Karma Koala

Karma Koala Podcast 181: Mike Kennedy Green Check: Joining The Dots, An API Financial Solution For The US Cannabis Sector

Published

6 months ago

July 29, 2024

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In this episode I speak with Mike Kennedy of Green Check who are trying to simplify the myriad of of issues a cannabis company faces with banking, insurance and payroll.

We talk about the hows and whys of the business and touch on the following topics, amongst others.

The growth of insurance options in the US for cannabis businesses.
Payroll, it’s far more complicated than you might think.
How they manage their compliance as a company working with clients countrywide ( A lot of research!)
Are they building a data goldmine, more valuable than the cannabis itself?
Identifying trends and patterns and sharing that with clients.
The growth of cannabis international trade – it’s a no-brainer and more companies are needed to support this growth across jurisdictions

Mike Kennedy

Cofounder, Chief Strategy Officer at Green Check

Green Check (GC) is modernizing the way cannabis businesses and financial institutions work together. Founded in 2017 by a team of technology, banking, and regulatory experts, GC provides industry-leading technology, advisory services and data-driven insights to more than 150 financial institutions and over 10,000 cannabis-related businesses. Green Check was included in both the 2024 and 2023 Forbes Cannabis 42.0 list, recognized by CNBC as one of the World’s Top FinTech Companies, and named one of 50 game-changers in the cannabis industry in the 4th annual The Cannabis 50. It has been repeatedly recognized as Top Compliance Company and Top Compliance Leader at the PBC Awards, the premier cannabis industry honors. In addition, it has been recognized as the Top Financial Technology by the Green Market Report and was also named as one of top Best Places to Work in Fintech in 2022, 2023 and 2024 by American Banker. To learn more about Green Check, visit greencheckverified.com and follow GC on LinkedIn.

Company Mission

Our mission is to support the legal cannabis industry by connecting every cannabis business with the financial and business services that they need to grow.

In a dynamically changing regulatory environment, Green Check remains undaunted in the face of the unknown, mapping the way forward, setting new standards and trends; staying focused on helping the legal cannabis industry do well while doing good.

Through this innovative spirit, Green Check at its core, is about connection. We connect legal cannabis businesses with the financial and business services they need to grow. We connect cannabis business performance in a transparent way, giving financial institutions the necessary visibility into cannabis business operations for them to confidently serve the community in compliance with each state law.

We do this through a vast source of data, enabling insights for the rapidly growing cannabis industry. Our passion for this emerging industry drives our purpose. We are relentless in our pursuit of expanding opportunities both for cannabis operators and the financial institutions that serve them.

Latest Update

Green Check Expands Unified Cannabis API Offering for New Cannabis Market Entrants and Legacy Businesses

July 23, 2024, 1:04 pm

Today, Green Check (GC), the leading fintech provider of financial service solutions and industry insights in the cannabis market, announced the expansion of Green Check Access (GCA): the first-of-its-kind cannabis API and data tool. GCA helps new verticals enter the cannabis industry, while providing unparalleled insights and data to existing businesses in the space seeking to optimize their operations.

With Green Check Access, businesses get unprecedented access to unified and normalized data from often-disparate sets, such as leading point-of-sale, and inventory systems in the cannabis ecosystem. The result is an easy-to-use, single source of truth for critical data, including customer and product insights, seed-to-sale data, current market and historical analysis, and much more. As it stands, GCA is one of the largest collections of actionable insights for the cannabis industry.

“Having spent the last several years building technology products for cannabis businesses, we understand that one of the largest barriers to entry other technology companies face for serving this market is the need for industry-specific integrations, as well as access to unified data to guide decision making,” said Mike Kennedy, co-founder and chief strategy officer at Green Check. “We believe our newest offering greatly reduces the technical lift and burden of standing up an offering for the industry, while the normalized data component allows all companies to optimize their strategic planning and operations in a way that hasn’t been previously available.”

