Editors’ Note: This is the transcript version of the podcast. Please note that due to time and audio constraints, transcription may not be perfect. We encourage you to listen to the podcast, embedded below if you need any clarification. We hope you enjoy!
Fyllo Founder Chad Bronstein is breaking down barriers and bridging the gap between cannabis and the outside world. Leveraging his Adtech background, he’s quickly built Fyllo into a juggernaut.
Chad is also the Chairman of Carma Holding, revolutionizing celebrity partnerships with Mike Tyson and Ric Flair. This week on The Dime, we discuss.
- Building Fyllo
- Retail connected media
- Mike Tyson, Ric Flair, and who may be next?
- Celebrity Partnerships
- and so much more
About Chad Bronstein:
Named as one of both AdAge’s 40 Under 40 and Crain’s 40 under 40 for 2021, Bronstein built his marketing and tech empire on the simple foundation of spotting opportunities that others overlooked: Bronstein founded Fyllo in 2019 in response to the myriad compliance challenges faced by major cannabis operators– and, under his leadership, Fyllo has transformed marketing technology for highly regulated industries, allowing the most ambitious cannabis, CBD, and consumer brands to overcome the complexities of compliance at scale.
About Fyllo:
Fyllo is on a mission to accelerate the economies of tomorrow. Fyllo’s marketing and regulatory solutions provide the tools, data and integrations needed to drive new growth with speed and scale. Powered by a leading data ecosystem and regulatory database, Fyllo is trusted by Fortune 500 companies and emerging brands to stay competitive and compliant.
About Tyson 2.0
TYSON 2.0 is a premier cannabis company formed with legendary boxer, entrepreneur and icon Mike Tyson. The company’s mission is to produce innovative, high-quality cannabis products known for purity, precision, and wide accessibility. Providing consumers an outstanding selection of products, TYSON 2.0 is an extraordinary balance of premium and affordable, full-spectrum cannabis flower, concentrates, and consumables available at retailers nationwide.
https://hellofyllo.com/
https://tyson20.com/
https://www.instagram.com/itstyson20/
https://twitter.com/itstyson20
https://twitter.com/ChadBronstein
#Tyson #RicFlairDrip #Fyllo
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[00:00:00]Bryan Fields: What’s up guys? Welcome back to another episode of The Dime. I’m Brian Fields, and with me as always is Ke finning. This week we’ve got a very special guest, Chad Bronstein, founder and c e O of Philo, and president of Tyson 2.0. Chad, thanks for taking the time. How you doing today? I’m good. How are you guys?
[00:00:15] I’m doing well, Kellen. How are you doing?
[00:00:17]Kellan Finney: I’m doing really well. Excited to talk to Chad and, uh, learn more about
[00:00:20]Bryan Fields: these companies. How are you Brian? I’m doing good. So Chad, we got a little east coast, west coast battle . So, uh, for the record, where would you put yourself on the map?
[00:00:29]Chad Bronstein: Uh, well I would say I’m Aura in the Midwest, so I’m gonna have to go East Coast.
[00:00:33] There it is. Kalin
[00:00:34]Bryan Fields: another one for it. I know, I
[00:00:35]Kellan Finney: was, I was trying to avoid the topic. Yeah, I just, uh, gleamed over it so quick. .
[00:00:39]Bryan Fields: That’s fair. That’s fair. So Chad, for our listeners are unfriendly about you. Can you give a little background about.
[00:00:44]Chad Bronstein: Yeah. So, uh, you know, come from a long line of advertising marketing, technology background, uh, married, uh, met my wife when I was 22, I think when I first went to Chicago.
[00:00:56] Um, for my first advertising job. I have a, a son [00:01:00] that’s six years old. Um, and, uh, yeah, you know, from Ohio, like we just discussed and, uh, went to Miami, Ohio and, um, you know, it’s a quick background, just a serial entrepreneur. I’ve been doing, you know, figuring out ways to make money since I was 11 years old, but not for the money side, just for the, you know, the pure, you know, entrepreneur side of it.
[00:01:19] I believe it. So
[00:01:19]Bryan Fields: what, what kind of drew you into cannabis?
[00:01:22]Chad Bronstein: It’s funny. So I was never, I never really smoked weed, to be frank. Like I didn’t, I was always into like, just so focused on sports when I was younger and then to college, but I never really got into it. Um, but we, when I was running, uh, a mobi, which was at the time, you know, we were on my singtel, so, you know, you weren’t really able to touch like a Juul or a cannabis.
[00:01:43] And cannabis was becoming really large scale. And I, at that point, I. Eight years in, you know, running a large team, but kind of lost a passion of, you know, I don’t wanna work in a corporate, uh, you know, culture anymore. I, before we got bought, it was like very much, you know, [00:02:00] the culture. We liked entrepreneur.
[00:02:01] And then as you grow, no matter what company you’re at, you start to get more corporate. And so I had to make a decision, do I wanna go at that time, run another company? Or do I wanna build my own? And I also wanted to try something different. I needed to like, you know, get my juices going. And so I’m a big, like, underdog challenge kind of guy.
[00:02:20] And I, we were getting a lot of, um, outreach about cannabis. I think the first cannabis company, which was a CBD, was Charlotte’s Web that reached out back in the day, um, or this is like five and a half years ago. And so I was like, you know, what, what can we do here that, uh, is unique in this space to bring some maturity to.
[00:02:38] And so I went off on a, uh, reached out to Aristotle. My, one of my co-founders, Eric Shawney, one of my co-founders, some people that don’t have co-founder title, but that were early on, like Conrad, our C M O, Nicole Cosby, who was the chief legal officer. Um, and some other people, and I was like, guys, if I start this company, will you join?
[00:02:58] It was kind of like the field of dreams like [00:03:00] Kevin cost. If I build, will you come? And so, uh, and um, you know, I, you know, I also, we were all making good money, so I had to, you know, I had to make, I had to go out and raise money, at least for not me, but for the other people to de-risk. The opportunity. And so I went out and put together a deck racing capital.
