Page 41 - Entrepreneur-November 2018

Strategy

Cannabis

for the

Unconverted

How do you convince people who’ve
had bad (or no) pot experience to

consume your legal marijuana product?

Charles Jones of LucidMood
believes he’s cracked the code.

by AMANDA CHICAGO LEWIS

wo young men with afternoon to pitch customers. at this pot shop, LucidMood’s weed sales, the novelty of legal-
bloodshot eyes walk That’s because LucidMood vapes are probably too weak to ization has started to fade, and
into a Colorado mari- is not like other marijuana ven- even get them high. the people who come into dis-
juana dispensary. tures. The company isn’t try- But Charles Jones, pensaries tend to be people
One of the store’s ing to sell to stoners. In fact, LucidMood’s crafty CEO, is who already know they like
salespeople, known its mild-potency products are always up for a sales challenge. pot. Since aspiring cannabis
in the industry specifically designed for the “Give me a chance,” he tells the moguls like Jones can’t draw
T as a “budtender,” roughly 160 million Americans skeptical budtender, and then newbies with free samples out-
stands near the entrance at a who never got into smoking welcomes the pair of potheads side a juice bar or coffee shop—
disposable- vaporizer pop-up weed—maybe because it left with a warm smile. dispensaries are the only place
display and shakes his head them too paranoid, too with- “Hi, how ya doing?” he says. where marijuana is legally
when he sees them: No way drawn, or too cloudy. So while “Do you guys have girlfriends?” available—they have to con-
would these guys buy anything two stoned guys in their late Four years after Colorado tend with the fact that the best
from LucidMood, the vape 20s might be the target demo- became the first state in the path to new pot consumers is
pen company that is there this graphic for most other items nation to allow recreational often through old ones. The two

72 / ENTREPRENEUR.COM / November 2018 Illustration / VIK TOR KOEN