A Colorado cannabis start-up that’s been described as the “DoorDash of cannabis” hopes to solve an industry problem: giving business owners who have historically been shut out access to the cannabis industry.
“It's all about compliance from the get-go, but essentially it's like the tech platform that connects the licensed dispensaries with the licensed transporters and the end consumer who wants to order cannabis for delivery,” said Kat Savoy, co-founder and CEO of the start-up called Drop.
Watch Micah Smith's report in the video player below:
For years, Denver7 has reported on Denver and Colorado’s marijuana social equity programs which gave marijuana delivery licenses exclusively to social equity applicants, or applicants who were directly impacted by a marijuana related arrest or conviction before recreational cannabis use was legalized in Colorado.
But many social equity marijuana delivery business owners said they could not find dispensary owners who were willing to partner with them to deliver products.
“The problem that it solves is the infrastructure that was lacking for the social equity program here in Denver. So we have the licensed transporters; they're social equity applicants, they start a business. They want to deliver cannabis here in Denver. They have to do all of the work behind it. They have to do all of the paperwork. They have to wait and make sure that their business is compliant, and then they have to network with all of the dispensaries to get contracts signed between each individual one. Our platform takes all of that, automates it for everyone along the way, and it gives the social equity transporters the support that they need to really make a business grow,” said Teri Leblanc, Drop Co-founder and Chief Technology Officer.
Leblanc said she thinks Drop will also help address dispensary owners' reluctance to work with delivery businesses.
“A lot of the transporters have had difficult times getting more than one or two dispensaries to sign on at once. And in order to be successful, you really have to have a volume of orders coming in. Otherwise, the vehicles and the insurance and all of that doesn't make sense financially. So, our platform will take all of that,” Leblanc said.
Right now, Drop is partnering with two transporters but hopes to partner with more soon.
Savoy and Leblanc said Drop also solves another problem, making marijuana more accessible to adult customers who cannot go to dispensaries.
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