From Bud to Boardroom | Season 1, Episode 4: Navigating Roadblocks – How One Transporter is Shaping Cannabis Logistics in CT

Justin Frytz: Yeah, I mean, I, I was kind of a little bit all over the places, uh, for a while. I mean, my early career has mostly been in sales in some, some capacity for many years. I worked in, uh, regular retail stores, um, through management, and then I worked my way up to corporate retail.

Um, I was a corporate retail with Office Depot for several years and ultimately got laid off as, uh, a lot of the.com things were cons, consolidating things about eight, nine years ago. And, um, you know, at that time when I got laid off, I decided to. You know, pivot into something that, uh, was just another form of sales, but it was, it was real estate.

And I've been a real estate broker for eight years. And then, um, you know, this opportunity came up in Connecticut with the cannabis industry and saw it as, you know, a different way that I could build a business and a new environment that, you know, not necessarily everyone's done before, you know, and that, that was ultimately the challenge that I was looking for.

Um, and this in 2021 came up as a, an opportunity because during COVID, we, uh, we started consuming cannabis ourselves. Um, and we started understanding, you know, the medical aspects behind it. And that's when I started, you know, consuming cannabis medically myself. And it was one of those, why not make a business out of this?

Sarah Westby: Yeah. It's interesting. I've met a few people in Connecticut who've pivoted from real estate to cannabis. It’s interesting that you mention the COVID timeframe because the Connecticut adult use cannabis market came online in a, a very interesting economic time. And, and so the sales were really booming. You know, 2020 and 2021. Um, and I think there was. A lot of hope for the industry. And, you know, we looked to our neighbors in Massachusetts who were seeing, you know, significant sales and significant tax revenue. And I think that was a real, um, impetus for Connecticut to legalize in that timeframe. Um, so when the Connecticut law passed and the regulatory scheme was created and the licensing framework was created. What made you decide to pursue certain license types as opposed to others?

Justin Frytz: When we, when the, the, when the language was passed, obviously that was before the lottery had taken place for the licenses.

Um, you know, we were originally going after the cultivation style license, and then as we got into it, we hired consultants and we realized that, you know, from a economic standpoint. A full size cultivation just really wasn't a feasible option here. You know, the, the $3 million up front, you know, unless you're an existing company, like trying to get into it here, was next to impossible.

And so that's when we, after about three or four months of really getting to understand the industry, understanding where cultivation and fit into that, we pivoted to the middle market supply chain licenses. The, the manufacturing, I think there's three types. Originally it was manufacturing, food and beverage and product packager.

And, um, you know, we, we statistically looked at the different license types, what made sense, what we wanted to do. And ultimately that's why we initially went after a product packager license. Um, you know, we, we saw that as. You know, we looked at how other states were operating, and you know, in a lot of other states you have brands that just co-pack locally and, you know, choose to work with someone locally to make their brands.

And the way the product packager language was written at the time, that's why we ultimately chose to go after that license. It, it was the statistically the best chance of odds of, of getting drawn because there wasn't as many applicants into that one. And, you know, we, we saw it as an opportunity. Like that's what we wanted to do.

We just wanted to co-pack for brands. Like we didn't want to create our own brand or anything like that. So like we, we saw that as a, the, the license we wanted to go after.

Sarah Westby: Yeah. And I think for our listeners who might not be as familiar with the lottery process, back when that was run in 2021 and 2022, it was, uh, an an open licensing period. I believe it was February, 2022, and then it ended in May of 2022. And applicants could put in as many applications as they wanted. You just had to pay for each one. So we saw a lot of businesses putting in many, many, many applications. Particularly for retail and micro cultivation, some of the businesses that looked a little more lucrative.

Um, and that really made the chances of any particular business getting one of those licenses pretty slim. Correct? Um, so that turned out to be a good strategy for you in the end.

Justin Frytz: Yeah. I mean, it allowed us to start down this path. Ultimately, a lot of things happened and changed that, um. We had to pivot and do different things that, you know, forced us to, to change our game plan, our business model, our business plan, you know, where we were three years ago is nowhere near where we're at right now.

