Going into business with your significant other isn’t for everyone, but for these couples working in the cannabis industry, it’s been a journey they wouldn’t trade for anything else.
When Amy Ludlum and Peter Bishop met at the end of 2016, their shared entrepreneurial drive was evident from the beginning.
“On our first date, we talked about almost nothing but startups,” Ludlum tells High Times. “The passing of Prop. 64 in California caught our attention, but it wasn’t until one fateful night when we whipped up a cannabis drink on a whim, using simple tincture and some grapefruit juice, that things really clicked.”
That same night, the twosome agreed to start a company to test out their idea.
“Several all-night bottling runs and dozens of happy customers later, we knew we were onto something,” Ludlum says. “It was then that we both dropped everything and took the plunge.”
The end product? California Dreamin’, a low-dose cannabis soda currently available in four flavors: cranberry apple, pomegranate, tangerine, and grapefruit. The couple says that with legalization bringing new consumers into the cannabis space, they saw an opportunity to fill a gap within the market.
“It’s easy to make lots of cash selling knock-out brownies with 100mg of THC, but those don’t make sense for light and new cannabis consumers,” Bishop explains. “It’s a lot harder and less cost effective to make high-quality products with smaller amounts of THC. Given how unbelievably challenging this industry is, I can’t imagine [not] doing this together and supporting each other the whole way.
Chris Whitener and Randi Sether, the couple behind MagicalButter (Courtesy of Whitener and Sether)
Chris Whitener, executive director of MagicalButter, where his partner Randi Sether also works as a digital marketing strategist, echoes that sentiment.
“It’s …
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Author: Mekita Rivas / High Times
