Being the best at one thing is better than being average at many things. With so many opportunities in cannabis many businesses get bit by the diversity bug. Unfortunately, when companies move away from their core business they often fail. Jake Heimark from Plus Products (CSE: PLUS) (OTCQX: PLPRF) joins Dan Humiston to explain how their singularly focused business strategy has made their gummies the number one selling brand in California. He discusses applying their hyper-focused, product-centric model as they expand into new states. Produce by PodCONX https://podconx.com/guests/jake-heimark https://www.plusproductsinc.com/
Being the best at one thing is better than being average at many things.
With so many opportunities in cannabis many businesses get bit by the diversity bug. Unfortunately, when companies move away from their core business they often fail. Jake Heimark from Plus Products (CSE: PLUS) (OTCQX: PLPRF) joins Dan Humiston to explain how their singularly focused business strategy has made their gummies the number one selling brand in California. He discusses applying their hyper-focused, product-centric model as they expand into new states.
https://podconx.com/guests/jake-heimark
https://www.plusproductsinc.com/
[00:00:00] Dan Humiston: Today. On raising cannabis capital, we are joined by Jake Highmark from plus products. Jake, welcome to the show.
Jacob Heimark: Thanks for having me.
Dan Humiston: As our listeners know, I'm a big fan of staying in your lane. I would much rather be the best at one thing than to be average. At many things I refer to it as staying narrow and deep, and here's your chance to prove me, right?
Tell us how you're seeing yearly focused business strategy has made plus product gummies. So successful.
Jacob Heimark: So at plus we've always been focused on what we call making cannabis safe and approachable. I think that cannabis has a lot of uses for a lot of different People, but at plus we've said, how do we give people something they can use every single day over and over day in and day out and really attach to those products?
What do we need to deliver? And for us, it's been edibles. I believe personally, that long run, if you're going to use a product every single day, it is best that it is [00:01:00] not something you're putting in your lungs. And so that's where we started. And what we found is that gummies, which are our top sellers and our product, we really focused deeply on are a really good delivery mechanism for cannabis.
And so we go a few different skews and a few different flavors of some different profiles of cannabinoids that we haven't focused on. One thing. Above all else make really good edible products in California. Get them to as many stores and as many customers as we can. And when they fall in love with our brand and as the market matures here across the U S and then the rest of the world, that's the way that we'll actually win hearts and minds.
Dan Humiston: I think it's such a good idea. I know with infused products, getting the exact dose in every serving is so important, but most companies just don't seem to get it right without giving away any of your secrets. How do you get the exact dose in each cube?
Jacob Heimark: think for us, it starts from not knowing what you're doing at first. [00:02:00] So we were obsessed with what we thought the regulations are going to be here in California. We thought the regulations were going to be at a place where every single piece of your product. So in our case, we make it 10 of 20 gummies that are five milligrams each.
And we thought that we were going to have to make sure every gummy was within a percent or two of the next gummy. And the 10, it turns out the regulations in California have been to a place where now you actually just have to make sure the whole. 10 is within 10% of what you say is on it, which is a lot easier.
Right? But By not knowing that was going to be the case, we invested a ton of energy and time and getting that manufacturing, tech, Nick down turns out the customers care if one time you take it and you feel one way and the next time you take it, you feel another way. What happens is over time, customers are going to try all the products in this industry.
People love weed. That's unquestionable. But. If you can make it so that when they try yours, it has the same effect over and over. What we find is that over time people are permissive [00:03:00] it, so they'll try other stuff, but then they come back two years and they go, you know what? This is the one that I like.
And eventually you want a spot on their shelf at home. And when it's missing the band more, that's what we focus on.
Dan Humiston: that's so important. You mentioned the 10 it's a really unique package. I'm interested in how you came up with that idea.
Jacob Heimark: So we first actually sold gummies in a bag. And we actually started as a gum company. That was our first product. And we thought, there's some great. Gun companies, if you walk into a Walmart or target or seven 11, you'll see a lot of gum packages hanging on little hooks. We thought, okay, that's the right package for us.
And then as we explored gunnies and it really started to take off and on our product line, we were using similar bags. And then we said, we want to put 20 in something that I can fit in my pocket. And one problem that we had with. Bags was there too big for your pocket. And if you can get them in there, they don't provide enough width or protection from your hot leg that everything would melt.
So my [00:04:00] co-founder bought some, a bunch of different packaging options online. We threw the gummies and all of them, we just carried around and said, which ones do you like after a couple of weeks? And it turned out we both liked 10. So that was the answer.