With the collection of APIs, companies using GCA are empowered to build, connect and monetize solutions specific to the cannabis industry, creating a platform that businesses can adapt to their unique needs.

Early adopters of GCA are already utilizing the tool in powerful ways. CTrust, a Green Check partner and the first credit scoring and monitoring agency for cannabis businesses, uses the unified cannabis API to build a bespoke credit risk rating system for the cannabis industry.

“Through our use of Green Check Access data and integrations, CTrust is able to paint a picture of the financial health of cannabis businesses for banks and lenders,” said Dotan Y. Melech, co-founder and CEO of CTrust. “We believe this will result in a significant increase in lending products to the cannabis industry, which is in dire need of capital.”

New market entrants ranging from beverage companies and laboratories to pharmaceuticals and delivery can also now access these tools. Additionally, early adopters of GCA, including multi-state operators (MSOs) and other large companies in the cannabis industry, can continue deploying this technology to better understand industry trends, make optimal pricing decisions, and truly know their customers.

“We’re excited to see the many use cases of how our partners are already leveraging the wealth of data that Green Check Access provides, and we know that will only grow as the insights continue to evolve,” said Kennedy.

To learn more about Green Check Access, visit greencheckverified.com/cannabisapi. To follow along for more company news, visit greencheckverified.com.

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Karma Koala

Karma Koala Podcast 222: Varin Marshall Founding Director at Northern Ireland Hemp Association – Can we get some investment please?

Published

2 days ago

January 20, 2025

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Download The Podcast At Podomatic

I speak to Varin about the parlous state of the Northern Ireland hemp industry.

It has remained too long a cottage industry and without buy in from local government, Stormont and of course Westminster that’s the way it’s going to stay.

It’s the story I hear the planet over, a complete lack of investment to develop proper processing facilities for industrial hemp.

Being part of the UK Northern Ireland has the same issues as England & Scotland a beyond useless labour government with zero understanding of and desire to develop hemp and don’t forget the standard UK party political nepotism which means quietly a limited number of people get to line their pockets.

Also, being Northern Ireland, there is also an element of Irish politics at play where north and south aren’t really talking to one another in anything but the flimsiest way.

Now.. wouldn’t it be great if it were hemp and cannabis that led the charge in change. Yes i know that’s somewhat naive looking at the power of the black market drugs trade in the south at the moment but it’s a nice thought.

Thankyou Varin for talking to the Karma Koalas but also finding positives in a landscape that isn’t offering too many at the moment.

Varin Marshall

Founding Director at Northern Ireland Hemp Association

Varin founded the Northern Ireland Hemp Association in early 2019 after life long passion, enthusiasm and knowledge of hemp. With a vision of protecting the fast emerging industry here in Northern Ireland he brought to life a fully transparent body of representatives who support the hemp industry across Ireland and the UK through education, business consultation, networking and advice in all areas of the industry.

Having developed his networking skills through an 18 year tenure in digital media production with multiple businesses and music industry promotion with globally known artists, currently operating Botanic Media (Belfast) As the previous owner of Azora Health & Wholefoods (Hillsborough) now ‘Azora Cooperative’ and Eatwell Foods (Belfast), he leverages 10 years of invaluable health foods knowledge and industry experience to strengthen Ireland’s resurgent hemp industry.

Why hemp?

Northern Ireland has a unique opportunity to establish a leading position within some of the most important and rapidly growing agricultural and industrial markets that have emerged for decades.

In response, the Northern Ireland Hemp has been formed by a group of hemp businesses and industry advocates. It is part of a growing worldwide movement that supports hemp and the use of the plant and we have joined together to promote a healthy and robust hemp industry here in Ireland.

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Karma Koala

Karma Koala Podcast 219: Matt Brockmeier of Antithesis Law.. The New Psychedelics Program In Colorado & Being A Psychedelics Lawyer

Published

1 week ago

January 14, 2025

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Download at

https://www.podomatic.com/podcasts/karmakoalapodcast

Thankyou to Matt for taking time out to discuss the new psychedelics program in Colorado and how it compares to Oregon’s program.

