“I won’t ever forget,” Harrington says, “he sent me some hemp and it was literally dead purple.” He sent a picture to Harrington, who responded immediately and asked for a sample. For 18 months, Howard continued crossing different strains until he came up with one he thought would appeal to Harrington, a vibrant purple flower like the color of Viola’s logo. Having heard about Viola, he reached out to Harrington on LinkedIn after he planted his first crop but got no response. Howard got the green light, but the family board said he needed a mentor. The economics were a no-brainer: soy and corn harvest at $600 an acre, while hemp, which is non-psychoactive but contains CBD, could fetch $10,000 an acre. That same year, the federal government legalized industrial hemp and Howard pitched the board of directors-all family members-to plant the cannabis cousin instead. But in 2018, the price of soy crashed, and the family had to change course. Gold Standard grew soybeans, corn and other crops. Howard’s great-grandfather was a sharecropper in Mississippi, whose ancestors were slaves. Based in Martin, Tennessee, Gold Standard was founded in 1941 when current CEO Jarrel Howard’s great-grandfather bought 40 acres of land after saving up $3,000 over 10 years. The most successful story to emerge from his incubator is the hemp company Gold Standard Farms, which minted one of Harrington’s first cannabis millionaires. Hemp Empire: Among the first entrepreneurs Harrington worked with was Gold Standard farm in Tennessee-but not until he "put his hands in the soil." Courtesy of Al Harrington He doesn’t invest in ideas, rather he buys into companies that are already up and running. Harrington takes between a 10% to 25% stake in exchange for help with marketing and fundraising. The company has since invested around $700,000 into four companies, including Mezz, a vape and pre-roll company in Colorado and Los Angeles-based Butter Baby, which makes THC-infused butter to use in baking things like brownies. Viola launched its incubator program two years ago. Harrington has already helped mint a handful. A million dollars might sound like small potatoes, but in the context of this industry, particularly for small business owners, it’s a lot of money. Like a one-man Y Combinator for cannabis, he is pursuing a plan to create 100 Black cannabis millionaires. Through Viola, Harrington is trying to right some of the wrongs caused by America’s drug war, one entrepreneur at a time. “The opportunities in our communities need to be owned by us-period,” Harrington says. By 2030 the industry is expected to generate $65 billion in annual sales, up 160% in a little less than a decade. Today, cannabis is legal in some form in 37 states. Harrington’s main goal is to help Black and Brown entrepreneurs in the cannabis industry build equity in one of America’s fastest-growing economies. Smith, Kenyon Martin, Josh Childress, and DeMarcus Cousins.īut selling weed is only part of Viola’s mission.
Other investors include some of “his guys” from the NBA, including Ben Gordon, J.R. Harrington invested $6 million himself and owns about 40% of the company. In total, Viola has raised $34 million and is valued over $100 million. He already inked a licensing deal to bring the brand to Canada last year.
The company also plans to open two dispensaries and a cultivation site in St. In January, Viola raised $13 million from investors to expand to Illinois, Maryland, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Viola Teammates: Harrington partnered with NBA Hall of Famer Allen Iverson to create the Iverson 01 cannabis strain, which was released in March.
0 kommentar(er)