[00:03:17] Um, and that’s how I jumped into the space. It was a, you know, when you jumped in, what we jumped in with what we are today is two different things. But, um, we just started listening to what was needed, I
[00:03:28]Bryan Fields: believe. Yeah. So you come from a
[00:03:30]Kellan Finney: successful, uh,
[00:03:32]Bryan Fields: Background, I mean, outside the cannabis industry, was
[00:03:35]Kellan Finney: there any hesitations and what was that conversation like with, uh, your wife and, I mean, you had a kid too, you mentioned,
[00:03:40]Chad Bronstein: so that’s, what was that transition like?
[00:03:42] That’s so a great question. I wouldn’t have done that without her blessing because, um, I remember this day I was sitting at the kitchen table with my wife, um, my son was young at the time, uh, and I’m like, uh, I want to go start a canvas company. Um, she laughed at [00:04:00] me not because of the canvas fight, cuz her, you know, her family partakes quite a bit.
[00:04:03] Uh, so what, she was laughing cuz I was jumping into cannabis because I never, you know, I’d like, oh no, you know that the person’s a stoner needs to stop smoking so much. Right. and, and then when I jumped in, and then, so she said, you should go do it. Like she wanted to see me at the end of the day, like when you’re successful, as you guys know, like whether I succeeded or not, I could jump.
[00:04:24] I had a fallback. So it was a, it was a good opportunity for me to do that. And, um, honestly, it like changed. It changed for me. I’ve had the most fun. I wouldn’t be, we won’t be talking. Tyson 2.0 or field anything. Cause I didn’t do this. Um, and my whole vision was, let’s go destigmatize it. Because I was a part of that stigma in the sense of thinking, that mentality when I jumped in, I learned so much about all the effects and all the people that are utilizing this for so many more things than just, um, leisure.
[00:04:57] Yeah, it’s,
[00:04:58]Bryan Fields: it’s really kind of eyeopening and I think coming [00:05:00] from an entrepreneurial background really helps in this type of space where you’re just kind of layered with different challenges and obstacles. And one of the, the projects I wanna talk about first is Tyson 2.0, obviously Mike Tyson’s, big name behind that.
[00:05:11] How did that start and like when that first conversation’s happening with you and, and like, take us through, you know, what you’re feeling and what those early thoughts were on putting something.
[00:05:19]Chad Bronstein: So it started, I won’t be at talking about Tyson 2.0, it wasn’t for Philo, right? So, as you guys know, we built a pretty, you know, we came in strong in this industry and we were, and it was like constant promoting, just making sure that, you know, we were a big name and that we had the opportunity to race, capitalize other things.
[00:05:36] So, uh, Philo, I gotta tell you the story. So Filo. Obviously built the name for us in the space. Then on LinkedIn, this guy Daniel Carillo, who’s a two time Stanley Cup hockey player, reached out to me. I, I don’t know anything about hockey. We talked about sports earlier, guys, and we were talking about football and basketball, but we, we didn’t bring up hockey, but I didn’t know shit about hockey.
[00:05:57] So I was like, who the hell is this guy? Right? [00:06:00] Uh, and so then I looked at his, um, I looked at his link to, said, he sent me on YouTube about, uh, um, his concussions and stuff like that. And so, uh, that’s how I got. He reached out and then he lived 20 minutes down the street. So he came to my house. Um, and then I helped, you know, we, psychedelics was a very tough industry too, but we were sitting in this office and I’m doing the podcast with you and we were just like, I was like, we gotta get to Mike Tyson because if we get to Mike Tyson, he can help us with his voice.
[00:06:26] Cause he talks about five M E O D M T and how it saves his life, saved his life. So we did that. Um, I met, we manifested it. We got to Mike through his brother-in-law, zine. And there was a guy that worked for Filo named Brian Spears, who’s Britney Spear’s brother that actually connected us to, uh, him. And then, uh, yeah, so then he asked me to look at some cannabis stuff.
[00:06:49] And, um, that’s how we looked at something. I’m not gonna talk about the old, uh, regime, but I could talk about what we did and cause of filo my relationships with [00:07:00] Columbia Care at the time. I reached out to this guy, Jesse Shannon, who’s the Chief Growth Officer of Columbia Care, one of my close friends, and I said, Jess, and I put Mike on the call.
[00:07:07] I said, Jesse, if we start Tyson 2.0, will you work with us and give us national cultivation? And that was the start.
[00:07:15]Bryan Fields: I mean, it’s a bold move. And I guess getting Mike on board, was that an easy thing? Was that a harder thing?
[00:07:21]Chad Bronstein: You know, I build a lot of trust with Mike, his wife, Kiki and Azim. That’s like the, that’s like the team of, uh, and you know, they’re very, they’re really good people and it’s all about trust.
[00:07:31] Um, and so we build good trust. And so, um, I was able to, uh, I was able to, Show them that what, how it could be successful. Because the, the key is like, as we’ve seen in a lot of celebrity brands in this space, they don’t do well. And I think there’s, you know, we’ve kind of proven the model, which the model is, is like you gotta have national scale, you’re not gonna, and the, the biggest problem in this space is we also know is cultivation product, right?
[00:07:56] So, You can’t really scale in this industry unless you [00:08:00] have national scale. So they saw the roadmap. We went with Jesse, and then we signed a partnership with Jesse, and that was our first in Columbia Care, and that was our first partnership in the space to really launch the company.
[00:08:12]Kellan Finney: How much, uh, fuel does it add to the fire when you have someone like Mike Tyson who’s actually benefiting from the product?
[00:08:19]Chad Bronstein: It’s huge. I mean, I would say the fuel in the fire is not about the celebrity. Um, it’s about Mike Tyson’s, obviously name, but it’s also about Mike Tyson’s work ethic. Right. There’s a big difference between, you know, I’m not gonna name other celebrities, but let’s just talk about what it is. Like Mike goes everywhere.
[00:08:36] If Mike, Mike and, and also Rick Flair, but these guys, like, they, you say, let’s go to Idaho at 6:00 AM they’re gonna get on the plane and, and they’re punctual like they’re just, you know, Mike and Rick are just like us. They’re hustlers, they’re entrepreneurs. You know, they’re not, they don’t, they want to be a part of it and then that’s why it’s successful.