Dan Humiston: And it's so it's unique, but it's pretty cool too. Like when you see. all your tins lined up together. It's great branding. Great branding. People can purchase your THC products in dispensary's in California and Nevada.
And I also saw the most people in California can have it delivered right to their door, but also have a CBD line that's available too. Customers, I guess nationwide. Can you tell us a little bit about your CBD products?
Jacob Heimark: Absolutely. In addition to the THC cannabinoid, so the ones that we're harvesting in California, so there's THC, but there are also all these minor cannabinoids like THCA and THCV, and we make sure those are all in the right ratio. And all that precision dosing and inclusion, we put to make those products in California, we put into a CBD product along with some things called [00:05:00] turpines, which were like smelly molecules that help you relax.
And in some cases really help you go to sleep, especially when paired with melatonin, which is a sleep product that we offer in the CBD side. We take all that technology, put it into a gummy with CBD, and we're able to ship it to your door all over the U S we found that, being able to take that precision dosing as an important CBD, we also have a much higher dose of CBD and a lot of our competitors put up to 50 milligrams per gummy which is quite high.
We find that is something that really works because a lot of people were taking, a couple of gummies. They're like, I don't really feel anything. It turns out when you're up it by about 10 X, , you start to feel something. And we think that,
Dan Humiston: I think it's great for the people that don't live in California or Nevada, so that they have an opportunity to get to know your products. And I read someplace. That you're the number one brand in your home state, California. And then in a short time after launching new Nevada, you jumped to number three.
Would that type of track rashers, you've gotta be itching to go into other States. What is your planto [00:06:00] expand?
Jacob Heimark: I think the most important thing when going to other States is that it's a lot more than a press release. And it's a lot more than just putting out your package in that state and letting somebody else make something and throw it inside. This is the only industry in the history of this country. Where you're going to have to manufacture one product in New Jersey and a different one in New York, and your customers are going to travel between those but your manufacturing, Canada.
That means that your processes, controls and partnerships are. Everything and something, I'll tell you that's the secret sauce, but not really see great. Coca-Cola tastes the same everywhere, . And that's key to their success.
You don't go to Minnesota and have a different Coca-Cola than you do in Michigan. And if we nail that correctly with the right partnerships, that's when we've been entering state. So we took Nevada as a learning exercise for how do we make sure that happens with our partner there, I think there are a lot of opportunities for sharing [00:07:00] across the country.
And so we'll partner with somebody to make sure we can bring it to a lot of places at once.
Dan Humiston: I don't know. I think you're onto something. I really do. , you have a tight brand and you're a publicly traded company. We've talked about. You're singularly focused business strategy, but I just want to drive this home one more time. Why should investors be attracted to hyper-focus products, centric companies like plus products.
Jacob Heimark: I think over time, what we're going to continue to see in this industry is that companies doing one or two things very well are those that can actually build a backbone and a platform to leverage that into other places. How, when, and the timing of that remains to be seen, this is an industry that moves very quickly, but I think there are a few companies like, plus they're focused on doing a few things really well.
And what happens then? Did you build recurring revenue businesses with the end consumer? I just saw some numbers from what's called unaided brand awareness. It's [00:08:00] basically you walk around California as people name a cannabis gummy brand. And plus is top one of all the ones that are out there. And that's really important.
We think because at the end of the day when you can define a category and be the one that's known for that category, that's where you start to create value and expand from there.
Dan Humiston: I think California is the largest market in the world. And like you said, if I just walk up on the street and say, Hey, what's your favorite? Infused product and they say plus products, and that's not a bad place to be right now. That is not a bad place to be.
Congratulations.
Jacob Heimark: Thanks. And our job is to get our products into every customer's hands. I think one of the biggest challenges for any company still in California is, and opportunities is 70% of the market is still illegal, which means we're not in 70% of the market. And yet we're still knowing that well so that's going to change as regulators are stepping in.
I think the end of COVID, as people are being vaccinated is really, regulators are starting to step in and shut down some of those places. And that's going to be a huge [00:09:00] opportunity for companies like, plus
Dan Humiston: Well, I'll tell you what , we'll have all product stock information in the show notes, along with the contact information. For people who are interested in buying their products or carrying their products or talking to them about expansion or buying their stock just click the link in the show notes and I'm sure there's people on Jake's team that we'll be happy to speak with you, Jake.
This has been a great interview. I'm really appreciate you being on the show today.
Jacob Heimark: Thanks so much for having me and for all the listeners, you can reach out to us directly. It's just, I r@plusproducts.com looking forward to connecting.