Sarah Westby: Yeah. So can you talk about some of those challenges and how they led you to the current license that you're operating, which is a transporter license?

Justin Frytz: Yeah. So when, when the lottery happened for the, the other licenses. Um, we had, uh, we, we did get our ticket drawn for the product packager license. Um, but during that period that you mentioned from February to May, the, the requirements for those applications and those tickets changed, we had applied early on in the process, uh, early on in the period for the product packager license.

And at that time. It didn't require a, um, operational agreement amongst operators. You know, we were just three friends that went on, you know, my wife and I, and a friend of ours named Sol.

And when our ticket was drawn, it was thrown out because we didn't have that operational agreement. But we could prove we applied before they changed that criteria. And so ultimately, like we, my wife and I, like, we have, we don't have a lot of money. Like we've done all this ourselves and we've learned happenstance through the way how to do a lot of attorney work ourselves.

A lot of legislation work ourselves just because we can't just pay someone to go do it for us. And in that process, we had a, a, a friend of mine, uh, he was an attorney that I helped with in real estate, um, help us file, um. I don't know the legal, I don't remember the legal term, but like we sued the state for our license.

Sarah Westby: Mm-hmm. Right. It was an administrative appeal, I believe.

Justin Frytz: We had to sue the Secretary of State or something about it because it's like, look, you changed the rules after we applied. And so ultimately they gave us the license, but only after we got the license. And in talking with DCP, the regulatory body here, did we understand that the current language of the license we won was useless. We couldn't do anything with it other than, as far as DCP was concerned take a product that was already manufactured and apply a label to it.

Sarah Westby: And this was the product packager license.

Justin Frytz: This was the product packager license. So in that instance, it was like, what can I do with a thing that only I can, I can just add a sticker to a product, like nobody's gonna pay me to do that.

So I, I looked very closely at the regulations, understanding how other other states operated. Um, mainly being Massachusetts 'cause I, that was the one I was most familiar with. I was going up there shopping, I knew other, I started to network with other people in the industry. I started to understand the framework up there, how it operated and everything.

I saw it as an opportunity to try and emulate the structure of Massachusetts and the aspect at the time, the, the product transporter in Connecticut could only do same day services, meaning we could pick up. A finished product that was going to a retail store and deliver it to that retail store the same day.

I couldn't hold it. I couldn't consolidate, I couldn't do anything to improve operations from a process standpoint, but if I took the transporter license and I paired it with the product packager license, then I could function at a, a high level like a transporter does in Massachusetts where you could warehouse and store product and, and facilitate moving the product around the market.

Now that business model is, you know, I, I went out and we acquired the transportation license to be able to put that business model together and start moving forward with something. And, you know, and, and that allowed me to go out and I raised some money from a couple local investors to get that going.

They saw the, the potential business model with it. So like here, you know, the, the, the thing that's really helped me raise that was the Connecticut Angel investor tax credit. They're like, okay, we're getting 25% back up front. You end up done deal. Like, we'll invest in it and, you know, we'll, we'll move forward and that.

Initial investment allowed me to stand up the transportation license, get it going while we sorted out what was going on with the packaging side of the, the, the business. And then ultimately this last year, we were able to convince the legislature to amend the language around the product packager to allow it to manufacture products, right?

'cause that was the ultimate, I think the ultimate intent of the law was they, they wanted to divide the lanes of manufacturing, but with the way the language was written.

Sarah Westby: Right. And I know a lot of people lobbied the legislature to make that change because they came to the same realization mm-hmm. That you did. That they're, they had this license that was a potentially lucrative business opportunity. But the authorized activities were so limited, it was essentially useless.

Sarah Westby: Um, so it's nice to see that change, but it took a long time and I know that some people along the way were not able to operationalize.

Justin Frytz: Yeah. Unfortunately, there were seven licenses issued and only one was able to operationalize. Wow. Unfortunately, we were not able to operationalize ours through, um, some series of unfortunate events outside of our control.

You know, going into the session last year, you know, we, we had two licenses that we were moving forward to function as one business. And, you know, with that bifurcation of giving the licenses, unique capabilities, it's like, okay, that's a separate business now. You know, like how do we move the transport forward?

