Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Mark Scruggs. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Mark, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Risk taking is something we’re really interested in and we’d love to hear the story of a risk you’ve taken.
Taking risk is what entrepreneurs do. I have always believed in the old ” No risk it- No biscuit” philosophy, but in reality what we are asking is if we believe in ourselves and our product. Because if you have a good product, a solid team and a plan for efficient execution, then it’s not much of a risk at all…it’s about having the courage to take that leap and all that comes with it. Having a good understanding of your goals and properly managing expectations will help minimize the risk…when we started Klutch Wholesale and Happy Fruit post pandemic in February of 2021 there were a lot of uncertainties and so called risk, but there was also huge potential for growth, expansion and innovation within our sector and we embraced that fully
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
I started in sales 30 years ago and had a long career in mortgages and real estate. I worked at Nationwide Lending and LendingTree and thought that it would be my life’s career. Obviously, the financial crisis of 2008 hit many of us very hard and I was floundering about wondering what my next move was…In ’09 along came a fresh startup app in the cannabis industry named WeedMaps and I took a chance on it. Now to be honest, I never thought there would be a legal way to earn money this way but due to the circumstances I was desperate and rolled the dice…somethings happen for a reason and I fully embraced the challenge, and against much scrutiny and doubt from my friends and family. At first we were unsure if what we were doing was even legal, but I saw opportunity in a raw and new industry and just knew we could crush this. Part of that was due to the fact that the business acumen of those in the cannabis industry at that time was very low. We applied business practices that worked in mortgages like KPI’s and Call Metrics and we dominated our sector of the market and reached a monthly recurring billing of more than $1 million/mo within the first year. The rest is history as WM went on to go public on the NASDAQ in 2021 with $1.5 Billion valuation. This success spawned many splinter opportunities for many of us and in 2020 my Partner Alec Rochford and I decided to to start a wholesale CBD/Hemp company. We developed an umbrella company named Klutch Wholesale, and have a full spectrum CBD brand called Tribe CBD- that offers non psychoactive CBD and CBG solutions, and a hemp derivative company called Happy Fruit where we specialize in gummies and tailoring cannabinoids to specific effects, such as THCV for daytime/focus and CBN for nighttime/sleep. By adopting the philosophy of “Creative, unique, and potent formulas” we have built this into an 8 figure income organization working in all 50 states. The marketplace is very competitive but with original and innovative products we were able to find success. This combined with our inherent built in connections from our previous endeavors, we decided to launch Cannabis gummies in late 2022 in Colorado and California.
We are very proud to bring cutting edge products and formulas to the market while providing a world class customer experience to our retail partners
Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?
When we first started WeedMaps we were pretty decimated from the mortgage collapse and we weren’t even sure if what we were doing was legal, and I moved my family moved from Eugene Or back to my hometown of Orange County not knowing what to expect. I remember my first paycheck was a min wage draw and I remember my wife saying “We moved for this! What the heck are we doing?”…I wasn’t even sure at that point what we had but I calmy replied “Please just hang in there with me, I think we have something special here”… Now at 40 YO I knew that my chances at hitting a home run with a a new start up were dwindling but I really believed in it, had no other options, and was all in from that moment…needless to say the wife came around and had no regrets as it’s been a wonderful journey for us the past dozen or so years
How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?
We actually started selling Tribe CBD wholesale in Feb ’20 right before pandemic, we shut down for a while and when we came back in Feb ’21 we expected to pick up where we left off. Unfortunately the CBD/Hemp market had substantially shifted to derivatives like Delta 8 & Delta 10. We were quickly taken a back by this dramatic shift and did not hesitate to activate the Happy Fruit brand into this space. We were a lil late to the game at this point and coming out with a 20mg D8 gummy (that everyone else already had) was not gonna get us on the shelves of our retailers unless we engaged in a race to the bottom price war, and we were not interested in that. Alec and myself envisioned doing something that wasn’t being done and that was to combine a great tasting, high quality, well branded gummy, but also have unique formulas that had not been done. For example we used a lil known but expensive minor cannabinoid- THCV- whose main properties are appetite suppression and energy and we marketing that as a “Daytime/Focus/Energy” gummy…We also developed a great line of sleep gummies using CBN which is a natural sedative that comes with no ill side effects like dependence or grogginess that you might find with other sleep aids
It is this ability to pivot to a new market paradigm and come up with solutions is what launched our company from uncertainty to success with a purpose
Contact Info:
- Website: www.happyfruit.com www.klutchwholesale.com
- Instagram: @chiefissoklutch
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mark-scruggs-3776a9209/