Hi I’m Jesse. I'm 26 and I 100% own @greenpeakzusa which has 3 licenses in California and in multiple dispensaries across California. I don't have a PR or anything, I just want to get our story out. Black owners only make up only 4% in cannabis ownership, I imagine out the 4% maybe a 5-10 are under the age of 30 and own multiple facilities and in major dispensaries like Harborside.
Warren Bobrow - Contributor \
Instagram, How I love it. Many interesting tangents I've run down through this very specific, visual imagery. I've actually taken Twitter off my business card. Instagram has brought me real value in the cannabis industry. And recently I received the following note. It was, as I say not so often, irresistible. I had to publish this young, extremely passionate and bright entrepreneur.
We been in Eco Cannabis, Harborside which is the biggest dispensary in America, Herbarium, Green Easy, and Purple Star. I did this walking in stores and doing the sales rep myself. I got two offices and my own facility. Top 10 followed cannabis brand. I did this before 30 without an investor. It doesn't matter how good I do if I don't have the platform to speak to other young people and minority's and show them the possibilities. So I truly, truly, truly thank you for just hearing what I have to say. I promise if you give me a chance our interview could be seen as something that was key in cannabis for people of color. Green Peakz=well, that's Jessie
WB: Why cannabis? What is your experience with the plant? Please tell me about your company?
Green Peakz: My dad started my love for cannabis. He was a connoisseur in the early days. He was growing his own strains in the 90’s and would let me help in his garden. By the time I got to high school I knew a lot more about cannabis than others. I’m from Oakland so a lot of us were experimenting with cannabis younger than most. My best friend Domo had a older cousin who had some the best weed in town. He told us if we wanted to make some extra money he would front us product and we would pay him back when we sold out. We went to Skyline High School which is up a big hill, so once you up there it’s no leaving until school is out. This led to everybody buying from us, we called ourselves D&G Grapes, we would come up with strain names so we could charge more. We even had "swishers" (a kind of rolling paper), in case they didn’t bring something to smoke in. I never thought at the time that this could ever become a career. Fast forward about 5 years, I’m at a crossroad in my life. I’m newly single with a young daughter, still hustling but also driving Uber on the side. When California passed the ballot to make cannabis legal I was very interested, but realistically I didn’t think I’d be able to afford a permit. Months later I read that Oakland was going to have a equity program for inner city natives to get cannabis permits. Immediately I knew this was something I wanted to do. Everybody thought I was crazy or I had no chance to get it done, but when I have my eyes set on something I’m relentless, I always dreamed bigger than most. I walked into Nancy Marcus office who runs the cannabis program in Oakland and she showed me everything I needed to get approved in the city and the state. By the next week I walked back in her office with a location, facility and all the paperwork finished. I think I was one of the first African American majority owners to get their license in California and I did It at 26 years old.