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As the CEO of the company, I very much take pride in the notion that we are good at attracting smart people. For me, that's the first step in running a good business. I appreciate the comment.
As far as resource allocation goes, I should provide a little bit of insight regarding our business. We're a venture-backed company that has been around for over 4 years now. We found product market fit around our core business of ingredient technology and services for infused beverages and know that the true value we bring to the market beyond that is the trust and white-glove service we offer our partners. We've shown steady and sustainable growth in this category, and continue to do so even in challenging economic times. In addition to that core business, we are constantly iterating and running experiments to see what other growth opportunities we can address or uncover. The cannabis industry is unfolding before our eyes and there will be some successful experiments and some failed experiments. For the first year of our business, there were many people that said our entire approach was a poor allocation of resources. I'd like to think we proved that wrong.
When it comes to retaining talent, we've had VERY few people leave the company on their own volition, and none or which we sought to retain. To be in the cannabis industry and have several employees celebrating their 2, 3, and 4 year anniversaries is actually quite a feat. We were identified as one of the best places to work in 2021 by MG Magazine. Truthfully, I take offense to the comment about our VPs. At the time of the original post (September 2022) and the time I'm writing this (October 2022), our VPs are Mike Torrey, Lauren Tamburro, and Ryan Pinsky, as well as our EVPs, Cara Newkirk and Lisa Raja - all stellar teammates that have more than earned their position in the company and continuously receive positive feedback both internally and externally.
Too much time wasted in meetings? Sure, I'll accept that, and some managers have been more guilty of it than others. It's been a challenge to work around ever since we entered this remote/hybrid work environment. It's a WIP! But nothing getting done? We're a team of 30 operating across 15 US markets and Canada, working with over 120 brands, and an equal number of supply chain partners, and were highlighted by Forbes this year as one of the 42 companies to watch in the space.
As for reputation... we'll take this into consideration but encourage anyone reading this to seek a second opinion.
Finally, I'll acknowledge that we've not always had the best representation on our front lines. We've always tried, but it is hard to grow and scale successful teams, especially in this space. We're all learning to be better at different scales of business. Several of those roles were removed at the same time as this particular poster. Luckily, we've made some significant changes and I'm extremely confident in the team that we have in place at the moment, but it is constant work to ensure we're at the top of our game.
Thanks for the opportunity to reflect and respond. If anyone would like to discuss this further, please feel free to reach out to me at any time.
- Benjamin Larson, b@vertosa.com
