For this week’s exclusive Power Players interview I spoke with Kris Krane, president and founder of MSO 4Front.
Krane has been involved in cannabis advocacy since he was a student at American University in Washington D.C. He spent the aughts at NORML and then led Students for Sensible Drug Policy, before Steve DeAngelo recruited him to help recreate dispensaries like Harborside across California. It was too early for that business to work, but it led to the formation of consultancy 4Front, which has evolved into a vertically integrated company with operations in eight states.
Here are a few highlights:
On the Massachusetts REC market:
“It’s outrageous that there’s one REC store in Boston three and a half years after we got that ballot initiative. Boston has changed its process for getting hosting agreements three times. Meanwhile all these applicants have been pending, that are now on their third different application process.”
On “real world” cannabis equity:
A brand licensing agreement can be real way in. There’s a reason why most people don’t open Bob’s hotel, they’ll license the Hilton brand. Because people are familiar with the Hilton brand, they have operating protocols, they can come in and manage it for them, and the owners still get a nice payment, and they have a nice job, and they manage staff day to day but they’re in the Hilton system. And that may be enticing to an equity licensee.
On keeping shelves stocked in less mature markets:
So Michigan, Illinois, Massachusetts’s, pricing is all around $4,000 a pound. And you’re lucky if you can get it. We have a retail store open in Ann Arbor Michigan, we rarely have any flower on the shelf. It’s just not there. It will be, there’s been a bunch of cultivation licenses awarded in the last six months but none of it is up and running.
Who should we speak to for future Power Players interviews? Reply to this email with suggestions.