[00:08:54] The, the licensing someone’s name in the space, it doesn’t work like, well, you get one, [00:09:00] you get one social media post and one thing, and you expect it to be successful. No way. And also back to your question earlier is like Mike knows weed. He knows what he is smoking. He knows how it helps him, and so he can, he helps with products and he knows that it’s gonna be, you know, if you smoke Mike’s weed, you know it’s gonna be good stuff.
[00:09:19] That’s
[00:09:20]Bryan Fields: such a critical aspect, right? Because a hundred percent agree. We’ve seen other influencers come in and it just hasn’t picked up the type of attraction. But with what you’re building with Tyson is the name is everywhere and he’s constantly pushing the product. Obviously he’s an incredible marketer cuz we’ve seen some of the things that have gone on with between him and Rick.
[00:09:35] But I wanna stay more with like his involvement in selection of the products. Is he heavily involved in it? Is he kind of working with someone? How does.
[00:09:42]Chad Bronstein: He calls us, like he calls, uh, him and Kiki will call us like five times a day with new, with new products. Like, listen, like Holy Ears was, uh, a fun, a fun story.
[00:09:51] So Holy Ears we’re in the, so we reached out to Vander a year ago when we, before we launched Mike Bites, and Vander would say this too. He, you know, they [00:10:00] didn’t wanna do it at that time, but then, you know, a year later we were gonna do Holy Ears for the holidays. Um, and actually as Mike’s idea, Mike and Kiki’s idea, so HO ERs for the holiday.
[00:10:11] and then a Vander happened to reach out to us and we say, Hey, we wanna do Holy Years for holidays. We wanna be a part of this. And he said, yes. So now a vander’s a part of it. We launched Holy Years, we went viral, um, with, with the commercial that we did. We did that commercial
[00:10:25] in
[00:10:26]Chad Bronstein: three days and we, it’s, it comes back down into the team, right?
[00:10:29] I have my C e O of Tyson’s, Adam Wilkes, uh, been in the Cams game for a while. My CMO is Jackie. Um, she’s been in the game of Anheuser Bush for quite some time, more in the mainstream world. Nicole Cosby, who was with me at Filo, who is my chief legal officer now comes from a licensing background. And so she’s, she’s, I took, she came from Filo to Tyson and Aristotle is my other, um, partner.
[00:10:51] And so it’s, you know, I always say, as you guys would know, it’s like building a company, tech and everything else, whatever you’re building is important, but the people are the most important. [00:11:00]
[00:11:01]Bryan Fields: The engagement though is incredible. I’ve seen him at the Benzinga event and the other things that they’ve done, they’re just natural entertainers.
[00:11:08] So kind of being with them. Do you, do you kind of get lost in the, in the atmosphere of the relationships? Because I can imagine sometimes what you’ve seen is people, they’re bigger than life, so we’ve seen people come up to them in just bit excitement. But is there a pairing between the entertainment aspect and the marketing that that plays really nice in cannabis, but there are so many challenge.
[00:11:25]Chad Bronstein: Yeah. I mean, Mike is an incredible, I, I would say they’re both Mike and Rick and their own rights are marketing geniuses, right? And so, so I think that the ability to utilize, um, the marketing we do, which is very pointed and specific, um, with their abilities, I think that allows us, obviously to grow.
[00:11:44] Faster. Right. And, you know, we have a great PR team in K C S A that’s really helped us build this from day one. But we, it’s a lot of work. Like we’re cons. We, we don’t struggle as you guys can assume with getting pressed. So it’s making sure that, um, what we’re doing is very pointed and specific [00:12:00] to what we’re trying to accomplish and build.
[00:12:03] have you noticed,
[00:12:03]Kellan Finney: uh, like a significant, um, shift in some of the cultural stigmas that we, we touched on earlier, just having Tyson and Rick Flair kind of be a part of it and actively participate?
[00:12:14]Chad Bronstein: A hundred percent. I think that, uh, you see you’re seeing more shifts. You’ve seen more vir virality around, um, the two of them, like, you know, when they’re together, it’s very rare.
[00:12:24] I, I like to say, You know, there’s Mi Mike and Rick, and this is what our new thing at Tyson at Karma Holdings, which is our new holding company, now that we have Rick, Mike, and Evander but stand the test of time, right? These guys have been out there for 40 years and they’re still relevant. A lot of people we all seen in our crew, uh, lives, like they don’t stay as, you know, relevant the whole time.
[00:12:47] Mike and Rick are still relevant and they stay on the test of time and that’s because their ability, you know, to be out there and, you know, not afraid. They’re not afraid to say whatever the hell they wanna say. You know, they, they, they’re just not. So, I think that’s [00:13:00] also a big part of it. Did,
[00:13:01]Bryan Fields: did Mike help recruit Rick?
[00:13:03] How did that, uh, alignment?
[00:13:05]Chad Bronstein: No, uh, it, uh, so Rick was my boat neighbor in Tampa. He tells the story at the time, I don’t care. Like I was, uh, he, someone told me Rick Fair was my boat neighbor. I just moved there, right? So I see I’m a big wrestling fan. Um, and I see, uh, the boat, his boat come right next to mine.
[00:13:24] And I, we share the same, uh, guy that takes care of our boat. . And so I, I texted my guys like, Hey, when Rick comes in, let me know. I want to say hi to him with my son. And then I, and then I told him, I’m like, Rick, I wanna start a cannabis brand called the Rick Flair Drip. Cuz Rick Flair Drip was the most popular, one of the most popular watch rap YouTube videos there is.
[00:13:44] I’m like, I could, and Rick’s just such a good market. I grew up on him. So that’s how it started. This was like 10 months ago. Um, and uh, I called Mike and I said, What do you think about Rick Flair as our next brand? And Mike’s like, I love Rick Flair. And so yeah, he had a part I wouldn’t have. I [00:14:00] always call Mike if I’m gonna build a brand.
[00:14:01] I’m like, what do you think? And Mike’s like, there’s nothing not to to love about Rick. And so that’s where we went.
[00:14:08]Bryan Fields: Was there instant chemistry between
[00:14:10]Chad Bronstein: the two of them? They know each other. Yeah, they knew. They, they, uh, they’ve spent time together, you know, so, uh, yeah. I mean, they, they’re, they, they, yeah.
