Bettering the World with Cannabis with Mark Cozzi #133

Today we enter the burgeoning market of Cannabis edibles. Our guest is Mark Cozzi, the founder of a Chicago-based luxury edible brand called The Bettering Company.  Mark has a 35-year career in the finance sector, primarily focused on growth companies and startups including 14 years on Wall Street and building an energy company.  Afterward, Mark made a major pivot and entered the craft cannabis edibles market. In this episode Mark and I babble about raising capital, sales, networking, branding; all topics any cannabis entrepreneur will find of value.

Founding The Bettering Company

The Bettering Company focuses on the care of craft, paying close attention to every aspect of every product. They use minimal, all-natural ingredients, source fair trade cacao, and handmake unique, culinary-driven flavors. They equally focus on the care of methodology to ensure consistent THC content and ideal flavor in all edibles, carefully testing each batch beyond the industry’s minimal requirement for THC testing. Despite a brutal funding market for cannabis and CPG startups, Mark was able to secure $11M in funding over 16 months (a particularly noteworthy figure for a pre-revenue cannabis company to attract an investment of this size), gaining the backing of CPG titans.

Topics we addressed in this episode:

1. Why edibles?
2. How did find the funding to launch the Bettering Company?
3. You came from VC right? Tell me about the network you had before founding.
4. What advice do you have for founders who don’t have your network?
5. What surprised you about your journey? What’s happened to the Bettering company that you didn’t expect?
6. You only sell through dispensaries, how did you get to know all these MSOs?
7. You’re focused on edibles. Are there other products you’re considering?
8. Will descheduling cannabis help or hurt the Bettering Company?
9. What distinguishes your edibles from all the rest?