Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Dylan Lowery. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Dylan, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Naming anything – including a business – is so hard. Right? What’s the story behind how you came up with the name of your brand?
Well the old saying, there’s no I in team, holds true here. My business partner, Adam, and our brand consultant at the time (now employee) Jess, were tasked with that project. There were certainly many name iterations and having to steer clear of the trap to name something canna-xyz was a challenge.
Adam, having a love and passion for Dungeons and Dragons and pairing that with cannabis’s ability to help one be more creative turned to the spells in the game in search of inspiration. Cantrip is a low-level spell that can be used by anyone free of charge in DnD. Cantrip also happens to be a Scottish word for a mischievous or playful act. Cannabis at its core resonates with being mischievously creative, something everyone can enjoy, and is fun to consume recreationally. That’s exactly what we want our beverages to evoke. Jess was the perfect fit to help build the visual brand and style which makes Cantrip products standout and connect with consumers across the United States.
Dylan, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
Hi, I’m Dylan – a finance/ops mind and cannabis entrepreneur!
I was fortunate to grow up in a household that was loving, showed me how to build a solid educational foundation – whether that was applied in academics is a story for a different time, and instilled in me a strong work ethic. Early in life I found myself working at my best friend’s pizzeria and was taught by his father and uncle the old school Italian way – which meant I was part of their family and expectations were high at work. The background at the pizzeria really set me up to work hard post college life.
I could not have had a better experience after graduating than what was provided at OrderUp. We were a few years old tech company in the on-demand food delivery space at the same time Uber was gaining traction nationally (2014). Things were fast paced, exciting, and every day was drinking from a firehose, the experience unmatched. Fast forward a year and we were in a post M&A world with Groupon for a $100m deal – what a high I was on! Being one of 3 accounting/finance individuals on the team, the exposure was massive and set the tone for how I carried myself professionally thereon; always treating the company I was working for as if it were my own.
After helping bridge the back-office gap between OrderUp and Groupon I moved on to do international accounting for a digital advertising company circa 2016 in Baltimore, MD. This showed me who I did not want to be, it was a large 20-25 person accounting and finance team with little to no room for growth and a bleak business trajectory. About a year and a half into my tenure there I was approached by a former colleague from OrderUp and offered an Accounting Manager opportunity. I had no idea at the time that the opportunity was in the cannabis industry.
I took the call and; always take a call from a trusted source, you never know where it will lead; I hit the jackpot. The role was for an up and coming multi-state cannabis operator in the newly minted East Coast marketplace.
I hopped into the accounting and finance functions as a one-man unit and got to work, soaking up every ounce of information I could. Being the central access point to funds, financials, and data I was uniquely positioned to help the business build a solid foundation and navigate the start-up needs based upon my time at OrderUp. Along this journey I tacked on other hats: wholesale sales, retail product procurement, production planning and inventory management, and more. If there was data, I would analyze it!
This is where Adam (my business partner at Cantrip) and I met – he was leading the charge in product development and put many great products to marketing in MA, NH, CO, and CA. In the midst of COVID we decided to band together and peel off, developing Cantrip in 2020, followed with fundraising and launch in the summer of 2021.
Cantrip started in the dispensary channel in Massachusetts finding early success in helping build the category and expanded in Sept 2022 to Minnesota and other states via the hemp channel.
Cantrip is a cannabis infused beverage portfolio company, with seltzers and sodas currently on the market today and an eye towards more functional beverages in early 2023. Cantrip helps consumers dream big and drink differently leading the way to a more personally connected and healthy lifestyle. The ability to provide an alternative to the traditional vices of alcohol, hard drugs, and even nicotine is one of my proudest achievements in life.
We are in the moment of what Cantrip believes is a shift in how people socialize, relax, and connect throughout their lives and we believe cannabis will be a main component of a healthier lifestyle for many.
Can you talk to us about how your funded your business?
Funding a new business is difficult to do in any industry, add the complexities of pre-revenue, cannabis, and lack of traditional funding sources and you are facing a gargantuan task!
Getting funded taught me a lot about the varying degrees of investors, how they assess their appetite for risk, what is and is not important, and how to read if an investor is a good fit for your business. There is really no true starting point for getting funded, the best thing you can do is be prepared with proper materials and start reaching out to your network.
As a pre-revenue company the sales pitch is really about the founder(s) and the vision for the business.
Cantrip started with VC and Seed stage investors focused on the cannabis space. Cantrip received a high level of interest from this pool of investors with great feedback and many introductions, but no investment. The dream of placing Cantrip on the shelf never wavered and we turned to friends and family, which led to about 50% of the funding goal, with the other being brought to us via a syndicate. We were thrilled!
Aligning with the right investor who believes in the founders’ skills and business vision is what is most important. Business with investors is a marriage and picking a partner is much like a marriage.
Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?
Cannabinoid professionals, whether working directly for a state licensed cannabis entity, in hemp, or as an ancillary service provider to cannabis and hemp businesses have resiliency as a part of their professional fabric.
The industry is undoubtedly one of the most difficult to operate in historically given the state-by-state framework, various regulations, lack of inter-state commerce, non-existent financial services, and the whims at which rules change. In Massachusetts it was a particularly long road from late 2019 through 2020 where the Governor ceased sales of cartridges, ~25% of sales revenue at the time, and recreational sales be shuttered during the first 9 months of the COVID-19 pandemic. There were no federal government bailouts waiting or small business loans to be had.
The team I was working with at the time as a W2 employee was exceptional at navigating our liabilities and responsibilities to the employees. While we did see some reduced hours there were no layoffs or cuts and the team remained mostly intact upon the market reopening for recreational sales.
That is just one example of many that cannabinoid entrepreneurs across the United States could share about the resiliency required to operate.
A collective issue at hand for the industry is the continued prohibition that exists at the federal level and the negative impact it has on communities to this day. Continuing to jail individuals for non-violent cannabis crimes is an atrocity while we have many people profiting off state level operations. Until the barriers come down we must remain resilient to free those wronged by the war on drugs and provide access to products that we believe provide for a healthier lifestyle.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.drinkcantrip.com
- Instagram: @cantripseltzer
- Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/dylan-lowery