 

Sarah Westby: Yeah. Can you tell me a little bit about some of those, um, and I think you had alluded before to another aspect of your business under the transporter license. So tell me a little bit about that and, and what you were trying to accomplish this session.

Justin Frytz: Yeah. So by happenstance last year, you know, in the language, uh, some operators really pushed for legalization around the hemp THC infused beverages, you know, and that was something that came out of left field that I wasn't expecting. Um, you know, it wasn't something I was paying attention to. And as the session went on and they were including the language around regulating it, it was like, okay, this is something that dispensaries are already going to carry, and it's a THC product.

Moving cannabis logistically in the market is not much different than being a beverage distributor. And so in that aspect, I saw it as a holistic approach to a company that, you know, okay, we're facilitating the cannabis transport on one side of the market, and if we're also distributing the same products that they're moving. Because Connecticut's one of the unique states that I've found that they, they allow their cannabis license, their cannabis manufacturing licenses to also manufacture the hemp infused beverages and certain hemp products.

Sarah Westby: Right. And you didn't need to get a separate license to move those hemp infused beverages.

Justin Frytz: Right. Not, not to transport them. If the manufacturer, if the cannabis manufacturer decided to make it like I could transport it for them. Yeah. But. The, the whole reason why we don't have adult use beverages in this market is simply because of our market size, it doesn't economically make sense to stand up a dedicated beverage line strictly for the adult use market.

 

Justin Frytz: And with that legalization aspect, last year, I saw it as an option that, okay. Not only do we want to transport the product, but I can use these same vehicles that I'm not, maybe not transporting with every day to also distribute beverages with.

And so when you're in logistics and you own vehicles in that, you're, you're losing money when the wheels aren't moving. And so it's like, how can I keep the wheels moving and generating revenue in order to scale a company? And I saw adding in distribution of hemp infused beverages as an option, but.

Last year when they legalized that, they left it in the liquor lane. Mm-hmm. The liquor distributors. The liquor wholesalers, um, were the ones that could distribute these products. But that created a conundrum in the law where, you know, they were forcing these products into the liquor lane, but they're not liquor.

Sarah Westby: Right.

Justin Frytz: And and they're

Sarah Westby: also regulated as cannabis products.

Justin Frytz: Exactly. You know, they're regulating 'em as cannabis products and they're not liquor. So. In order to distribute those products, you had to obtain a federal TTB permit and a liquor license from the state in order to distribute those products. And it's like, I, I don't wanna distribute liquor, I wanna distribute the hemp stuff because hemp and cannabis, very similar plan, basically the same plant.

So it's like I don't want to be in the liquor lane. So I had some problems trying to get us, uh, uh, the license required to be able to distribute those products over the last year with. DCP, they didn't like the fact that that's all we wanted to do. So come January of this year, we were back in doing our lobbying efforts that we've done for the last four years.

Um, we've become very, uh, adept at, of understanding the process. Mostly my wife Angie, like she's the one that did a lot of the leg work with going and legislate, like working with the legislators and helping them understand our particular problems that we were facing. You, you go back, you look at the public testimony, she is the one doing all the public speaking in front of the, the general law committee and the, and the different hearings that they were having.

So, you know, we, we met with them I think January of this year, the, the four chairs in, in the, in the committee. And, um, you know, we were like, we, we voiced our, our. Challenges around the, the transportation license being same day only services. And then we also voiced our challenges around the hemp beverage distribution.

And ultimately, like we had to convince 'em, Hey, you need to write your own language to create a license just to distribute just these products. Because the way you wrote it, you're putting in the liquor lane, and I get it, they're sold at liquor stores and everything, but you're, you're, you're trying to regulate them under licenses that have to do with the federal government. And at some point the license, the federal government's gonna question, you know, why are these associated?

Mm. Maybe, maybe not, but it's like we want to just distribute these products. Like I see, I don't see liquor ever going away, but I see it considerably going down in consumption. A lot of younger people that I know and statistically that I've heard, like they're not, um big drinkers anymore like our parents' generation was.

Sarah Westby: Sure, yeah. There's definitely a movement to non-alcoholic beverages. THC infused.

