Female Disruptors: Charlotte Hanna of Community Growth Partners On The Three Things You Need To Shake Up Your Industry
An Interview With Candice Georgiadis
Being resilient, adaptable and flexible is more important in the cannabis industry that any industry- a state can legalize marijuana use overnight and suddenly a $4billion opportunity opens up that wasn’t there before. You can’t get so stuck in a plan- you must be flexible and have the agility to pivot because your 6 months to 1 year plan can change course without any warning.
As a part of our series about women who are shaking things up in their industry, I had the pleasure of interviewing Charlotte Hanna.
Charlotte Hanna is the Founder and CEO of Community Growth Partners (CGP), a woman and minority-owned vertically integrated cultivation, manufacturing and retail startup with a focus on social justice and wellness. Based in Massachusetts with offices in New York City, CPG is dedicated to empowering communities disproportionately impacted by cannabis criminalization. Through CGP, Charlotte has pioneered a disruptive cannabis brand with a social impact business model designed to help solve one of the most challenging and protracted cannabis policy challenges- social equity. With CGP’s first retail outpost, the Rebelle Dispensary located in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, the company is carving out its own corner of the industry through its community-first, woman-focused philosophy and plans to open more dispensaries in other states where marijuana is legalized.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit more. Can you tell us a bit about your “backstory”? What led you to this particular career path?
My love for cannabis goes back many years. During summers in college, I toured with The Grateful Dead and traveled in circles where marijuana was as common as water. Early in my career I was a social justice advocate working on a variety of issues related to poverty and hunger relief — always with a focus on women and children, included building urban farms in San Francisco training homeless women to farm organic produce. I also raised the money to help start a day care program for homeless children whose mothers were victims of domestic violence. I went on to a career in finance spending a decade at Goldman Sachs and then subsequently spent another decade in the family real estate business before founding Community Growth Partners — blending my expertise in finance with my interest and passion for the cannabis industry. I have always believed in the healing powers of this plant and am very excited to expand into this category with Rebelle, our cannabis retail experience and the other products we’ll be launching this year.
Can you tell our readers what it is about the work you’re doing that’s disruptive?
I see all of us in the cannabis industry as change makers — and as a woman and a mother I feel I have a special place in the public discourse about cannabis. Community Growth Partners, the holding company I founded as a sort of social experiment I call just capitalism, is all about finding new ways to do business and solve social problems at the same time. I believe that for-profit enterprises can also be engines for socio and economic change — just like traditional institutions such as non-profit philanthropic organizations or government which we’ve always turned to in our society. Our social purpose — to be a part of repairing the harm that the war on drugs caused — is fully integrated into the day-to-day operations of our business and not a separate CSR initiative.
Through our strategic alliance with our nonprofit partner ROCA we are creating pathways into the cannabis industry and opportunities for building careers and wealth together, while adjudicated young men and women affected by cannabis prohibition. And finally, despite being a fairly young company we offer an employee stock program for everyone at CGP to earn equity, one they can leverage for benefit during their entire employment at the company. All employees — even hourly and part time — earn stock every quarter.
We all need a little help along the journey. Who have been some of your mentors? Can you share a story about how they made an impact?
My parents have been my role models for my entire life- they’ve taught me how to be an entrepreneur, a risk taker, creative thinker, and a savvy negotiator. My mom was really a pioneering woman for her generation as an entrepreneur and businesswoman having owned her own real estate business. I still lean on them for advice so much so that I asked my dad to be on the board of CGP. He and I talk almost every day — I can’t think of a better negotiator.
Since venturing into the cannabis industry, I’ve met so many incredible women who have helped me navigate the business. One of the most influential women I’ve met is Jeanne Sullivan, Chief Investment Officer at Arcview Ventures. After introducing myself to Jeanne at a conference where she was a speaker, she has supported me tremendously offering insights and wisdom as an advisor and investor in the cannabis sector, and she helped me navigate how to raise capital in a business dominated by men. I’m so grateful for the time she spent mentoring me when I was just getting started and I also want to pay it forward for women getting into the cannabis space now because there have been so many incredible women who have done the same for me.
