Every entrepreneur has a journey, often littered with the twists and turns of any good storyline, the path often leads you where you least expect it. Well, our stories are no different.
One of our most frequently asked questions is 'what led you to creating a cannabis incubator'? As the question may infer, we're not your stereotypical spokespeople for the cannabis industry. As one reporter labeled us, "two tech wizards" (which we've never claimed to be), we come from a very mainstream industry. We launched Gateway after both stumbling across the cannabis community independently, but while both working with early-stage tech entrepreneurs at the Founder Institute and launching a relatively new effort called Pitch Coach.
Photo Credit: Jennifer Leahy Photography
Carter Laren's first exposure to the industry was through the eyes of an investor. John Downs of MJIC (now Gateway's management partner) approached Carter seeking his early-stage investment prowess. Carter had spent the past eight years angel investing and provided the critical eye MJIC needed when evaluating young cannabis companies. Carter quickly realized that the only sure-fire way to procure better deal flow in a nascent market is to build a business accelerator that produce the quality sought. Much like what happened with the tech industry over the past ten years.
As for myself, Ben Larson, for the past five years, I've dedicated my career to helping aspiring entrepreneurs realize their dreams by lowering the barriers of entry by leveraging my network and passing on the knowledge that I've gathered from many other's entrepreneurial experiences. Specializing in the art of the pitch, I decided to launch Pitch Coach and help founders better share their ideas with the world. In an organized coaching session preceding a WeedClub Pitch Event, I had the opportunity to meet five very passionate and creative cannabis entrepreneurs. We had only a short amount of time to work together, but two things became very clear to me: 1) there was an undeniable drive to these founders that was reminiscent of the the early days of technology, and 2) it was a raw passion that lacked the sophistication of the startup world. While I can't take claim for their success, those five companies did become the five finalists in the competition later that week.
Carter and I decided that we needed to be the ones to bring the lessons learned, along with the mentorship and capital, from Silicon Valley to the burgeoning cannabis industry. We also believe that our public image and approach will be a vehicle to bring cannabis to the mainstream and de-stigmatize this dynamic industry.
In the waning hours the evening/morning prior to our launch, Carter and I sat down at our laptops, and wrote the following articles on the 'how and why' of launching Gateway. Enjoy!