Justin Frytz: Yeah. Non-alcoholic beverages have really been really popular the last two, three years. And, um, I mean, look at Athletic Brewing down in, um Milford, like they're the biggest non-alcoholic beer manufacturer in the world. And you know, it's certainly a sign of the changes that are happening, you know?

But I think as THC becomes more mainstream acceptable, you, you're gonna see markets like Minnesota that legalized it three years ago. You talk to the liquor stores in Minnesota 10 to 15% of their total sales are THC beverages. And, you know, in a one and a half billion dollar market of Connecticut, that's $50, $60 million market share capability.

Sarah Westby: Right. And it's gaining every year..

Justin Frytz: Right. Exactly It, it's, it's like consumption, the understanding around the beverages and, and. How the social aspect plays in, like it's becoming more and more accepted, especially in lower Connecticut, lower Fairfield County. Like, it, it, it was in restaurants and bars down there before it was outlawed last year.

Mm-hmm. So it's definitely becoming more accepted and that's where I saw growth potential outside of just the limited cannabis market.

Sarah Westby: Right. So were those legislative efforts that you mentioned, Angie, your wife, engaged in over this past session, um, were they successful in any of the ways that you hoped?

Justin Frytz: Yeah, definitely. So like we, um, we were able to convince the legislature and DCP to allow us to consolidate with the transporter license to function just like Massachusetts now. Um, so we can consolidate, operate like FedEx, you know, move product around the market much more efficiently, which allows us to pass on better pricing to operators and ultimately that, you know, as a market matures, price compression happens and more operators come online and it's like, okay, where can we cut costs? Well, let's outsource our transportation because then it becomes a cost of goods sale. You know, cost of goods of doing business versus an expense that they have to cover in house.

And you know, that's where we saw it as a big opportunity. Like if we can get our pricing low enough that it's suddenly cheaper for an operator to look for us to do it that's all we want because in a limited license market, I don't have a lot of options to choose from, to, to work with for operations.

Sarah Westby: Mm-hmm.

Justin Frytz: It's like, I can't build a business around one service that they may or may not use and 50% of the licenses issued aren't even moving forward.

Sarah Westby: Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

Justin Frytz: So that's when I saw, okay, let's, let's add in the hemp beverage stuff and it will allow us to expand because not only will we facilitating manufacturers that choose to make beverages, but we'll be selling into all the dispensaries we're already visiting.

Sarah Westby: Right.

Justin Frytz: And so every visit we make to a dispensary, you know, we'll make more money selling them beverages for each, you know, case that we sell them.

So, it allowed us to increase our bottom line and understand how we operate as a company to do more. Um, you know, and to answer your question around the legislative aspect is we, we got them to agree to consolidation on the transport side, but then we also got them to create a hemp THC beverage or hemp infused beverage distribution license or wholesale license. I remember the technical term they called it. Yeah. Um, but that allows us to function just as a beer distributor would without the, the liquor framework headache.

Sarah Westby: Mm-hmm.

Justin Frytz: Um, you know, we'll, we will source products from any manufacturer that makes these THC beverages, um, and bring 'em into the state.

We purchase 'em and resell 'em to, to all the liquor stores in the state that choose to carry the THC products, uh, along with the dispensaries.

Sarah Westby: Do you distribute any hemp infused beverages that are manufactured outside of the state?

Justin Frytz: We, we will be. Um, like that's a, a process that the state has allowed for. Yeah. Um, you know, the, the bigger liquor guys right now, they mostly just distribute national brands. So they, they import all of their products. Um, there's a couple local guys that are getting started that, um, you'll see a lot more local choices probably within the next year. Uh, but in that aspect, um.

We will probably bringing, you know, distributing for some national ones. But what we're finding is a lot of the national companies don't necessarily want to come into Connecticut because Connecticut chose to create a unique milligram limit.

Sarah Westby: Right.

Sarah Westby: So that's much lower than in other states. Right, exactly.

It's three milligrams per 12 ounce container here.

Justin Frytz: Yeah.

Sarah Westby: Elsewhere, it's generally five, or you know, sometimes even higher.

