Interview Transcript:
[00:07:50] Nick: Now we're going to head over to our interview with David.
[00:07:54] I'm really excited about this. There's always so much to talk about in the cannabis industry. So let's go ahead and bring on David Schacter, CEO of Cannabiscope. David, thanks for being on the show.
[00:08:07] David: What an honor to be on your first episode. This is so cool.
[00:08:10] Nick: Now, we've put a lot of work into this, so I'm looking forward to having you.
[00:08:14] So, first of all, I just want to kind of do a quick review here.
[00:08:19] The company has a live Reg. CF. currently raising on Microventures. You guys are in the cannabis technology space. You've built a unique SaaS menu platform for cannabis users to navigate the thousands of strains, outcomes and products to help them make the right purchase. So I thought the first thing we would do is let's start there. Let's focus on the end customer first. So if you could just kind of explain to me what exactly is Cannabiscope and how does like a normal consumer or buyer use it?
[00:08:54] David: Ok. Well, let me start with really why we do it. And it's you know, and people want to go and get a specific product and they go into a dispensary or they order online. They don't know what to get or or why they're necessarily getting it. So what we built was this interactive tool that you can use and click through and find products based on symptoms or by terpenes and smells. It started with an aroma wheel as cannabis flower has different smells all the terpenes. And then the cannabinoids are somewhat the medical effects. And then we work with dispensaries and we show the full menu page. So it's a tool to help people really find the right product and where to get it.
[00:09:36] Nick: Ok. So can you give us like a little bit of context here. So obviously the cannabis market is growing. It's, you know, more and more states are coming online with recreation or medical all the time. What is the inspiration? So what is going on in the industry that inspired you guys to build this?
[00:09:57] David: Well, I guess my story when I was living in Israel, it's medical cannabis is prescribed to patients based on really what they're suffering from. So cancer patients will get 100 grams or a PTSD will get 20 grams in America and grew up in Las Vegas. You have one hundred dollars and you go into a dispensary. It's really difficult to find what exactly you're looking for. It can be really overwhelming. So what we're doing is using the lab results. We collect lab results into that. It's mandatory that all the Terpene and Cannabinoid as well as pesticide, mold. Everything has to be tested by a third party with this distribution process. So you have cultivators, distributors, third party testing and dispensaries. The retailer. There's a lack of information that gets transferred to the customer. The customer has to know how much THC is in it, if any. Maybe it's just a heavy CBD product and what it's really supposed to do to you. And that's really what we're trying to do is provide information and be this education as well as a shopping experience.
[00:11:03] So while you're learning, you can also really find what you want to buy and talk about.
[00:11:10] Nick: Talk a little bit about the wheel specifically, because I think it's a really unique way of displaying things and also organizing things as well as capturing the data. So is there any story behind the wheel? Do. Is there some sort of educational science behind how it works in the way that it's organized? Or is this something that is proprietary that you guys just kind of came up with?
[00:11:35] David: So the idea came to me when I was in Amsterdam, and Doug Fine is now one of our advisors. He was speaking about terpenes and how there's aromas and there's all sorts of aroma wheels. Dr. Noble's wine wheel, there's whiskey beer, there's other wheels and cannabis. Well, it's really cool as my co-founders were able to make it this interactive wheel. And that's what sets us apart, is how you can click through and really find when you hit one layer, it opens up to another and another. And because of that, we can host all types of information. So personally, the way I use it is more for flowers and pre roles where my buddy, he likes the edibles, so he's into that section and dispensaries will have three to five hundred SKUs and they have to automate all the time. So when you look at a regular menu and it's just photos or names that are non-descriptive, it really doesn't help you find the right product. And cannabis can be such, so diverse in what it can do for people. And this, of course, affects, you know, your personal endocannabinoid system and how you react to it. But in general, these are the ratios. So when we're looking at the science of what what's really being tested and recording that and then the consumer side of it, wherever you consumer can have their own wheel, just like every business and there's a consumer, when you add products to it, you'll notice, oh, my wheel, for instance, is very like silver and yellow and green, like those strains of blue dream and flow, that kind of citrus smell. It's not sativa indica. It's more based on the terpenes and what's attractive to you as a person.
[00:13:15] Nick: So tell us a little more specifically how you guys are using this in dispensaries so we can understand a little bit how the customer obviously looks, uses it to look through the menu. But it also appears that you guys are setting this up to actually integrate with the point of sales in these dispensaries and building relationships with dispensaries out in this market. Can you kind of go into that a little bit.
[00:13:44] David: So we really cater to retailers and as our clients are the P.O.S. systems, our partners, we we work hand-in-hand with them. So the information that they're using to stay compliant, we're an add on feature to be the front end menu for the Web site or to be a kiosk or a tablet or some dispensary to put a large TV screens that you can touch when you walk in. So we're the software side that does the front end. We work at the P.O.S. system. We create the order to get through to the payment processor. So that's really we've gone from this education system where doctors and educators were in some curriculum, they used the wheel for information.
