedback. So, yeah, that's something that we're building towards, but which is a challenging because of just the Wild West nature of the space. You know, so many brands, so many products, so many dispensaries and so little infrastructure between them.
[00:26:29] Well, I think if vertically integrated companies like xorra and stuff like that, where they you know, someone someone buys something in the store and it's, you know, signaling some cutter somewhere to like, you know, to cut another pattern off a particular cloth because, you know, the demand cycle. Like if we get bigger and I get I mean, the challenge, obviously, in our case is that, you know, you can't you know, you still have to grow the plant.
[00:26:49] You know, you can't you know, there's there's going to be a natural lag in that. But yeah, really getting that being able to get that supply chain management and product management process in place.
[00:26:58] And if you have a big enough dataset like someone like Zorah obviously has a really a big dataset of what products we should make when these customers choose these products. Now, you know, you can theoretically create an algorithm that is effectively predicting what products you're going to want and has it on its way to you before you even buy it. Like that's that's the Amazon dream. You don't even have to go to Amazon to buy a product. They just know so much about you that they send you the product before you even ask for it. And that that, I think is obviously a challenging sort of platonic ideal to point towards, but should be the way that a dispensary thinks about what's in my store they should think about. All right. These customers today really like microdots, products, and they really like microdots, edibles. But it seems like there's also a trend of consumers going towards more easily administer ribal products like vaporizers, which can make you feel the effects more immediately than, say, an edible. But there's also this crosswind trend of people being afraid of vaporizer. The reason, the recent challenges associated with them. So how can they find the perfect next product that's going to be the one that they introduce their new consumer to? You know, it's it's extremely product 10x more costly for a dispensary to acquire a customer than to maintain a customer relationship. So if you can just get that customer to purchase more product, then you're making a much more effective margin play on your marketing dollars.
[00:28:19] Yeah, it certainly seems like with enough data you can start to segment out, you know, early adopter customers versus early majority customers and you could start to predict, hey, win when this customer starts to try this thing, this is the probable, you know, their purchase history over the next six months. Like you get some pretty good models for for what your demand is going to be. And I like the idea that the vaporizer stuff as you could actually start pulling some data very, very quickly. You know, within a day or two, you start to know like, how is this news cycle on vaporizer issues going to impact sales? Well, what what's gone on in the last 24 hours and people that normally would come in and buy a vaporizer or they're not buying vaporizers or is this just we have different people in here and they're just not vaporizer buyers?
[00:28:58] You know, being able to distinguish within those would be hugely IOL strategically and would be really interesting is if you could combine that data pipeline with those high precision tech enabled vaporizers like the gunfire that I mentioned, such that you could tell if people are even vaporizing less power. Ever since that news. And you use that as a predictive mechanism to determine what you should offer people, how you should get them in the store, because that really feeds into everything that you put in front your customer, whether it's your text loyalty program or your email blasts or the products that you put most prominently displayed outside of the store or kind of in the front of the store. Those things are the things that bring customers in. And if you're not getting them with that first immediate gut check where they see something and want to have it or want to touch it or just want to learn more about it, then you're never going to be able to win in a crowded space. In Colorado, there are more dispensaries in Denver than there are Starbucks and McDonald's and subways in the entire state. So there is a massive competitive flood of people trying to get soumerai balls and get consumer dollars. But if you're not the one that they look at and immediately feel for a reason that is likely more subconscious than it is conscious that you're the place they should go, then you're not going to win that fight.
[00:30:12] Yeah, I'm just talking about the vapor as a one. If I could. If I knew my vaporizer customers and actually pushed on a new cycle, push them a notification saying, hey, we've got an edible for you, that's the exact same. We'll give you the exact same. In fact, we're going to give you two.
[00:30:28] You know, 50 percent off. You can come in and pick it today. You just, you know, just tell him at the counter it's your name. You know, that whole like if you could really map to the customer situation and their concerns and get them product, that is really going to help them. Mean, you've got a customer for life. You start doing stuff like that.
[00:30:42] Exactly. Exactly. And that that becomes more difficult and more differential as more people enter the market. You know, at the beginning of the wrecked market, it was typically males age 21 to 29. Consuming 80 percent of the cannabis and consuming it through flower. But now we're moving into all these different administration, all these different personas and micro-target like there's so much more possibility to be had and really loyal customer bases to be built when we have this big diverse set of customers coming into the industry. And that means that every dispensary doesn't have to be competing to be the one that has the most THC for the fewest dollars. Instead, it can be the place that has the most welcoming environment for new customers or the place that has the most effective stock of edibles to give you the feeling that you want without having to inhale anything. You know, those processes actually create, I think, more niches for more successful people to enter into, whereas a lot of dispensaries today have the viewpoint that that's just adding complexity and that it's challenging for them to manage because, you know, they don't want to have to find a niche, but the ones that succeed are the ones that find that niche and and really evolve into it.
[00:31:49] Yeah, I agree with you. I always saw all the companies I go strategy on is that there aren't. Our goal is not to compete, to win. Our goal is to compete to be different. And if you can figure out that difference, that's the recipe for success, because you're not going head to head is just going to lead to a commoditized product and service. And it's a race downhill. Exactly.
[00:32:05] Andrew, this has been a pleasure. I love what you guys are doing with Best and Grow. I'm I'm fascinated about the data side.
[00:32:11] I think you're in the right spot when it comes to the big factors are going to drive the industry in the coming years. So kudos for you. If people want to find out more about you, about Bessen grow. What's the best way to get that information?
[00:32:22] Yeah, absolutely. So our Web site, www.bestingrow.io. It’s a great place to learn more about the product. We have a ton of white papers and other content on there that are helpful for sensory operators trying to learn how to optimize their operations or brand operators looking to figure out what products they should be building or, you know, employees in the dispensary who want to figure out how to become a more effective day to day piece of their dispensary puzzle. And even for customers who are looking to figure out, OK, how can I engage with dispensary most effectively? So lots of information on there for you. Would love to hear from anybody on LinkedIn. Andrew Duffy should be pretty easy to find. Yeah, happy to connect there. And yeah, anyone who has any questions or interesting ideas for a partnership or would be interested in using the platform, please, please feel free to reach out. Also at Andrew at best and grow that io's my e-mail.
[00:33:11] Great. I'll make sure that those are in the show notes so people can click through and get that. Has been a pleasure. Thank you for taking the time to really interesting stuff that you're doing. It was really valuable conversation.
[00:33:19] Likewise. Thanks so much, Bruce. I really appreciate your time and thanks to everyone for listening.
[00:33:25] You've been listening to Thinking Outside the Bud with Business Coach Bruce Eckfeldt to find a full list of podcast episodes. Download the tools and worksheets and access other great content. Visit the Web site at thinkingoutsidethebud.com. And don't forget to sign up for the free newsletter at thinkingoutsidethebud.com/newsletter.