Marijuana Business Magazine November December 2018

The newfound profit would come from increased sales and lower labor costs for marijuana retailers who use GreenStop, he said. Island and co-founder and co- CEO James Edwards claim the Smart Dispensary would allow customers to place cannabis orders through an app from home or elsewhere, verify their IDs in the store and then quickly purchase products at the kiosks. The result: more customers (and cash) in less time for dispensaries. The system also might curtail the need for staff- ing budtenders and free up existing employees to work with clients who want personalized service. GreenStop is hoping investors will chip in $5 million toward the company. The startup’s goal is to begin testing the Smart Dispensary before the sec- ond quarter of 2019 and to have the software and technology ready to roll out to interested retailers by 2020. Shifting to a Tech Company GreenStop sits near the sidelines of the cannabis industry. The ancillary company does not own or operate its own medical or retail marijuana stores and is not in the business of growing or manufacturing cannabis. And that’s a marked change. When GreenStop started in 2015, the original plan was to open a dispensary and use kiosks inside to dispense canna- bis products. But Island and Edwards shifted the model after researching the market. Their findings convinced them to ditch their plans to become a plant-touching business. “We realized it is hands-off companies that were able to attract the money at this point in the game with the federal cloud over the industry,” Island said, referencing the additional challenges plant-touching companies face. “We also realized there’s a lot more risk being an owner-operator at this point.” In particular, the pair wanted to side- step the danger of a possible federal crackdown on the marijuana industry while still creating a highly scalable business in an emerging market. Making the Vision a Reality One hurdle the tech startup faced early on was that neither Island nor Edwards knew much about technol- ogy. Instead, they had backgrounds working in stores ranging from small shops to big-box retailers that included Sears and AutoZone. The entrepreneurs had a concept in mind for an automated vending machine similar to Redbox movie and video game dispensers or airport kiosks that print boarding passes. But they lacked the technical skills to produce such a machine. “Our thinking was, ‘Hey, we’ve got the vision,’” Island said. “‘We both have SLASHING DISPENSARYWAIT TIMES T imothy Island and James Edwards developed their high-tech vending machine after getting fed up with the hassles of buying marijuana at California dispensaries. “One of the biggest things wrong with the industry is how long it takes to purchase cannabis,” said Timo- thy Island, who co-founded West Los Angeles-based GreenStop with James Edwards. The pair wanted technology to accelerate the pur- chasing process so that customers could be in and out of a dispensary in less than five minutes. Their solution: automated marijuana vending machines that simultaneously allow multiple cus- tomers to buy merchandise. GreenStop’s technology is designed to allow shop- pers to explore cannabis products via an app ahead of time. They can make their selections, then head to the indoor dispensary kiosk to purchase their merchandise. Island and Edwards believe their retail backgrounds – working in stores ranging from small shops to big- box retailers such as Sears and AutoZone – are a huge advantage that shaped the design of their self-service kiosk and its accompanying software, known as Smart Dispensary. “We’ll talk to people that opened up dispensaries because they had the money but they have no back- ground in retail at all. They just want to take a shot at the industry,” Island said. The result can be a subpar shopping experience where customers wait up to half an hour to buy prod- uct. That process can involve customers waiting in lines from the time they arrive at a dispensary until they pay for their purchases. “If you look around, a lot of cannabis locations have really long lines. Or, if the line is short, it still takes a long time to get in and out of a location,” Island said. “The other problem,” he added, is a “hyper-con- sultative” atmosphere, where shoppers are forced to interact with budtenders regardless of their familiarity with the product. Island likened it to buying a laptop from Apple or “something that takes a lot more of a consultative experience.” – Adrian D. Garcia 140 • Marijuana Business Magazine • November/December 2018