[00:14:26] And what we're building out is the the transaction side of it. So it really becomes this e commerce. And with that, there's data insights on on what people are using, what the age of consumers enters buying CBD and so forth. So there's market data where a lot of companies know we know the difference in prices between San Francisco and Los Angeles. It's interesting to see, you know, really how the stores are and where the products are. But then also the consumer side, as people use the wheel and pain is click, their sleep is clicked. We really know what cannabis consumers are using CBD for.
[00:15:03] Nick: So let's talk about data a little bit. So you're obviously collecting data from both ends of the retail sector.
[00:15:09] You have, you know, important information from the buyer and the seller.
[00:15:15] Talk a little bit about what some of that market value does provide for, let's say, a cannabis brand that's out there or a farm or someone that's in the industry. How can they use it?
[00:15:27] David: I think there's obvious uses for brands as they're always coming up with new products from the cannabis industry. So new it's really we're all trying to figure out on on what's working and what's sticking. Very few people can name five to ten brands just off top of her head. So I think brands are looking for for their own voices and if we can help with that. And also just kind of more importantly for us is the social impact of can we get in front of a political people, educators, if we can provide information and really show like what the market's doing and why people are going into stores. And I think we can help change that conversation on what canvas can do for people.
[00:16:06] Nick: So let's talk a little bit about e-commerce here.
[00:16:08] Obviously, you know, with all this data, you're gonna have to scale all this.
[00:16:13] So in general, talk a little bit about e-commerce in the cannabis industry in general. So, you know, we have THC and versus CBD. These are two totally separate industries. Historically, e-commerce has always been a challenge in the cannabis industry. Can you just kind of fill us in on worth it? We kind of stand with e-commerce in this industry. And then, you know, where do you plan to set this, your company up for growth in this sector?
[00:16:43] David: So for now, there are dispensaries that can take debit cards on site and they do that with their own systems where you swipe. Taking it online is always been a difficulty because of the federal laws where in Canada, that's how they do order it is through online direct from the brand where in America we usually we have that distribution center. So you don't buy it from a wholesaler, you buy it from the retailer. For online ordering for CBD, it's really become a whole new world in the last few years and it is legal nationwide. So we're going to start within the CBD sector and then be prepared for when the federal legalization. But for now, when we work with dispensaries, it's per state. They are they operate in their compliance and we're just this menu system for them as an information site. So once the payment processing is federally legal, we hope to be ready for it.
[00:17:40] Nick: Right. And is that kind of talk a little bit about is the e-commerce part of this a way that you guys plan to monetize this? Are you going to monetize that, those services or is it going to be the data that you plan on monetizing the beginning or start with that transaction?
[00:17:58] David: So we've been in education, centers. Two hundred and fifty companies that are using it. We've had two paid pilot programs. What we learned from them lives. We couldn't just be flower. It had to be the full menu integration with edibles and teachers and topicals. So as we kind of worked with them as our pilot programs. Another thing is not just reading the menu, but we have to be able to write the order back. So there's a lot of P.O.S. systems that they've been in business a few years now online ordering and whether it's for pickup or delivery, that's still a states thing. But we want to just be a part of that funnel.
[00:18:36] Nick: And, you know, in general, where do you see the cannabis industry going and how do you picture cannabis scope's place in that future down the road?
[00:18:48] David: I mean, near future, I think there's still a lot of education that needs to be a barrier and needs to be broken with the destigmatizing what canvasses and CBD doing it. I think the CBD THC is going to it's going to stay separate for a while. I mean, the US has to do a federal legalization before that can really change. And what that means at the federal legalization is the interstate commerce. So right now, somebody in Texas cannot order from Colorado or California. It has to stay within the state. So any delivery system or any that they're always bound by states which on the West Coast isn't such a big thing. But on the East Coast, I mean, the states, you cross the lines all the time. So there is they're starting to have problems, I think, on the East Coast compared to the West Coast, which is legalized. But the size of the states makes it a little different. And I see that in the technology of what's being used, what a California delivery system needs is different than a Colorado vertically grown where they grow their own and sell it on site. So I think the technology's gonna be that's gonna be what's going to build the system out because of growing weed and selling it is somewhat established. These are really big companies that are doing it. It's how can we provide information?
[00:20:12] Nick: And this is this is all very, very exciting stuff. David, I'm excited for you guys. You know, we're going to be monitoring and following your campaign closely over the next few weeks if people are interested in learning more. Where can they go? To learn more about your company and your campaign Cannabiscope.com
[00:20:33] David: And and within there we have what our wheel is and clean a link to this site so you can play at the wheel. We we are live at works on mobile phone. I really appreciate that. That ad you're putting up before and it shows what the wheel can do.
[00:20:49] So please come come to cannabiscope.com and give it a try. Very good. All right. Well, thanks again for joining us, David. Thank you, Nick, so much for having me on your first episode. Here's to many more to thank you, guys.