[00:14:19] You know, both of ’em are actually. You know, people get a misperceptions on that. Mike, Mike and Rick are the two like, nicest guys. There are, like, hanging out with them is like, you know, it’s pretty fun. There’s, there’s no, um, they, you know, they’re pretty easy guys to be around.
[00:14:34]Bryan Fields: So one of the things that Tyson 2.0 aims to do is break the mold for how celebrity and cannabis intersects is their plans to add additional, uh, personalities to the.
[00:14:43] Oh,
[00:14:43]Chad Bronstein: there is, yeah, there’s a big one’s gonna be announced next year in the beginning of the year.
[00:14:48]Bryan Fields: Any, any teasing of that for the listeners that maybe can help us figure out who it
[00:14:53]Chad Bronstein: is? Uh, you, you’ll see I can’t tease cuz it’s, it’s a, it’s another, There, there’ll be, you [00:15:00] know, probably a couple names that we’ll announce next year, but we’re very specific in how we choose.
[00:15:04] Like do they fit? You know, we, we, it’s not just about the name and the notoriety of them, it’s also about do they fit our culture? Do they bring, you know, can we have chemistry like we do? You know, it’s, it’s a pretty family oriented culture at. At, at Karma. So we we’re very specific and we have to also, I like, you know what I said, to stand this test of time with Rick and Mike, they’re very nostalgic.
[00:15:27] You asked the question earlier, do you get lost in like, um, in the, you know, the energy around the fans they have and sometimes you do because it’s not about getting lost cuz they’re so happy. It’s also hearing the stories that they have like, and how Mike and Rick have impacted a lot of people’s lives or memories they had with someone in their family.
[00:15:44] So that’s, I think that’s the cool, really cool part to. When
[00:15:47]Kellan Finney: you’re, uh, when you’re, uh, going after additional celebrities, how do you guys vet them? Is there like specific like target personalities that you’re looking to add? Is it like, Hey, we have these two [00:16:00] things covered, we’re looking for like a, a very different one?
[00:16:03] Or is it like you’re just kind of building them all together as like a pyramid?
[00:16:07]Chad Bronstein: Um, you know, it’s a good question. Uh, it kind of just comes and, you know, and like some of ’em are just like, you know, one I’m working at right now, my wife actually brought up in the summer that, uh, that I really will, will reach a different audience, reach an audience that may, we may not capture, right?
[00:16:24] So, obviously, you know, we’re looking at, um, someone right now that if we get it will be incredible. We’ll, we can have another update and then the person that we are partnering with that you want. Launching in Janet, we’ll launch the knobs in January. This person also reaches a very large international audience and US audience and maybe not some audiences that we’re touching today.
[00:16:46] So, um, yeah, and then also you don’t wanna dilute your own, you wanna dilute your own brand. So just also making sure that each brand sits in a different, um, you know, sits and gets the tension. It needs to be
[00:16:59]Bryan Fields: success. . [00:17:00] And it’s also challenging for you too, to make sure that the person not only fits in the community, but also checks the box.
[00:17:05] Like you were saying, you want this person to be involved. You want this to be a part of their life because it’s critical, that celebrity partnership that has this current negative stigma about it, right? Everyone’s like, oh, people just slapped their name on it. And you have to kind of evaluate whether or not this will be a good fit, not only for the brain, but also if the personality and their interests align.
[00:17:22] It’s not just kind of like a cash grab.
[00:17:24]Chad Bronstein: A hundred percent. Yeah. It’s, and, and also it’s like, it makes our lives easier, um, that if that person is involved and it’s not just the person, it’s the team around that person. Like we talked about Mike, we have Kiki and Azim who around him, and we have, we have, we work with all three of them.
[00:17:40] With Rick Flair. We have, um, Kelly Brewster, who’s, and. Wendy, who is his team there that we work with consistently with this new person. We have his team that we work with consistently. So it’s not just about the talent, it’s about the team. The team’s gonna be doing the day-to-day a lot of the times. So you have to be able to work with everyone well, and [00:18:00] that’s, that’s how it becomes successful.
[00:18:02] Just one
[00:18:03]Bryan Fields: last question about the ear edibles. Obviously you got a ton of press and I can’t tell you how many text messages I got from people being like, I gotta try these product, gotta try these products. Was there any hesitation that maybe it wouldn’t be good to fit with a Vander? And then going forward, when it started getting announced, when did you realize it kind of got caught up into the viral world and it was really taken a, a
[00:18:20]Chad Bronstein: life?
[00:18:20] We knew when an evander we knew always if we, when Evander was going to be involved, that it would be we already went viral for mic bites with without a Evander but we knew. You know, ide ideally we always wanted a Evander involved. We’re not, we were never in business to like, take advantage of a situation like we wanted a, Evander and Mike are friends.
[00:18:37] Like people don’t understand that. Like they think there’s still enemies from this, uh, event. They’re, they’re not. So, um, hanging out with Evander and Mike is fun. Like they’re both, they both have so much respect for each other. Um, and in boxing it’s aggressive sport, right? So it’s like, You know, you never know what’s going to happen.
[00:18:54] So I think for us, like having a Evander be a part of the holy Ears and a part of our organization was [00:19:00] always something we wanted and always envisioned. And now I’ve gotten to spend a lot of time with them and Mike together. It’s a, it’s, they always like Mike and Evander’s like people think I hate the guy.
[00:19:10] We’re, we’re, we’ve, we’ve known each other. They were on the Olympic team together, or pre 1984, like these guys go way back. There’s a long, there’s longevity there. So, um, it’s been fun working with them. And we always wanted a Vander. And a Vander also has a good team with his, his son and EJ and his daughter Avette.
[00:19:28] They’re working, working with them. So it’s back to that we’re talking about is that kind of approach. It works really well.
[00:19:35]Bryan Fields: So slightly switching gears to feel. Feel Connect is a new interactive retail media network built for retailers and brands that wanna reach cannabis consumers. Can you kind of expand on the value proposition for that?
[00:19:47] Is it more beneficial for the consumers, for the dispensaries, or a little bit of both?
