We recently connected with Emily Gogol, PhD. and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Emily thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Let’s kick things off with your mission – what is it and what’s the story behind why it’s your mission?
My husband and I moved to Oregon to start a Cannabis Research & Development farm – helping commercial growers, in hemp and rec marijuana, get access to quality genetics for their products. After a few years I started getting emails and phone calls from folks all over the country – they found our commercial website, and got in touch. They wanted to grow their own at home, and were having a terrible time getting good information and quality supplies. Folks from 20 to 70 were calling me, and wanted to grow at home for all sorts of reasons. While I was working on my PhD in SF, I founded a nonprofit that built two public parks, and i also managed community gardens – so really I am a gardener not a farmer! It’s always been important for me when someone is in need to help out, so now in my new ‘community’ role I am dedicated to providing Cannabis plants to backyard gardeners across the U.S. while promoting education, access, and equity.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
3rd person bio: Emily Gogol is a nationally recognized leader in the Cannabis industry, heading the team at Infinite Tree, which develops and produces new Cannabis varieties. Passionate about innovation, she works to develop the next generation of plants that benefit both commercial farmers and home gardeners.
In 2020, she launched Grow It From Home, a company dedicated to providing Cannabis plants to backyard gardeners across the U.S. while promoting education, access, and equity. Her work has been featured in the LA Times.
Emily earned her Ph.D. in Biomedical Science from UCSF and was deeply involved in community work in San Francisco. Recognized by the State of California for her leadership, she has founded three community organizations and two public parks. She currently lives in Applegate Valley, OR, where she manages her 23-acre certified organic farm and finds time to garden whenever possible.
What I do: Help folks across the US get access to growing Cannabis at home. On the supplies side this includes providing high quality seeds, shipping plants direct from our farm to your doorstep. and CBD flower for projects along with other resources like books (The Cannabis Gardener by Penny Barthel) and online and in-person workshops on everything from gardening to making THC mints.
Problems we solve: There is so much misinformation out there on growing Cannabis! I hear some new whacky thing from a gardener that read it on the internet at every workshop. We provide accurate, practical information for growing Cannabis, and are working with groups like the American Cannabis Nursing Association, to get folks access to medical resources as well.
Our seeds are also legal and tested, so it helps bring more folks into gardening Cannabis, and because they are quality seeds that turn into quality plants are gardeners have a great time growing them (unlike some of the garbage you can get online).
We also work very hard to destigmatize Cannabis, it turns out there are lots of people of all ages and backgrounds that use the plant for all sorts of reason, so we are trying to get the word out about that as well and counter the ‘stoner’ misconceptions people have.
Alright – let’s talk about marketing or sales – do you have any fun stories about a risk you’ve taken or something else exciting on the sales and marketing side?
When I first approached garden shops in California about carrying out seeds, it was so hard and devastating. Everything from legal, the point of sale transactions, to questions about who would visit the shop to buy seeds was a challenge. Cannabis is so new as a legal product, and there is so much misinformation out there about the buying/selling of it. Store after store, I would spend a ton of time visiting the store, talking with everyone that worked there, and would get the entire team on board and then some decision maker would be hesitant and it was not going to happen. It felt hopeless because Cannabis is so overly complicated as a product in a store. Ever year I would persist, and most shops after agreeing to a workshop the first year would then carry our products year 2 and beyond, and then from there things snowballed into a feature in the LA Times, and acceptance at big chains like Summerwinds in California and revered institutions like the SF Botanical Gardens.
Can you open up about how you funded your business?
USDA VAPG Grant. Hemp is actually treated like other crops (!) by this USDA grant, and it is 100% what has made this business possible. I have a history of writing/being awarded grants at the local, state and federal level for my work in SF, so I thought to give this one a shot. Our first submission scored really well – but beacuse we are a C Corp, there was some obscure paperwork our USDA rep had forgot to mention, so our application could not be funded. I was devastated. Luckily, we struggled through that year without funding, and the next year reapplied and was awarded the grant.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.growitfromhome.com
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/growitfromhome/
