Degelis Tufts & Kym Byrnes of TribeTokes: 5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started Leading a Cannabis or CBD Business
…Kym: Pay women fairly, invest in women companies (including more women investors) , create flexible work schedules for moms (everyone has a mom somewhere)!
…Degelis: Hire more women! We have been pretty adamant about working with women on our team, even though there are plenty of qualified men to work with. My husband does work for us, and he is proud to be the only male on the team 🙂
As a part of my series about strong women leaders in the cannabis industry, I had the pleasure of interviewing Degelis Tufts Pilla and Kymberly Byrnes, Co-founders of TribeTokes.
Kymberly Byrnes aka “KymB” is an activist, patient advocate and cannabis influencer (@cannabiswithkymb on Instagram). She also serves on the Board of Directors of the CWCBE and is an NYCCIA committee member. She is a former pilates entrepreneur, an NYC Ambassador for Women Grow, a lululemon legacy ambassador, and served as a 2018 High Times CBD judge. KymB joined TribeTokes as a cofounder in 2018 and spearheaded the launch of the clean skincare line, TRIBEAUTY.
Degelis (pronounced deja-lee and Dege or “dayj” for short) is an investor, entrepreneur and plant-based medicine enthusiast. Before launching the Tribe family of brands, she was the COO of several other startups including Instafluence, the first influencer agency, which sold to Maker Studios in 2015. Previously, she was an investing analyst at Sands Capital covering nearly $2 billion in global retail sector investments, and an investment banking analyst at J.P. Morgan. She graduated from the University of Virginia and has her CFA designation.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Can you tell us the “backstory” about what brought you to the cannabis industry?
Kym Byrnes: Cannabis has been part of my life for as long as I can remember. Both my parents, especially my dad, were consumers. When I was young my friends used to tease me about my dad’s roach jar…. I even remember my Aunt + Uncle planting cannabis seeds in the backyard as a joke. My mom passed away when I was 15. I quit school to clean motel rooms and sell nickel bags. I always had a deep affinity for the plant and grew mine own for ages. When my dad got sick in 2010, I realized the medicinal effects. After he passed I felt the need to explore cannabis as a medicine leading me to CBD. I met Dege at a Women Grow meeting in NYC — one of the best days of my life. Yes, cannabis is an industry but is it? With so many people still in jail or being convicted…. still a great deal of work to do before it’s a full on industry but we have come so far.
Degelis Tufts Pilla: In 2016 I was looking for my next career adventure, and a few of the major states legalized adult use in the election. I felt so strongly about the end of prohibition and in our right to choose as adults whether to consume cannabis or not. Cannabis being illegal and alcohol being legal makes zero sense, and the movement had started and was gaining momentum. I spent a year trying to figure out where I wanted to be in the ecosystem. I believe psychedelics are next and I’m excited about the growing acceptance of this sector as well.
Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
Degelis: The first trade show I ever did, I underestimated how long my inventory shipment would take to come in and the entire first day of the show we didn’t have our vape batteries, which was our signature product we were launching at the time. We had one sample out on the table (my prototype) and just talked to people the whole first day without having product samples. I remember having my intern take an uber to my apartment with my boyfriend to grab all the boxes once I got the notification from DHL that the boxes had arrived. We actually did pretty good at the tradeshow for not having products for the entire first day!
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story?
Kym: I am extremely thankful for my sister Lauren. She has supported me since the beginning of time. In 2013 my dad passed away and I went through a devastating divorce. I was at an all time low. I knew I wanted to be involved in cannabis but was scared. She encouraged me to go for it. I called her on my way to my first Woman Grow meeting. I was so nervous. She said smoke a joint and just be you. Words to live by for sure.
Degelis: I’m grateful for our manufacturing team in California! I first came to them like, “The CBD carts on the market are garbage, can we do better? They joined our team and helped us with R&D — CBD is a very unstable molecule for vaping — the oil in the carts tend to crystallize or turn dark brown with UV light exposure if you don’t have the right terpene and full spectrum cannabinoid blend — which was why so many brands were just giving up and adding MCT oil or Vegetable Glycerin. We were adamant about keeping the formulation full plant (hemp-derived) and they helped us get there after about 10 iterations of the product.
Are you working on any new or exciting projects now? How do you think that will help people?
Kym: We love our GUMMIES.They are all natural and made with amazing ingredients and are so damn delicious. We are excited to announce Delta 8 gummies are launching soon. We love Delta 8 THC bc it has a lot of the benefits of Delta 9 THC but much easier to access and totally affordable. So people do not have access to THC in the region due to legalities. This is an amazing alternative.