[00:19:51]Chad Bronstein: It’s for both, right? Because when, you know, so how I, again, Jesse Shannon comes back into this conversation. So Columbia cares one of our bigger [00:20:00] clients, um, for a long time and. I was looking at, you know, we have, we have loyalty, we have advertising, we have data.
[00:20:08] We have, as you guys mentioned Don earlier in the conversation, we have our compliance, uh, software. So, you know, you’re looking at building a, we build a flywheel. So one thing that was missing were the screen side of the business and like, how do we do something different in a, you know, in a space? Cuz you have.
[00:20:24] people out there just putting screens with ads, and that’s my whole background. It’s like, what? How do you make it more interactive? So I called up Jesse and I’m like, Hey, who’s the best screen company you guys are talking to? And he is like, well, we signed an exclusive with this company called nine 16 that wasn’t in cannabis when they signed exclusive, they were in retail, the mainstream.
[00:20:43] It’s the only person that had these screens. and the interactive thing was Columbia Care. Cause they made, they signed an exclusive in cannabis. And so we ended up buying them like after about 11 weeks later of that conversation. And the reason why we liked it was because it was a ex, it was an interactive [00:21:00] experience.
[00:21:00] It was, you know, you’re going on to the screen, it’s recommending, you know, Brian walks in dispensary, what should product should I get? And then also, The fact that it’s, you know, if say there’s not a lot of bud tenders in the store, you’d, you’d be able to use, you know, build this interactive experience to make it the most, um, efficient process for a consumer to walk in and understand what they’re buying and then also being able to purchase.
[00:21:21] So that’s why we liked 9 16. What we also like about it is, Yes, in store it’s not, people aren’t, you know, brands don’t have the opportunity to really advertise the right way. This is more of a way we’re catching a consumer in the actual mindset of cannabis. So we look at it as, , the conversation in both mainstream and cannabis is all about retail connected media.
[00:21:44] Now. It’s not about like, you know, going on just on the website, it’s about what, how do you capture them in the retail experience? And so we believe it’s the beginning phase of that, and that’s, we’re not, we’re playing in both sides, cannabis and the mainstream world about with this retail connected [00:22:00] platform.
[00:22:00] I’m
[00:22:00]Bryan Fields: excited to kind of touch about that retail connected platform cuz I think you’re a hundred percent spot on and I wanna talk about the missing asset that you didn’t share that I know is really critical. It’s the data portion of that, right? Because what you’re collecting there is the most powerful asset is understanding that sure Brian is a constant edible consumer and killing himself like concentrates.
[00:22:17] And that allows you to connect maybe necessarily outside of the industry as well, which can really leverage this on the next.
[00:22:23]Chad Bronstein: Hundred percent. I mean, I think the bridge, the originally, how we started this business, and I don’t, I’m not trying to sell the whole, you know, the business. I’m just going, you know, just talking organically with you guys.
[00:22:32] But when you, when you brought up the data side, uh, yeah. So when we started this idea was exactly that. . I don’t know, Brian, I don’t know. Like, uh, let’s use Kellen. I don’t know if Kellen, um, on paper likes to buy Sativa and Indica. I know he buys Frosted Flakes. I know he likes to shop. He buys, he goes to, he gets Nike’s.
[00:22:50] I know he’s an outdoor enthusiast, but I don’t know about this other version of Kellen. And that’s like, that’s the problem with day-to-day. It’s like you just know what you know, but there’s [00:23:00] all, the cannabis side of it opens up different behaviors about Callen that we would never. And so the back to my old days was like you go to brands and be like, tell me something new about Kellen.
[00:23:10] I don’t know. And you really couldn’t because you have your data sources that you’re going to go and buy C P G data or shopping data. So that’s how Fyllo started was the hypothesis was I could get mainstream brands to buy our data. Now I can openly talk about. Nestle Waters buys our data. It’s, they publicly do a case study, so I can talk about it.
[00:23:30] Uber Eats buys our data. We could talk about it. They do case studies with us. We have the largest holding companies buying our data. They openly talk about it. So, um, the data part is very interesting, both for the cannabis side of it, like you said, Brian, and then also the. The main and then the mainstream side of wanting to understand a new way to reach you and a voice that haven’t reached you in yet today.
[00:23:52] Yeah. So that kind
[00:23:53]Bryan Fields: of data actually helps
[00:23:54]Kellan Finney: cannabis retailers kind of, uh, Level, the playing field, if you will, for [00:24:00] when, um, federal legalization probably occurs and you can access cannabis in your like, standard, uh,
[00:24:07]Bryan Fields: retail setting, correct? Correct. Does it also, uh, help decrease the amount
[00:24:13]Kellan Finney: of time, uh, consumers in the dispensary?
[00:24:16] Cause I know that’s a. A huge variable, or at least factor that a lot of, uh, retailers look at to try to increase their
[00:24:22]Chad Bronstein: revenue a hundred percent. It also establishes like there’s, you know, not just in cannabis, but in the world we’re in today, there’s like, it’s hard to get talent and service industries, right?
[00:24:31] Yeah. So, yeah, we like, we’re in a, we’re in a, you know, we, our, our screens are in a bounty dealership. , um, in Chicago, right? And you, you are, you’re creating pro like you can go, when you go into any car dealership, there’s a plasma screen and you could go to mouse. This is a very quick process. You could go in, build a car, whatever you want.
[00:24:49] So it’s, at the end of the day, we’re trying to, like you decide, is trying to drive efficiencies, whether it be in cannabis or in another. Retail environment because there are [00:25:00] hiring, um, issues and uh, ability to hire enough. So this will allow people to go through the process if they can’t talk to someone in
[00:25:08]Bryan Fields: store.
[00:25:09] When you were pitching Uber Eats and Nestle on the importance of this data, was there, the cannabis stigma kind of attached to it, and did they need to kind of be heard on the value of this new data and how it can make valuable for them?
[00:25:21]Chad Bronstein: So, so Jeff Ragman and myself, Jeff, you guys, dunno if you guys know Jeff, but Jeff has his own podcast.
[00:25:26] It’s called Alchemy. So he. You know, we run a founder’s panel together. I was a chief revenue officer at my last company. He’s been chief commercial officer. A lot of companies. So together we had a lot of fun. Back to your question, educating brands. First. Five minutes back, like two and a half years ago, we had a phone with like a big brand.
