One of the more positive developments for the nascent legal cannabis industry has been the development of cannabis-focused incubators and accelerators, like CanopyBoulder and Gateway, which serve as valuable resources for entrepreneurs in cannabis startups, helping them learn to scale their businesses and to improve their capital-raising skills. Some founders have also reached out to more traditional accelerators, like Expert DOJO, which is based in Santa Monica, California.
In an interview with LA Weekly, Founder Brian Mac Mahon, who spent more than a decade with virtual office leasing company Regus before forming the predecessor to Expert DOJO, which launched in early 2014 and has worked with over 600 startups, shared words of caution for any cannabis entrepreneur. Mac Mahon, who notes that the typical failure rate for technology startups is 97%, expects cannabis startups to face even longer odds.
There’s a tiny investment market and the investors who are investing are investing in cannabis products they already know and cannabis people they’ve known for a long time, so people who are new to the industry have a very small chance of breaking in even if they’ve got an amazing product.
Brian Mac Mahon, Head Honcho at Expert DOJO
Despite his concerns, Mac Mahon, who also warns against giving up too much equity to investors, is optimistic about the opportunities and expects more cannabis entrepreneurs to work with his company.
Ready Shelby Hartman’s “How Cannabis Incubators Help Budding Marijuana Startups Grow Into Booming Businesses”: http://www.laweekly.com/news/how-cannabis-incubators-help-budding-marijuana-startups-grow-into-booming-businesses-7689376
