GetLatka interview
How LeafLink Built a Cannabis Wholesale Marketplace With Almost 1,300 Brands and $123M in GMV in One Month (Interview with Ryan Smith)
Ryan Smith (Co-Founder and CEO of LeafLink) spoke to Nathan Latka.
LeafLink figures from the interview
- Brands on Platform (2019)
- Almost 1,300
- GMV in the Month Before the Interview (2019)
- $123M
- GMV Growth (2019)
- About 11% month over month
- Team Size (2019)
- Just under 90
- Retailers on Platform (2019)
- Over 3,400
“We raised the first million bucks in an angel round in December 2015. So the software actually went live March 2016.”
“Around 50 in New York, just under 20 in LA, and then we have, three satellite offices with, you know, less than four people in them.”
“We launched in January. We originated, like, right around $26,000 in transactions through it. Last month, we did well over, 2,250,000.”
Bio
Prior to co-founding LeafLink, Ryan successfully founded and exited two companies, one of which he sold to an NYSE public firm. Ryan brings his experience creating and managing B2B firms and online marketplace investing in a highly-regulated space to LeafLink as Chief Executive Officer. LeafLink, the cannabis industry’s standard platform for orders, sales and relationship management, has raised $14 million in investor capital. The platform went live in Colorado in March 2016 and now has more than 2900 retailers placing orders for over 950 brands across 19 territories. In 2016, Ryan was the first CEO of a cannabis-facing company to be listed on Forbes’ 30 Under 30 list. In February 2018, LeafLink was the first company in the cannabis space to make Fast Company’s 2018 list of Top 10 Most Innovative Companies in Enterprise.