Degelis: We are also working on a charitable component of our brand, in addition to our 1% of sales donated to the Know Your Rights Camp, in collaboration with our Medical Advisor Dr. Lynn Parodneck. We will be donating free CBD and Delta 8 products to people in need with serious conditions, completely free of charge. Health insurance does not cover plant medicine, so brands need to step in!
Ok. Thank you for all that. Let’s now jump to the main core of our interview. Despite great progress that has been made we still have a lot more work to do to achieve gender parity in this industry. According to this report in Entrepreneur, less than 25 percent of cannabis businesses are run by women. In your opinion or experience, what 3 things can be done by a)individuals b)companies and/or c) society to support greater gender parity moving forward?
Kym: Pay women fairly, invest in women companies (including more women investors) , create flexible work schedules for moms (everyone has a mom somewhere)!
Degelis: Hire more women! We have been pretty adamant about working with women on our team, even though there are plenty of qualified men to work with. My husband does work for us, and he is proud to be the only male on the team 🙂
You are a “Cannabis Insider”. If you had to advise someone about 5 non intuitive things one should know to succeed in the cannabis industry, what would you say? Can you please give a story or an example for each.
Degelis:
(1) You should know a lot of math — cannabis is a business just like any other business
(2) Beware of salesmen selling snake oil — we have been burned by a few con artists in this industry trying to get rich quick, and won’t make that mistake again! They have all been white males
(3) Develop your community — given the grassroots nature of this industry, showing up for events and being involved in advocacy work is important. Just sending LinkedIn invitations won’t cut it.
(4) Learn how to read a lab report — know the different cannabinoids, terpenes, and the sections to look for (microbials, pesticides etc)
(5) You need to innovate — the market is becoming more crowded, just like any other consumer product or service, how can you offer something better or different from what already exists on the market?
Can you share 3 things that most excite you about the cannabis industry?
Kym + Degelis:
- THE END OF WAR ON DRUGS — Legalization across the board
- Social Equity and Justice (Minority licenses, expungements and restructuring our legislation (stop arresting black and brown people for weed).
- Plant-based healthy THC products coming to market (including beauty and topicals)
Can you share 3 things that most concern you about the industry? If you had the ability to implement 3 ways to reform or improve the industry, what would you suggest?
Kym + Degelis:
- Over taxation — drives up consumer prices to unaffordable levels
- Over regulation — can hurt innovation and the supply chain from developing
- Poor banking legislation — access to banking and capital hurts the industry overall
- The industry being taken over by large companies / MSO’s — “big cannabis” being like “big pharma”
The gov’t should help foster entrepreneurship and helping small businesses get licenses and create wealth for those who have been disproportionately affected by the war on drugs.
What are your thoughts about federal legalization of cannabis? If you could speak to your Senator, what would be your most persuasive argument regarding why they should or should not pursue federal legalization?
Kym: The war on drugs has racially profiled, incarcerated and disparaged communities. Federal legalization can afford those who have been negatively impacted more resources to rebuild. Our government is already accepting tax money for the sale of cannabis. It’s time to end the war and undo the demonization of a medicinal plant.
Today, cigarettes are legal, but they are heavily regulated, highly taxed, and they are somewhat socially marginalized. Would you like cannabis to have a similar status to cigarettes or different? Can you explain?
Kym: Cannabis has medicinal benefits regardless of having a classification of adult use. Cannabis should not mirror the very corrupt tobacco industry. Tobacco kills more than 480,000 people annually — more than AIDS, alcohol, car accidents, illegal drugs, murders and suicides combined. It is time to do and regulate this differently.
Degelis: It would be a tragedy for cannabis to have a similar status as cigarettes! We deal with this now with the dark cloud over “vaping” generally being associated with nicotine — there is not a SINGLE ingredient or thing in common between our CBD / D8 vapes and a nicotine vape, except the mechanism of how it is heated.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
Kym: If you want to be part of the industry — you need to show up! For your community, for yourself and for the plant! I got where I am by just showing up and keeping my word.
Degelis: I love the quote by Mance Rayder, the King Beyond the Wall in Game of Thrones, “The freedom to make my own mistakes was all I ever wanted.” I think this perfectly summarizes why I left Wall Street to start my own business in a wild industry like cannabis. Life is an adventure and a constant learning process, and when I treat it as such I’m more fulfilled in my work.
You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the greatest amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
Kym: I would inspire the movement of kindness. I believe we can heal ourselves through kindness. Being non judgemental and open to race, gender and religion etc. We are all different and that’s what is so fucking special.
Degelis: I would love a Golden Rule Movement! This is the simplest and most powerful thing to live by. If everyone treated others how they would like to be treated, most terrible things in the world would immediately vanish.
Degelis Tufts & Kym Byrnes of TribeTokes: 5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started Leading… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.