Northern California cannabis company Sparc's founder Erich Pearson started in the cannabis industry in the late nineties. The reputation he gathered providing high-quality cannabis to HIV-Aids patience has helped Sparc become a well-known respected brand. Erich speaks to Dan Humiston on the BioTrack Cannabis Dispensary Spotlight Series about their retail expansion plans and about their commitment to the environment using Biodynamic Cultivation. Produced by PodCONX https://podconx.com/guests/erich-pearson
Northern California cannabis company Sparc's founder Erich Pearson started in the cannabis industry in the late nineties. The reputation he gathered providing high-quality cannabis to HIV-Aids patience has helped Sparc become a well-known respected brand. Erich speaks to Dan Humiston on the BioTrack Cannabis Dispensary Spotlight Series about their retail expansion plans and about their commitment to the environment using Biodynamic Cultivation.
https://podconx.com/guests/erich-pearson
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Erich Pearson: [00:00:53] There's really only one choice biotech. Could a biotech dot com today for secure Cannabis software solutions that you can count on something that's biodynamic There's a baseline requirement of using organic inputs to produce that product. However, the inputs have to be sourced locally. And that's what I really like about biodynamic is you can have an organic product, but because there's no requirement where those inputs come from, it's very possible to have an organic product that has quite a large carbon footprint.
Dan Humiston: [00:01:35] From MJ MJBulls Media, it's the Raising Cannabis Capital show. I'm Dan Humiston. And on today's show, we're continuing the Cannabis Dispensary Spotlight series with another Cannabis retail pioneer. Stay tuned for exciting insight into the techniques that this entrepreneur is using to expand and succeed.
Dan Humiston: [00:02:04] Today in Raising Cannabis Capital, we are continuing this month's Cannabis Dispensary Spotlight series with Eric Pearson, the founder and CEO of Spark. Eric, welcome to the show.
Erich Pearson: [00:02:14] Thank you. Thanks for having me.
Dan Humiston: [00:02:15] And well, it's a real honor to speak with you today. Spark has been a pioneering force in the cannabis industry for a long time. And I think the best way to get things started is and I think it's really important for our listeners to get a sense of just how much experience Spark has. When did you open your first dispensary?
Erich Pearson: [00:02:32] Two thousand and ten. I think we started the permitting process and two thousand eight or so and had our doors open in San Francisco in 2010.
Dan Humiston: [00:02:41] You weren't. We're almost into a decade of running dispensaries.
Erich Pearson: [00:02:45] Yeah. That was an interesting time. I think that we were still dealing with a lot of federal interference in San Francisco. The letters were being sent out from the federal government's Drug Enforcement Agency and whatnot. So they were trying times. But we've come a long way. You know, I first started really in the camps industry in 1998 after moving out from Indiana. I came out to grow cannabis and started supplying dispensaries and whatnot in the early 2000s. But it was until 2009, 2010, till we actually had a dispensary.
Dan Humiston: [00:03:14] Yeah. And when I talk to people about SPARC, they always comment on the quality going through your bio. I suspect that a lot of your commitment to quality is rooted in your early days back in the 90s when you were working with sick patients and you give people a sense of what that was like.
Erich Pearson: [00:03:31] See, I think it was two thousand and probably four that I really started situating my business and operations in San Francisco. I came out to Sonoma County in Northern California and 98 quickly ran into law enforcement in Sonoma County and realized that San Francisco is a better place to cultivate cannabis. And so we started growing marijuana indoors in San Francisco and working politically there with elected officials who were quite a bit more welcoming. And Sonoma County was at the time. And quickly, one of the organizations that I met in San Francisco was that it was an AIDS hospice called My True AIDS Hospice. And they do a lot of respite care now because folks aren't dying from HIV AIDS like they were in the early 2000s. But we still distribute Cannabis to that hospice today. In the early 2000s, introduced Cannabis to that hospice, began working with the program director and the nursing staff, and some of the doctors on staff developed a free distribution program where we took Cannabis there every two weeks and we're still doing that today.
Dan Humiston: [00:04:37] I think that's one of the reasons why you have such a solid reputation within the industry is because of all that early work that you do. Where do you continue to do? Your company is like many dispensary chain or operations or you're really just a vertically integrated organization. I find it really interesting to grow that you have. And I think it's in Sonoma County. You talk about biodynamic cultivation. Can you explain to our listeners what that entails?
