MJBizMag November-December 2022 - 94

MJBizCon Official Show Guide
MJBIZCON.COM
Going Legal
Entrepreneur leverages years of corporate and legacy market experience
to build cannabis businesses
R
uben Lindo spent more than
20 years in the legacy cannabis
market, but he also had an
MBA and plenty of experience in
different mainstream industries.
In 2015, he was working with a
Canadian investor to vet potential
areas for investment.
" We found two seemingly small
companies to invest in, and one of
them was a holding company that
eventually became Tilray. He was an
early investor in that, and then he
invested in Canopy and Hexo, " Lindo
told MJBiz CEO Chris Walsh as a recent
guest on the Seed to CEO podcast.
Lindo and his business partner
would eventually launch CBD-focused
Phoenix Nutraceuticals in 2018. And
in 2019, Lindo founded his THCfocused
cultivation company, Blak
Mar Farms.
To make his cannabis companies
successful, Lindo mined his own
diverse business experience as well
as 10 years in professional football.
Keep reading to learn what tips he
shared on the podcast and what you
can expect when he appears on the
Main Stage at MJBizCon on November
16. Then, visit mjbizconference.com
for tickets.
What led to the founding of your first
company in cannabis?
I saw CBD as becoming federally
legal, so we huddled up and did our
due diligence, really deployed some
B-School engineering when it came to
putting together the company.
Phoenix Nutraceutical is my
first company. We launched a 14
different SKUs in the CBD world that
we thought would allow us to sell
throughout the country. But really
what set us apart was our skin care
and health care line.
Why did you start on the CBD side?
For me, it was low-hanging fruit. I
believed that we could get some
revenue very quickly on a national
model. We knew that we could start
selling CBD that was formulated
and processed here in the state of
California, and then ultimately sell
it across the country and multiple
markets, which we were very
successful doing online.
We stayed away from (THC at
first) because, watching what was
happening here in California and
other jurisdictions, it became very
difficult to secure licenses. And it was
very costly as well.
Launching Phoenix Nutraceutical
92 November-December 2022 | MJBizMagazine
allowed us to really bootstrap and
launch the company within our
means. We didn't have to go out and
do hundreds of million-dollar raises.
We were able to launch the company
with less than $50,000 on our first
product run.
What led you to move from strictly
CBD to marijuana cultivation?
Blak Mar farms was born during the
pandemic. We were looking for a
way to pivot into THC at the time,
so we partnered with a caregiver
in Michigan and helped them
transition their caregiver model to a
recreational license.
So, we funded it ... and we brought
really solid SOPs to the table and
helped our partner really transition
from the caregiver model of 80 plants
to 1,500 plants in just under a year in
a small facility.
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MJBizMag November-December 2022

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