Truth Seeker
New Member
Jamen Shively had never tried marijuana until about 18 months ago, but now he's being hailed as the man to bring corporate credibility to the recreational cannabis industry.
Shively is working to launch a retail brand of marijuana that he anticipates selling in outlets around Washington state. The launch of Diego Pellicer, Inc. (pronounced PEL-ee-sayer) is preliminary at this point because the Washington State Liquor Control Board hasn't finalized the rules that must be in place before it issues licenses to the state's new, legal marijuana supply chain.
Shively is watching developments in Olympia closely and is eager for his company to apply for licenses to open retail stores in Washington.
A former corporate strategy manager at Microsoft, Shively wears glasses and typically a conservative wardrobe–he doesn't look out of place in a suit. His image echoes the message I've heard from many marijuana entrepreneurs in recent months: "We mean business."
Shively wants to dispel the image of the typical marijuana smoker, and he wants to create a brand and product that will appeal to a broad market in Washington, Colorado and beyond.
He's also looking for potential partners and other marijuana entrepreneurs whose products and work could complement his own.
I talked with Shively recently at a meeting of 50 angel investors and a number of marijuana-related startup companies. Shively is just as comfortable raving about his first time smoking marijuana as he is discussing family lore about his hemp-growing great-grandfather, or what he's looking for as an investor.
Here are the highlights:
How did you get from Microsoft to marijuana?
I came to be acquainted cannabis about a year-and-a-half ago. A colleague of mine at Microsoft — who is one of the top programmers there, he told me that he uses it frequently. Now, to give you a bit about my background, I grew up in the era of Ronald Reagan, Nancy Reagan–"Just say No" (and) "This is your brain on drugs," with the frying pan and the egg.
It's something I just simply didn't want anything to do with it. And when this brilliant friend of mine tells me he was using it regularly, I said "What the heck are you doing? Aren't you worried you're going to hurt your brain?"
He said, to the contrary, "I'm convinced that within five years, marijuana will come to be regarded as a health food."
It totally blew my mind.
On his first experience with marijuana
"I tried it and I absolutely loved it. It's like I was having the most amazing creative brainstorms. And (I was) seeing life and situations and possibilities in just a whole new light. It was like living in a whole new dimension. So I started consuming it about once a month, and I started sharing with people the experiences I was having, so I sort of became an amateur evangelist of cannabis."
On his familial inspiration:
My great-grandfather, Diego Pellicer, he had been the largest grower of hemp in the world in the late 1800s. ... He was a Spaniard, born in Spain, educated in Spain. He went to the Philippines, became vice-governor and over time he accumulated thousands and thousands of acres of land, on which he grew hemp ... He supplied the Spanish Armada, the Spanish fleet, with hemp rope during the Spanish American War."
What are you looking for as an investor considering other marijuana-related startups?
What I was looking for are companies who we can partner with, potentially invest in, and potentially carry their products in our retail stores. In some cases, (we want to) take products that they're producing for a mass market and (design) a custom-label version, a white-label version–a Diego Pellicer version–of their product for exclusive sale in our own stores.
Shively promised to keep us posted on his progress getting Kirkland, Washington-based Diego Pellicer through the regulatory process and off the ground.
News Hawk- Truth Seeker 420 MAGAZINE ®
Source: upstart.bizjournals.com
Author: Valerie Bauman
Contact: Contact Us - The Business Journals
Website: Former Microsoft manager goes from just saying "No" to drugs, to marijuana entrepreneur
Shively is working to launch a retail brand of marijuana that he anticipates selling in outlets around Washington state. The launch of Diego Pellicer, Inc. (pronounced PEL-ee-sayer) is preliminary at this point because the Washington State Liquor Control Board hasn't finalized the rules that must be in place before it issues licenses to the state's new, legal marijuana supply chain.
Shively is watching developments in Olympia closely and is eager for his company to apply for licenses to open retail stores in Washington.
A former corporate strategy manager at Microsoft, Shively wears glasses and typically a conservative wardrobe–he doesn't look out of place in a suit. His image echoes the message I've heard from many marijuana entrepreneurs in recent months: "We mean business."
Shively wants to dispel the image of the typical marijuana smoker, and he wants to create a brand and product that will appeal to a broad market in Washington, Colorado and beyond.
He's also looking for potential partners and other marijuana entrepreneurs whose products and work could complement his own.
I talked with Shively recently at a meeting of 50 angel investors and a number of marijuana-related startup companies. Shively is just as comfortable raving about his first time smoking marijuana as he is discussing family lore about his hemp-growing great-grandfather, or what he's looking for as an investor.
Here are the highlights:
How did you get from Microsoft to marijuana?
I came to be acquainted cannabis about a year-and-a-half ago. A colleague of mine at Microsoft — who is one of the top programmers there, he told me that he uses it frequently. Now, to give you a bit about my background, I grew up in the era of Ronald Reagan, Nancy Reagan–"Just say No" (and) "This is your brain on drugs," with the frying pan and the egg.
It's something I just simply didn't want anything to do with it. And when this brilliant friend of mine tells me he was using it regularly, I said "What the heck are you doing? Aren't you worried you're going to hurt your brain?"
He said, to the contrary, "I'm convinced that within five years, marijuana will come to be regarded as a health food."
It totally blew my mind.
On his first experience with marijuana
"I tried it and I absolutely loved it. It's like I was having the most amazing creative brainstorms. And (I was) seeing life and situations and possibilities in just a whole new light. It was like living in a whole new dimension. So I started consuming it about once a month, and I started sharing with people the experiences I was having, so I sort of became an amateur evangelist of cannabis."
On his familial inspiration:
My great-grandfather, Diego Pellicer, he had been the largest grower of hemp in the world in the late 1800s. ... He was a Spaniard, born in Spain, educated in Spain. He went to the Philippines, became vice-governor and over time he accumulated thousands and thousands of acres of land, on which he grew hemp ... He supplied the Spanish Armada, the Spanish fleet, with hemp rope during the Spanish American War."
What are you looking for as an investor considering other marijuana-related startups?
What I was looking for are companies who we can partner with, potentially invest in, and potentially carry their products in our retail stores. In some cases, (we want to) take products that they're producing for a mass market and (design) a custom-label version, a white-label version–a Diego Pellicer version–of their product for exclusive sale in our own stores.
Shively promised to keep us posted on his progress getting Kirkland, Washington-based Diego Pellicer through the regulatory process and off the ground.
News Hawk- Truth Seeker 420 MAGAZINE ®
Source: upstart.bizjournals.com
Author: Valerie Bauman
Contact: Contact Us - The Business Journals
Website: Former Microsoft manager goes from just saying "No" to drugs, to marijuana entrepreneur
