Born in the trenches

A decade in the trenches. Every lesson the hard way. ShelfSpace is what I wish existed when I needed it most.

I started my first cannabis company in Oregon in 2015 — vertically integrated, multi-state, the whole thing. I've been a cultivator, a manufacturer, and a retailer. I've made payroll by the skin of my teeth, fought through market crashes, and navigated every compliance curveball this industry throws at you. We still operate in Massachusetts today, but we exited Oregon in 2023 — a decision that changed my perspective forever.

Oregon taught me the hardest lesson in this business: every inch of shelf space is precious, and every SKU on it has to earn its place. As a retailer, your whole job is to optimize the profitability of what you carry — are you stocking the right brands, and are they performing at the level you need? Get that wrong across a few hundred SKUs in a softening market, and the math turns against you fast.

What most operators miss is that it all comes down to healthy vendor partnerships. The products on your shelf are really relationships. The brands worth their space are the ones where you and the vendor are working the same problem together: velocity, sell-through, margin. But most retailers juggle dozens of those relationships across spreadsheets and a buried inbox, and the collaboration that actually drives profit never happens.

That's what I built ShelfSpace to fix. It's a system for managing the dozens of vendor partnerships every dispensary has — clean, organized, and built to respect the vendor while going deep on the collaboration that lifts velocity, sell-through, and margin. The key is regularly sharing real data: making vendors aware of returns, damaged or defective product, and the promotions you're running on their items, and asking for their help when you take a financial hit. Done right, none of that is a fight. It's how good partners work.

Because here's the truth I learned the hard way: inventory is roughly half your budget. It's the meat of profitability in a dispensary. If you aren't optimizing it — SKU by SKU, vendor by vendor — you aren't going to make it. That's the whole reason ShelfSpace exists.

Outside of ShelfSpace, my family is everything to me. Being a dad is the most important role in my life — it's why I work so hard to build something meaningful. I want to help create an industry where good operators can make a real living and build something their families can be proud of. Every retailer and vendor we work with is someone's livelihood, someone's family. That's never lost on me.

Let's fix this industry together. I'm in it with you.