[00:25:42] They’d be like, why the fuck am I on a call phone with a cannabis data company? And then you’d always have the aha moments like, oh, this makes sense. So we spent a lot of. a lot of time educating brands. But let me give you another side of that. What also made it fun was that there’s always a [00:26:00] curiosity call.
[00:26:01] So in my la uh, you could be my last company, a big platform or Jeff’s platform, like, oh, we talked to Google, we talked to this, we talked to that. It’s like another one. This time it’s like, oh, Elisa says here, what the hell they have to offer on the cannabis side. Like, what am I, so there’s a lot of curiosity.
[00:26:16] And then we drove them to actual education, to then testing. Right. So I feel like now we’ve had our 9,000 brands test our data, and that’s non-cannabis. You guys get to the
[00:26:28]Kellan Finney: aha moment a little quicker nowadays when
[00:26:30]Chad Bronstein: you’re talking to a new client, ? Yeah. You know what, like you’re still in the phase of like, You know, getting people to test, then moving in more into like the strategic conversation.
[00:26:39] So we’re definitely past, um, the aha moments in a lot of scenarios, but you’re still still fighting the battle with, um, conservative brands. You’re still fighting the battle of like fully embracing. This. I can imagine
[00:26:53]Bryan Fields: the stigma still kind of resonates with some of those more conservative brands because they’re probably wondering themselves like, sure, this can help us, but is it worth kind of the [00:27:00] headlines or the association with the industry, which I don’t believe is negative attachment, but I think some people still have that feeling of if we get partnered with a cannabis company, whether or not they’re touching the plant or not, there is some sort of, it’s negative connotation.
[00:27:14]Chad Bronstein: Yeah, I mean, yeah, I think people are okay with buying data cuz they don’t have to actually put a ad with Kellen’s face smoking a blunt, right? so
[00:27:22]Bryan Fields: you wouldn’t do so well anyway. Yeah, totally .
[00:27:25]Chad Bronstein: But, but I think eventually like when you have these four 20 events, right? Like we’ll see more and more QSRs and more and more.
[00:27:32] Brands getting creative with opportunities, right. And as they should, like four 20 is, since we were younger, it’s always been a talked about holiday, right? So it’s like eventually it’s gonna become more mainstream and we’ll see a lot more people, but we’re still not there yet. But we’ve seen a lot of progress, but it’s definitely not, um, something that’s like fully embraced.
[00:27:52]Bryan Fields: From the data side, is there gamification and built in for the loyalty program? Obviously Starbucks has its entire empire from a coffee side, but it has those kind of [00:28:00] cards with the, the purchasing, uh, loading on the card and then having the gamification aspect of it. Is that an aspect your team is building into it as well?
[00:28:07]Chad Bronstein: Yeah, we, no, we’re figuring out, mostly everything we’re gonna build now is around our connected platform. So like anything we embrace or do is gonna be around more of the connected platform. Cuz loyalty in the cannabis space is a tough game and it’s because why it’s tough is because getting text messages out when we, we played like from the carriers gets shut down constantly.
[00:28:26] And it’s, it’s really nothing that anybody can do or build a tech around that’s gonna solve for that. It’s, it was, it was a big problem and we bought data and we. , you know, that process. So it’s like, for us, it’s like everything wanna developed now is around our connected retail product and communicating through there.
[00:28:42]Bryan Fields: What is one concept that the outside industry is shocked to hear about the cannabis industry?
[00:28:47]Chad Bronstein: Hmm. I mean, that’s a tough one. Shock. I, I shock are surprised. Uh, I think when you learn, you get educated about, , all that. If you don’t know anything about cannabis, when [00:29:00] you jump in, you can get shocked and surprised about the stories and the value of how it helps so many people.
[00:29:05] I think that’s the key is like, I think the other side is like when you jump into cannabis like myself, or I’m sure you guys, you jump in, there’s a lot of shock of like, all the, of all of all the bullshit that you, uh, jump into and like you spend a, like when you’re starting conference in cannabis, you’re definitely like spending the first four months just.
[00:29:23] Learning what not to do as well as like not falling into traps. And it’s like it’s, you know, when you start a company in the space, you’re at least spending just a couple hundred thousand dollars educating yourself on mistakes, . Cause there’s a lot of mistakes to, you know, that you could have when you first start.
[00:29:40] That’s, uh,
[00:29:41]Bryan Fields: perfectly said, normalization is critical for the cannabis industry. I’ve given you a magic wand. You can change anything you want to help move the industry forward. What would you.
[00:29:52]Chad Bronstein: Make it federally legal. That be,
[00:29:55]Bryan Fields: it’d be nice. What’s a, what’s a feature request that you get a lot, that [00:30:00] your team will never build or buy?
[00:30:04]Chad Bronstein: I mean, I’ve gotten, I said the biggest request is a lot is like developing creative. We’re never gonna develop creative. Why not? It’s just not, not, not something we wanna do.
[00:30:14]Bryan Fields: If you had unlimited capital, what initiatives would you take on that you are not currently able? .
[00:30:20]Chad Bronstein: Um, well, I think at that point you just consolidate as much as you can under your umbrella with Unlimit,
[00:30:27] No, I mean, I would just, you know, with unlimited capital, I’d just go out and buy more mainstream companies to, you know, I heard monopolies do
[00:30:34]Bryan Fields: pretty well. Yeah, of course. , what would you, what would you say that your competitors aren’t doing?
[00:30:43]Chad Bronstein: Our competitor, my competitors in the canvas space, uh, I mean, we don’t, we don’t really compete a lot of people cause we’re doing something a little different, right.
[00:30:50] So, um, and so I think to look at it as like, we partner with a lot of people versus compete. W what we built is, we’re very specific in our focus. So I [00:31:00] think that’s how we fit in nicely. We did compete with, you know, you compete with like loyalty. Partners. But I think for what, what we do, um, you know, we’re the only company right now that’s actually mainstream and cannabis, and I think that’s our core differentiation.
