Matching the strain to the occasion. The potential for cannabis to become a commodity has many cultivation facilities positioning themselves to remain competitive. Joe Ori, Co-Founder of Six Labs joins Dan Humiston to discuss how they designed their state-of-the-art 70,000 sq. ft. cultivation facility and why they grow strains that create consistent sensation that will be correct for specific occasions. Produce by PodCONX https://www.six-labs.com/ https://podconx.com/guests/joe-ori
Matching the strain to the occasion.
The potential for cannabis to become a commodity has many cultivation facilities positioning themselves to remain competitive. Joe Ori, Co-Founder of Six Labs joins Dan Humiston to discuss how they designed their state-of-the-art 70,000 sq. ft. cultivation facility and why they grow strains that create consistent sensation that will be correct for specific occasions.
https://www.six-labs.com/
https://podconx.com/guests/joe-ori
[00:00:00] Dan Humiston: Today. Raising cannabis capital. We are joined by Joe Ori, the co-founder at six labs, Joe. Welcome to the show.
Joe Ori: Thanks for having me, Dan. It's pleasure to be here.
Dan Humiston: I'm glad to have you.
We, haven't had a cultivator on our show in a while and , it's a sector that there's a lot going on and you guys are right in the middle of it. And , so I said this leading and definitely have these guys on, because.
We need an update. . Let's start by talking about six labs. Can you give us an idea of your facilities and , where you're based and everything
Joe Ori: sure. We have about 70,000 square feet under grow. We hold ourselves souls out to wanting to be the largest craft grower in the United States. But we're a start with Michigan. A, we have six partners all from Chicago and we saw an opportunity and jumped in.
Dan Humiston: That is so cool. That is so cool. You talked about, the craft idea of it. And I read on your website, you're doing something that's really interesting is that you're connecting the desired sensation. To the strain. And so that the patient or the consumer [00:01:00] doesn't have to try to figure it out on their own.
Maybe you can explain a little bit more how that works.
Joe Ori: so that's as just going back a little bit, Dan we got into this business, knowing that we. We weren't the first people to start a cannabis company so we said, how are you going to separate ourselves? And the focus of the company was innovation. We have our facility and I stand behind this and I haven't seen anyone who we've walked through since we started this.
No matter how long you've been in the business, or if you're just walking around and this includes appraisers that said they've ever seen a facility like ours, we. We held no stops. We did a bunch of due diligence and we basically created what we believe to be, and a facility that is not only state-of-the-art, but can be amended to become a state-of-the-art if the FDA ever gets involved in this.
And so we, when we set out to do that, we spent a lot more money than most people would have ever spent and building up the thrill of the art prize. And so we basically said, how are we going to distinguish ourselves? And we saw this research that was starting. A lot of it comes out of Israel and, There's [00:02:00] thousands and thousands of studies in cannabis where we think it's moving is going to be sensation based.
We are not there yet. So I want to clarify that for your listeners, but we do believe is that we can give you occasion based, meaning I can tell you what this is going to make you feel based on your chemical makeup yet, we don't have those studies yet, but I can tell you with a reasonable degree of certainty.
That you will feel like this is a more enjoyable experience. If you take this particular product at this time, such as working out, such as, going on a walk, such as watching a movie or, being creative that and the like,
Dan Humiston: That's an interesting concept is attaching it to , the activity which is really an interesting approach because let's face it most of the time. that's what you want because you're doing an active and you're like, I don't want to be super messed up doing
Joe Ori: A hundred percent. That's the thing. Unfortunately still in the market, especially in Michigan and I have friends who own companies in other States and we are moving into other States as we're going along here, but everybody cares more about [00:03:00] THC. It's okay, I want a 28% THC.
We'll pay top dollar for it. And I think that as we move along with this product in the end, it becomes commoditized. I think. The entourage effect. And I don't know if you know a lot about that, but the entourage effect is going to be something that's going to be further studied. And I don't think everything is, especially with, new users.
And I'll be honest with you. Some of us getting into our forties and fifties. People don't want to just be blown out of their mind. So I think the combinations of CBD ratios with THC and CBD CBG are all going to Practer in not only for medicinal standpoint, but recreationally. And when you factor in the knowledge behind those chirping, you can say, if I have to, take this brought the day too.
Maybe fight depression, maybe fight, feeling lethargic, maybe being able to go to sleep at night, maybe enhancing sex, all of these things we feel while we can't say that they are sensation based. We can say that the activity that you do while you're under the influence of these particular [00:04:00] combinations will enhance that experience.