Erich Pearson: [00:05:07] Supply dynamic is trademarked term owned by a company called Dimitar. So it's a certification. Essentially, it's multi-faceted. But I think what really differentiates something that's grown by dynamically from something that's just grown organically is it's not just a label that defines the product, but it's also a label that defines the process. The example I like to use as organic is a product that is a label that's put on products that are grown a certain way with certain inputs. Organics been watered down quite a bit, doesn't mean quite as much as it used to be with something that's biodynamic. There's a baseline requirement of using organic inputs to produce that product. However, the inputs have to be sourced locally. And that's what I really like about biodynamic is you can have an organic product, but because there's no requirement where those inputs come from, it's very possible to have an organic product that has quite a large carbon footprint. So let's just use some of the common ingredients for growing Cannabis peat, for example, may come from Canada on a truck or a trailer all the way down to Sonoma County. And that may be an organic input, but that has a large carbon footprint because it's coming from so far away. Copel Fiber from Sri Lanka, they come across the ocean, maybe organic, but has a very large carbon footprint by the time it gets to you. So that's what I like about biodynamic is you have to source those inputs locally.
Dan Humiston: [00:06:37] I think a short break to let you listen to a quick preview of our next episode.
Harrison Stoker: [00:06:43] We have an obvious quote here. British Columbia at eight stories of which will hopefully the next two months. And then in Alberta, I would really on a pretty ambitious expansion plan by way of about 10 development permits that we acquired late last year, of which we're really focusing on five to eight key eight plus locations. And in Ontario, I think is the hill that will live or die out. All that we really had a tremendous appetite from the get go to expand into. And we plan on opening night, 10 to 15 stores there this year.
Dan Humiston: [00:07:12] Tune in on Sunday to hear Harrison Stoker from the Hoban law. Cannabis Company. Now let's get back to today.
Dan Humiston: [00:07:21] Right now, you're at five locations in Northern California.
Erich Pearson: [00:07:25] Yeah, we're at three locations in San Francisco, one in Santa Rosa, one in Sebastopol.
Dan Humiston: [00:07:30] And then what are you plans? What's next on the plate?
Erich Pearson: [00:07:33] There's a lot of shiny objects out there. And we get calls from various states to step up to Manhattan. And New York is something that interests me as the state moves forward. For the most part, we've been fairly disciplined, focusing just on northern California in order to really capitalize on our vertical. Of course, we can't grow product in Californians, send it over state lines. So we've really been focused on just Northern California. That's the most creative way to to grow our business. We're always looking at more retail opportunities, whether through acquisition or management contracts or compete in a competitive process for limited market dispensaries in Northern California, primarily focused right here with what's on our plate right now.
Dan Humiston: [00:08:16] Such a gigantic market. I mean, it's it's inconceivable that you could fill in all the opening opportunities in it's Mason. And even in the short term, there's just so many opportunities as far as the expansion plans. Are you going to need to raise capital to do this or are you going to do self-fund it?
Erich Pearson: [00:08:33] We've raised some capital and we'll probably raise a bit more here in the spring. We're a profitable business, though, so the capital markets are pretty tough right now. If we can raise that, the valuation that we did a year ago, I think anybody would take that in a heartbeat because the valuations are down so low. But we don't have a super high burn rate. We're profitable. So we're OK. I mean, obviously, growth takes more capital and I see a lot of distressed assets coming online in the next one to two years, I believe, in California. So having the right funding and the right amount of capital to take advantage of some of those opportunities will be a good thing. But we're not in the middle or out right now.
Dan Humiston: [00:09:11] You did mention earlier that you're keeping your eyes open for locations that maybe want to be acquired or went to work in some type of licensing operation agreement.That's part of the growth strategy.
Erich Pearson: [00:09:21] In some jurisdictions in California, San Francisco, for example, Santa Rosa, for example. Well, we are already operate. We like to have more locations, but we specifically did not jump into the hole, get in line to apply for a new location, because we have enough experience in these jurisdictions to realize that you're putting money out to tie up real estate, to submit a permit and wait three years in San Francisco to get your doors open. That's not the most financially wise way to go about it. So whether it's San Francisco or Santa Rosa, we're gonna see folks who have spent three years plus waiting to get their doors open and then realizing that these dispensary opportunities are not five, six, seven, eight million dollar a year stores, but there may maybe one or two now being able to take advantage of some of those distressed assets as they come online is a smarter way to go about that, whether that's through purchasing those opportunities or just managing those opportunities for folks and organizations who didn't quite know what they were getting into when it submitted for a new permit. Those are the kind of opportunities we look to expand it.
Dan Humiston: [00:10:24] Well, especially with all your experience running dispensaries and knowing how to do it profitably, that will be very important as you move into this next phase. Well, we've been speaking with Eric from Spark and you can find all of their information in our show notes around MJBulls dot com.
Erich Pearson: [00:10:40] Thanks for being on the show today. Awesome. I appreciate it. Should the.
Dan Humiston: [00:10:46] Today's show was made possible by the generous support of our sponsors, like all 36, the country's premiere blockchain payment processing platform that's providing dispensaries and its customers with a safe and secure payment option other than cash. To learn more. Go to all 236.com. Today's podcast was produced by MJBulls Media. The industry's premier Cannabis podcast network with original music produced in part by Jamie Humiston. I'm Dan Humiston and you've been listening to the Raising Cannabis Capital podcast.
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