Cannabis Update: Once Struggling 24-Year-Old CEO In Denver Talks Major Marijuana Expansion After Historic Vote
How much of a difference does an election really make? 24-year-old CEO Isaac Dietrich was once struggling to get his company, MassRoots, up and running. After this year’s historic vote, the Denver cannabis platform is seeing so much success that they are in talks of some major expansion.
CEO of MassRoots, Isaac Dietrich, 24, was used to a blazing trail. During an epiphany while smoking a joint in 2013, he founded his company, the first cannabis social media platform connecting the cannabis community.
MassRoots was created as a platform for cannabis users, businesses, and activists to connect with one another. The company is affiliated with the leading organizations in the cannabis industry like the ArcView Group and National Cannabis Industry Association.
Isaac Dietrich is also the Founder and Chairman of RoboCent.com, a political technology company that has generated over $500,000 in revenue.
The MassRoots app grew from zero to 215,000 in just one year. Today the number of users on MassRoots has surpassed one million.
The company generates revenue by charging dispensaries monthly recurring fees for listing their products and services as well as the ability to connect with the app’s growing number of users, according to CNBC.
“Since launching MassRoots for Business in March 2015, over 500 cannabis-related businesses have joined, including 46 percent of the dispensaries in Colorado. Based on our current projections, we expect to be generating $1 million per month in revenue by the end of 2016.”
Isaac Dietrich took the company public on the microcap market (OTC: MSRT) and has gone through multiple rounds of funding. MassRoots became one of the first cannabis-related companies to go public, trading under the ticker symbol MSRT.
Dietrich formed MassRoots by initially financing it with credit cards. The young CEO, who skipped college to become a marijuana entrepreneur, definitely had some bumps in the road in the beginning. Isaac turned down admissions and scholarships to NYU’s Stern School of Business, the University of Virginia and UNC Chapel Hill. The CEO believes it does not take a college degree to be a successful entrepreneur.
NASDAQ denied MassRoots application for trading. NASDAQ Stock Market is the second-largest exchange in the world by market capitalization, just behind the New York Stock Exchange.
Apple had blocked their customers access to the app, but later agreed to offer the MassRoots app on iTunes.
The company was able to default on its debt by September. MassRoots had to shed 40 percent of its staff and instituted pay cuts for its high profile executive team.
Everything changed once Americans headed to the polls last week. Seven states had citizens overwhelmingly voting to legalize marijuana in some form.
Just last week, the company raised $250,000 to support legalization initiatives across the country. Dietrich hinted that there was much more to come for MassRoots in the upcoming weeks and months.
MassRoots competed on CNBC’s“Elevator Pitch” series where an entrepreneur gets an opportunity to blind pitch their company to a secret investor.
“People use our app to find smoking buddies, share their cannabis experiences and stay connected with local dispensaries.”
MassRoots is only available in states with legalized marijuana use. Currently, there are 23 states where marijuana is at least legal for medicinal use. The recent election has only pushed more and more states to move towards the legalization of recreational marijuana.
“According to Ibis World Reports, medical and recreational marijuana is a $1.9 billion industry, and revenues are expected to grow over 30 percent in the next five years.”
The company plans to expand to facilitate distribution transactions through a partnership with a seed-to-sale system called Flowhub. The integration will allow MassRoots users to have access to live pricing, inventory, and an order-ahead system.
[Featured Image by Justin Sullivan/Staff/Getty Images]