Dan Humiston: I hate to go into anything negative about this because it sounds super exciting, but I always hear this from investors that they're a little skeptical about the. The trajectory of your sector, is where it could be becoming a big commoditized products and everything is assembly lined.
But it sounds like what you're doing with this, sorta makes you that crafter that would be impossible to become out of ties was entered at part of the decision to go this route.
Joe Ori: It wasn't the decision why we decided to do this, but I, we have this saying in our company that, every month in the cannabis businesses, like a dog here and. No. It's like when we got into this, we were just thinking about it from being, separating ourselves from our competitors, as it's evolved in a very short period of time, we do see that company like ours has the ability and like I say to survive, but I'm going to say to thrive.
When, and if this industry does become commoditized, to the extent that big business gets involved in, Oh, it's federally legal and wall street [00:05:00] money starts to enter the game. I don't think we're even close to that yet. Do I think they'll always be a place for the eviction auto for the people who go to a,
very sophisticated liquor store to buy their wine, or is it, are you okay with walking into Walgreens and buying whatever they have on the shelf right near the register? I think that, there will be a massive aspect of this that is a commodity. But I hope that, we never lose , that aspect of inner fiction out on, then forget about the fact that it's, what the medicinal potential is.
I think, we are on the horizon of something that we've never seen before in any kind of commodity whereit could be an ingredient into other currently existing drugs or may be able to exist on its own.
Dan Humiston: . It's you're right. We're in a brand new frontier here and in with so many different strengths. I just find it impossible to think that they could commoditize every strain and every new strain.I really think that you're onto something you talked a little bit about. Maybe other States are blowing out your facility there.
What are some plans for expansion or what are some things on the horizon?
Joe Ori: [00:06:00] We're a new company, but we've made some very strong strides pretty quickly. And we're looking actually to expand our grow in Michigan, we have an application that's been on file in Illinois since basically COVID hit and there are in innumerable amount of lawsuits that are pending relative to.
The awards for the temporary round. And they haven't gotten around to even letting us know what is going onwith the roll round and, like a lot of us, we all have land that we've been holding on to, because one of the prerequisites to applying for the grow in Illinois, that you had to have a piece of land and they're going to let us know about the awards back in July.
And now we're already into the next year and lots of us have been holding onto land. And we don't even really know if there's a reason for us to do cause we don't know if we weren't. But we are definitely making inroads into New York as well. I went to school out in New York, have a lot of connections with people who have lands.
We already surveyed land and work. We're going to be applying in New York as well. And the plans are to [00:07:00] just, move out into as many States as we can cultivating, hopefully have three or four before this all turns to the federal government's hands. And, we're licensing our products already in other States.
So I think that's the big thing that's happening now are a lot of companies. Are making the, the journey to get their licenses and our fate, they figure, okay, let's just create a national brand and we'll license with a company like six labs. They grow great cannabis. They'll take our strains.
They'll do exactly what we want and they'll package them for us and we'll share in the profits. And that's a lot what's happening now.
Dan Humiston: And it's gotta be so stressful in Illinois, just sitting on dead property going, what are we doing for this? Why are we all? Any Opportunity for investors within your company, or you guys just sell funding?
Joe Ori: That's a great question. We had a model that we were always raising and one of the advantages of having , most of the guys who started the company in their forties, Is that we have, not only business sense and experience, but we know a lot of people with money.
So we were able to raise, , well into nine figure in about nine months. But we have an obligation to our current [00:08:00] investors. Legally to ask them if they want to reinvest in this next project. And then if not, , there's a lot more money available for lending out there.
So we're going to try to do it, with our current investor and then, a few investors and try to actually fund the rest of this ourselves
until it gets bigger.
Dan Humiston: Wow. That is great. . You have found yourself in a unique position and I'll have all the links to Joe stuff, and also have links to six labs. So if there's people out there that would like to carry your products and Michigan, I'm sure , somebody from your team, I'm sure we'll follow back up with them.
Or even if you're an investor and you want to convince these guys to take some of your money. . I'm sure somebody from Joe's team will at least talk to you.
Joe is great having you on the show. I appreciate you taking time out today
Joe Ori: Yeah, Dan gray has been wonderful as well. Thank you very much. If you ever want me back on, I'd be more than happy.
Dan Humiston: for sure. We'll do this again. When you get into New York, that'll be
for sure.