Mark Smith
Weed Street is a decentralized members only crowdfunding platform for cannabis strains. With Weed Street we want to make it possible for every one around the globe to invest in the cannabis market and profit from its growth.
Tell us about yourself?
Working in Marketing Agencies since 2015. Founding member of the Growth Hacking Agency HACKABU in Austria in 2016.
The agency got acquired in late 2018 with 45 FTE. Flew to San Francisco in 2019 to lead the marketing of a new co-working space. Closed the space due to COVID.
Then I was working as a marketing consultant for startups (building up marketing teams, initial marketing strategies, processes, etc.) and started my own performance marketing agency that focuses on B2C ecommerce.
Due to my engagement with other startups I met the Weed Street founders and they asked me to be on the team.
If you could go back in time a year or two, what piece of advice would you give yourself?
Be more patient and persistent with the things that you are working at.
What problem does your business solve?
For B2C: Weed Street enables literally everyone to invest and profit from cannabis strains.
For B2B (=Breeders): Funding the development of new cannabis strains and protect the IP of the genetic with the blockchain technology.
What is the inspiration behind your business?
Unfair legislation when it comes to cannabis. It’s very hard to access the and take part at the legal cannabis market – especially for people that build the weed culture don’t get a cut of the current legal cannabis market.
Breeders need money to create new strains. Breeders have big problems with counterfeit products and protection of their intellectual property on the market that negatively impacts their brand. Breeders don’t have a lot of possibilities to directly interact with their consumers.
What is your magic sauce?
Use of decentralized technology, IP Protection on the blockchain, accessibility to the cannabis market
What is the plan for the next 5 years? What do you want to achieve?
Build Weed Street and make it a global institution where cannabis consumers and cannabis curious people meet with each other and with the stake holders in the cannabis supply chain as well. We also want to build a program that supports people that got criminalized for cannabis possession etc. – We have a strong focus on equity!
What is the biggest challenge you’ve faced so far?
Pivoting the business model to the needs of the target audiences and verifying the vision.
How do people get involved/buy into your vision?
If they want to get more updates please sign up at our waiting list or join our discord server (will come soon)!