In today’s parlance, being disruptive is usually a positive adjective. But is disrupting always good? When do we say the converse, that a system or structure has ‘withstood the test of time’? Can you articulate to our readers when disrupting an industry is positive, and when disrupting an industry is ‘not so positive’? Can you share some examples of what you mean?
I really believe the world needs disruptors. Disruptors are the voices of change. When entrepreneurs and future leaders are just starting out, they are on the fringe and often met with resistance by their more established counterparts. So, they really must stand firm in what they believe in because it’s all about effecting change. I know people outside of business who are incredibly disruptive in society- you need an alternative view to how things are typically done.
Can you share 3 of the best words of advice you’ve gotten along your journey? Please give a story or example for each.
The idea of the velvet hammer- words of wisdom that Jeanne Sullivan shared with me. I love this idea of being strong like a hammer but having a soft velvet touch. When you’re building a cannabis business in a community that is new to a cannabis industry, you’re often in public meetings facing adversity to justify get approvals on a license to open a dispensary. It’s important to stand firm in what you believe in and articulate you’re trying to do, while not jeopardizing your relationship with members of the community.
-My parents- Every adult can recall from their childhood the simple messages your parents gave to you over and over again. One thing my mom said my entire life was believe you can do anything. That fearlessness and confidence that you can do anything has led me to be incredibly resilient — through tragedy, downward economic cycles, changing careers and in my everyday life.
-Being resilient, adaptable and flexible is more important in the cannabis industry that any industry- a state can legalize marijuana use overnight and suddenly a $4billion opportunity opens up that wasn’t there before. You can’t get so stuck in a plan- you must be flexible and have the agility to pivot because your 6 months to 1 year plan can change course without any warning.
We are sure you aren’t done. How are you going to shake things up next?
Spring is going to be an exciting time for the company in many ways. We’re completing the construction of a 25,000-square foot cannabis cultivation and manufacturing facility opening in Northampton. In May we’ll be rolling out a white glove delivery service across all of Massachusetts. I’m most excited about new product development — and designing ways to consume that feel socially acceptable to newer consumers with a dedicated line of wellness products.
We’ll also be expanding Rebelle retail locations in other states nationwide where marijuana is legal, including New York, Boston and Illinois.
In your opinion, what are the biggest challenges faced by ‘women disruptors’ that aren’t typically faced by their male counterparts?
Raising money as a woman founder is very difficult. Less than 10% of all venture capital goes to women founders. Women are forced to defend their numbers and assumptions more than men.
Do you have a book/podcast/talk that’s had a deep impact on your thinking? Can you share a story with us?
I love anything by Michael Pollen. His book, How to Change Your Mind, really got me thinking about microdosing and how we can use psychedelics to transform our thinking. It had such an impact that the first product we’re bringing to the market this spring will be a microdosing form of cannabis that’s blended with other plant based adaptogens.
You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
People need to understand the risk to our democracy in the US today. We need to change the way money impacts public policy and politics. There’s a reason that nothing happens in Washington. Dark money has had the worst possible impact on our democracy. We need to do something about this. I’m sure we would have legalized cannabis federally by now if there weren’t so many groups funding campaigns to stop progress.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
I was fortunate to get to know a woman named Ruth Brinker when I was a young woman working in San Francisco. Ruth was an innovator, a pioneer and a well-known leader in the Bay Area. I met her when she was in her 70s and so full of new innovative ideas and the courage to do them. I asked her what her secret was and she told me that you must completely change your career a few times in your life. It will always keep you learning, interested and fearless. I lived by these rules and can attest that she’s right!
How can our readers follow you online?
@rebellecharlotte
@rebelledispensary
https://www.linkedin.com/in/charlotte-hanna-a6a014164/
letsrebelle.com
Thank you for these fantastic insights. We wish you only continued success in your great work!
Female Disruptors: Charlotte Hanna of Community Growth Partners On The Three Things You Need To… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.