[00:31:15]Kellan Finney: Are you guys looking to obtain data in other sectors of the market besides just the retail
[00:31:19]Chad Bronstein: sector? A hundred percent. We do obtain data in other, uh, sectors and we have like unique partnerships, uh, that, you know, you could. Like comScore, we need partnership. We have another partnership with fanatics. Like we have a lot of part, we have a lot of partnerships.
[00:31:32] We’re constantly looking for alternative, alternative data sources. The key about our data is that it’s different because it’s back to what we were talking about earlier, it’s this mindset that you would never know about a person. What the fun, the most fun part about when I started FEO was getting on the phone with people.
[00:31:47] I used to talk to my old company. They were up. that would tell me they ate edibles at night. I would’ve never have guessed these people ate edibles at night. Cuz they’re corporate, they’re this, they’re that. You’re like, oh shit. They ate edibles. And then what happens there is they [00:32:00] soften up like they’re, the conversation becomes a lot more fun.
[00:32:03] And so I think for this, this. data set. It’s like this is the future, like more. And we we’re seeing psychedelics, decriminalize, and all these conversations, like more and more people are getting educated and being destigmatized to the power of these products. And I think that’s the, that’s the key. Have
[00:32:19]Kellan Finney: you guys gotten yourself in any like hot water?
[00:32:21] I’m thinking of, uh, The, there’s a, a story from a target data scientist company where they sent, uh, a brochure to a, a daughter that didn’t know she was pregnant yet. Have you guys gotten in any like, hot water? Cuz it’s cannabis related, you know, ?
[00:32:36]Chad Bronstein: No. Cause we’re not, we’re not running, uh, cannabis ads. I mean, we’re not, we’re not, we’re not with the data.
[00:32:40] Yeah. We do run, well, sorry. We do run some for, we do work with a lot of advertising for a lot of the multi-state operators, but everything we do is age gate. It, we’re very, I mean, we’ve been doing this, I come from 15 years. Yeah. . Nicole Cosby, who I mentioned earlier, she ran Publius as a holding company.
[00:32:55] Steve Kettleman was an Omnicom for 25 years. Jeff Ragman, you know, [00:33:00] 22 years in the industry. Con the group around this, the, um, our chief of data analytics ran Catalina and then ran Turner Broadcasting like w w our chief legal officers, Travis Moyer, who used to run grassroots. We were on the other side of negotiation that was at cur ke leaf.
[00:33:14] So like for us, we and you guys use our compliance stack. Everything we do. Compliant. You’re following the guidelines like we just to what you just brought up Exactly. To make sure we don’t ever fall into that bucket, cuz we could get torn apart if that happened.
[00:33:30]Bryan Fields: Yeah. Is there a outside industry company that you draw from inspiration or say, Hey, I’m building filo to look like X or Y.
[00:33:38] Similar.
[00:33:39]Chad Bronstein: We’re building FEO to be Fuo. Oh, good answer. . I don’t, I I, one thing you’ll learn about me is like, you talk about competitors and all this other crap, like I just keep my head down. We keep our head down. Like, you’re always gonna have copycats, but you know, you just focus on what you focus on and work hard.
[00:33:55] And the rest is, you know, the, is what’s in your control. So I, I like to [00:34:00] build, I like to build filo on, you know, and my team, we build filo, we learn stuff, but it’s what Filos gonna.
[00:34:08]Bryan Fields: If the business overachieve, what does it look like in five years? And if you miss what have gone wrong?
[00:34:15]Chad Bronstein: Well, the business overachieve what it looks like in five years.
[00:34:18] You know, you’re at a multi a hundred million dollar revenue stream. Um, Not a hundred million. Cause I think we’ll be there already. But in terms of, uh, five years from now, like, you’re at a, you know, you’re at a very large company size, um, and you’ve broken a lot of the stigmas. Strategic now, it doesn’t overachieve.
[00:34:36] It’s things that are, you know, we didn’t execute properly or, you know, we got a recession. People start pulling back, continue to pull back. There’s a lot of different factors, I would say, as being a c e O in this space since we started, uh, COVID hit. And we, and we just raised money. We had no idea what was gonna happen.
[00:34:54] Right? The first time we raised money in 2019, they stock the cannabis market crash, right? So it’s like, [00:35:00] keep throwing ’em on. Now we’re in a recession. So for me, it’s like at this point, you know, being an entrepreneur, you just don’t know what’s gonna hit you. So it’s like keep your head up high, be bulletproof, and just keep fucking trucking.
[00:35:12] been battle.
[00:35:13]Bryan Fields: Yeah. Battle test for the last three years. That’s all. That’s all you can do, . Alright, let’s say a zombie apocalypse. Rank these people in order most likely to thrive and survive. Mike Tyson, you, Jeff Ragovin, and Rick.
[00:35:29]Chad Bronstein: in a apocalypse, zombie apocalypse, zombie apocalypse. Um, I don’t know. Each person deals with, uh, different things at different ways.
[00:35:39] I’d say Mike Tyson will and, and, uh, will definitely knock a lot of those zombies out. Right. Um, Jeff will be the chef and, uh, whatever, whatever food is. Out there, Jeff will catch. Right. So and so that, so it depends, you know, and me, I figure out a crafty way. [00:36:00] I don’t, I don’t know. It’s a tough question. I can’t answer that.
[00:36:02] Cause we all bring different things to the table. We’d be a good team. We
[00:36:05]Bryan Fields: asked Jeff how he would do in that, cuz that’s his go-to question on his podcast. And he said he would thrive and listed up all the characteristics he said he did. And I was like, well if the zombie pocket this happens. I’m
[00:36:13]Chad Bronstein: coming to you.
[00:36:14] Jeff is very, Jeff is like, Jeff can will plant. And he, and. Jeff is very good. Uh, outside.
[00:36:22]Bryan Fields: Yeah, I think he said he’d give someone his calf, which I just love. That was a very heroic move on his part. He’d give someone his calf. I, I, I have to listen back to the quote, but it was something very heroic of what he’d be willing to do for,
[00:36:32]Chad Bronstein: for the team.
[00:36:34] Yeah. Jeff’s very, uh, Jeff’s very, uh, crafty when it comes to like outdoorsy stuff.