We also discuss what being a psychedelics lawyer means in terms of the practicalities of day to day work and also what it means in terms of how as a lawyer he now operates.

He also highlights how the Psychedelic Bar Association looks at the way way law is practised and how the body aims to use education to look at different ways of doing things

In short psychedelics law is more than just putting programs into effect and servicing clients but also a tool to looking at law itself and how it can change the status quo.

Matt began his career in Chicago with a national law firm, where he navigated layers of insurance coverage in multi-million dollar multi-state commercial litigation.

Following a brief time crafting policy in DC, Matt relocated to Denver, where he assumed a number of health-industry focused roles. He was a member of the healthcare practice group of an AmLaw100 firm, assistant general counsel to a health insurance company, and practiced corporate and regulatory law with a prominent boutique cannabis law firm before joining Antithesis.

His current practice primarily involves the law, business, policy, and (sometimes even) politics of drugs. Specifically, he focuses on psychedelics, cannabis, and other controlled substances, both in the context of healthcare/ wellness as well as drug policy reform.

Experience

Formed a Public Benefit Company collective for ketamine practitioners (including practice management, referrals, and insurance) along with related fundraising documents.

Advised out of state ketamine practitioner on application for Colorado facilitator license and formation of entity through which to operate Colorado therapy practice, including telehealth and licensure issues.

Assisted functional mushroom and superfood startup with entity formation, regulatory compliance, and business advisory services related to entry into regulated psilocybin market in Colorado review and drafting of licensing agreements.

Formed a nonprofit entity for psychedelic education platform focused on oncology end of life care.

Memberships

Psychedelic Bar Association, Board Member

Natural Medicine Advisory Board Sub Committee on Public Health & Health Equity

International Cannabis Bar Association

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Karma Koala

Karma Koala Podcast 218: Bethany Niebauer Axia Resolutions (CO) – Cannabis Mediation As The Sector Matures

Published

2 weeks ago

January 8, 2025

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Bethany has worked in the cannabis sector for the last decade and has amongst other things been the @Chief Compliance Consultant at the President at the

She has now launched her own mediation company and we discuss what she hopes to do with the business, why private mediation is better than the courts ( it’s cheaper and quicker) and what types of dsputes she is dealing with. We also discuss forthcoming devlopments and changes in the US cannabis and hemp sectors.

Bethany Niebauer

Bethany writes..

With a deep and diverse background in cannabis compliance and conflict resolution, I bring clarity and confidence to an industry often characterized by complexity.

As the founder of Axial Resolutions, I specialize in mediation and conflict resolution for the cannabis sector, helping businesses navigate disputes while preserving relationships and fostering collaboration. My approach combines industry knowledge, professionalism, and a commitment to practical solutions that empower companies to focus on growth and innovation.

Previously, I founded Axial Compliance Consulting, where I guided cannabis businesses through the intricate and often overwhelming maze of regulatory requirements. From securing licensure to creating Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) and Good Manufacturing Practices (GMPs), I worked with cultivators, dispensaries, consulting firms, and law offices across states like Colorado, California, Oregon, Washington, and Massachusetts. My meticulous attention to detail, legal expertise, and vast industry network earned me a reputation as a trusted resource for navigating even the most challenging compliance issues.

Throughout my career, I’ve not only tackled the nitty-gritty details of compliance but also educated and empowered clients to make informed decisions. Whether it’s ensuring safe cultivation practices, training employees on regulations, or navigating the gray areas of marketing, I offer actionable insights to keep businesses compliant and thriving.

Today, I continue to serve the cannabis industry as both a mediator and a resource for solving regulatory, operational, and interpersonal challenges. Let’s work together to resolve conflicts, build stronger partnerships, and ensure long-term success in this dynamic and evolving market.

Contact Bethany at https://www.linkedin.com/in/bethany-niebauer/

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