[00:36:40]Bryan Fields: 20 years from now, we’ll look back and say, that was barbaric. I can’t believe we did that in the cannabis industry. What is.
[00:36:49]Chad Bronstein: I don’t know. I don’t, I don’t, I don’t know. I don’t think, I don’t know what I, I mean, the barbaric thing is the banking side right now is not being able to do, uh, for companies to be act.
[00:36:58] I think 20 years spent be like, what the fuck? Why [00:37:00] wouldn’t they be able to, you have all these big public companies and companies that have raised capital that are producing a lot of money and they can’t get banking. That’s what I think will be barbaric.
[00:37:11]Bryan Fields: What is the biggest misconception about your.
[00:37:15]Chad Bronstein: There’s a lot of misconceptions, like people just don’t know. Sometimes it’s just confused on what we, cuz we have a couple offerings, but, uh, um, I think just the, what we actually offer, I think there’s a misconception sometimes because some people just don’t fully grasp it.
[00:37:31]Bryan Fields: When you started your journey in the cannabis space, what did you get?
[00:37:34] Right? And most importantly, what did you get wrong?
[00:37:37]Chad Bronstein: I got a lot of things wrong. Um, as you, as any entrepreneur, if any entrepreneur says they got everything right, uh, what we did get right was our, our mission, right? That we knew that. Um, there was an opportunity stigmatized that if you brought pedigree into the market, it would, and you actually, you know, no one had egos and just knew that it was gonna be a grind.
[00:37:56] And then our vision, which was the data side, which is [00:38:00] that unique aspect that brands would wanna know more about. And that’s how we kind of built our whole company around.
[00:38:06]Bryan Fields: Before we do predictions, we ask all of our guests, if you could sump your experience in a main takeaway or lesson learned to pass onto the next generation, what would it be?
[00:38:15]Chad Bronstein: You know, I think that it sounds cliche, but everyone, and you guys would know this too, it’s like when you start a company, like you just gotta be super, super resilient and you, it’s not, you have to have a mindset of like, just pure, like anything that I get thrown at me, I just fucking keep going. Like, I’ve been hit so many times in this when I started this company.
[00:38:36] Some things I can’t even share on, uh, a podcast, but. Just things that you just would never expect. So, um, it’s not just about your business side, it’s about don’t forget who you partner with too. There’s a lot of different aspects that come into, um, play and things. You know, you just, you’re gonna be naive with because it’s not experience you, you learn from experience.
[00:38:55] So I think just come in with the open mind. But if you think, you know, I always [00:39:00] tell people, some people are better off suited at large companies. It’s not a bad thing, but when you start a company, you just gotta be, you got, you gotta be thick-skinned and you gotta be ready to grind no matter what.
[00:39:09]Bryan Fields: Really well said.
[00:39:11] All right. Prediction time, Chad. We’ve seen early breakthroughs with mainstream media and cannabinoid companies like the M L B and Charlotte’s Web. What event or marketing partnership would completely unlock marketing for the cannabis industry in the mainstream?
[00:39:25]Chad Bronstein: Well, I think, you know, more like if N F L comes out and more of these play leagues come out, becomes more and more mainstream.
[00:39:32] But I think, you know, I think the one thing is gonna have to happen is safe banking, at least everything else. But I do think more and more of these mainstream partnerships will push pressure on the rest of the industry. Kelly,
[00:39:45]Bryan Fields: your thoughts? I’m gonna go with the Olympic C. .
[00:39:48]Chad Bronstein: Oh, that’d be a big one. Yeah.
[00:39:49] Right.
[00:39:50]Kellan Finney: I think that you saw, um, a couple events in the last three years that have. Stood in the forefront of media publicly, [00:40:00] all having to do with Olympic athletes. So I think that would be huge, especially globally. Right? We always talk just domestic US markets, but there’s a couple other countries out there in the world.
[00:40:09] Y yeah. Brian, what do you think
[00:40:10]Bryan Fields: the Sprinter with the performance enhancing, uh, failed drug test is still an incredible one today. Performance enhancing, I think the Super Bowl, right? Like at the end of the day, I think the Super Bowl is the massive event with the amount of eyeballs it gets. I. Uh, eventually that’ll be a, a big unlocking for kind of just public perception and removing the stigmatization and also think what your team’s doing, Chad, of having these conversations about the importance of cannabis data with the Nestle, with these other large brands Ubers, to, to allow them to recognize that there is a tone of value in partnering and there’s, there is no different opportunities where it needs to be separated.
[00:40:42] It can all be one understanding of principles and data and helping people as a whole move forward with personalization and, Better
[00:40:48]Chad Bronstein: recommendations. I also think we set the tone. We got Forester to do the first, uh, study with us about the study of CMOs and brands. And that was like, it’s like, it’s like you said, it’s like [00:41:00] it’s fu it’s fucked up.
[00:41:00] That world we live in is like everyone, you have to find something that people will follow onto or lean credibility. But yeah, that’s, uh, I agree to you on the super Superbowl thing though, if you can get a Super Bowl ad in there, it’s boom, it’s, it’s a big, yeah, but I will say the big thing for us was with Tyson, Jimmy Kimmel actually.
[00:41:16] Talked about the Holy Ears and showed the packaging on live tv, which is the first time that’s ever been done.
[00:41:22]Bryan Fields: Yeah. I mean, excuse, can’t, can’t imagine what that earned media eyeballs must have gotten you from an impression standpoint. Yeah. Does, did he try the products? Did you send him some
[00:41:29]Chad Bronstein: after? I, I can’t speak on, on, on behalf.
[00:41:32] We sent ’em a lot. We sent a lot of ’em, pro lot of different people products, you know. Definitely.
[00:41:35]Bryan Fields: I believe it. So Chad, for our listeners, they want to get in touch, they wanna learn more about Filo and Tyson 2.0. Where can they find you? They
[00:41:42]Chad Bronstein: can find us online on our websites, on LinkedIn. I mean, we’re pretty active, both companies on social, so we’re pretty easy to find.
[00:41:50]Bryan Fields: We’ll, we’ll link those up in the shots. Thanks for taking the time. Thank you
[00:41:52]Chad Bronstein: guys. It’s.