Justin Frytz: Yeah. I mean, Minnesota's up to 10 milligrams. Um, there are some other states that are up to 10, but most or five milligram limits. So having a, a different milligram limit than a lot of other states does limit our choices, uh, for the brands that want to come in.

You, you are finding some that are, uh, doing unique milligram for other markets? Um, ironically, Virginia is two milligrams.

Sarah Westby: Wow.

Justin Frytz: So, um, you know, they're, I had a brand reach out to me the other day. They're like, well, we're looking at coming into Virginia, the two milligram. We'd love to put that in Connecticut too.

So, so it's like, all right. You know, we'll, we'll, we'll look at that. But I mean, you get two, three milligrams, like that's not enough to, to really feel anything. You know, I, I, I really wanna encourage the, the legislature to look at going to five milligram because having that unique milligram content is hurting the Connecticut consumer.

They can go online and purchase any milligram content they want and have it shipped to their house. Right? But they can't go down the street and purchase it at a liquor store. So you're hurting the local liquor store, you're hurting the local consumer that doesn't necessarily want to have it shipped to their house, and you're losing out on tax revenue because of it.

Sarah Westby: Right. And the state has tried to restrict those sales by mail of infused beverages, but. There's no way, let's be honest, what can they do really to enforce that?

Justin Frytz: Yeah. You got so many different carriers that ship and, and move those products around through the mail and parcel services. That they can't enforce that.

Sarah Westby: Yeah.

Justin Frytz: And that limits the brands that can come in, the options for the consumer and ultimately the options for local stores to stock and sell.

So, you know, there's a lot of things that this next session in 2026 that we wanna focus on with the hemp beverages, but you know. It's just getting the legislature to, to realize that, hey, you're hurting more than you're trying to enforce here. Like three to five milligrams isn't gonna right. You're not, you're not gonna notice a big difference when you consume that.

Right. But that's gonna open up a lot more options for the consumers to purchase, which increases tax revenue for the state.

Sarah Westby: Right.

Justin Frytz: So that'll be the, the big. Thing that we try to work on with the general law committee this next year is education moving. Like they, they weren't really unwilling to, to entertain that this year.

Sarah Westby: Yeah. I know that it was proposed, but that didn't ultimately go through.

Justin Frytz: Yeah. So like that's where, you know, they had a lot of other stuff on their plate. We tried to get the tax reduced 'cause right now it's a dollar a can in tax, which is detrimental. Like you walk in there, you buy a four pack, you're gonna pay four bucks in taxes.

That's an insane amount of taxes on it. Um, so like, that's one of the initiatives we're gonna work through this next year. It's like, okay, lower the taxes so it's in line with alcohol. And, and of course theres gonna be pushback around that because they're gonna be lowering the revenue that they're bringing in.

But it's like, okay. Maybe you should open it up to open consumption sites, just like alcohol, and allow consumers to start purchasing that because that's what consumers want first of all. And two, that'll offset your tax revenue. And actually it'll, I think it'll bring in more tax revenue. 'cause you'll have more locations you can sell into.

Sarah Westby: Exactly.

Justin Frytz: We're not that far to go somewhere else, you know, and it it, the consumers that want these things, if they can't go down the street to the liquor store and get it, they're just gonna purchase it through the mail, which states not getting tax revenue from that. So it's, it's hurting them and they just don't see the bigger picture.

Sarah Westby: Yeah. And I think in the past what's been successful, and I'm sure that you know, this firsthand, is those educational efforts. And saying, okay, this is not the type of dangerous products that we wanna keep off the market.

Justin Frytz: Yeah. And this is different, you know, we're not, we're not gonna be sliding down a slippery slope into that by increasing these milligram limits by two. I, I'm, I am adamantly against any of those cheap stuff that you can buy in, like convenience stores and liquor stores 'cause you don't, you don't know what's in them. They aren't tested. Usually they say they're tested, but there's no way to verify it. Like, and, and to have the, the milligram contents that they're putting in those like the average consumer doesn't understand, and that's why they're getting like problems because they just eat it like candy or other stuff like they're used to and they don't understand.

You gotta build tolerance, you gotta under, like these are all things you learn when you get into the community. You go to a dispensary and you talk to people that work in the industry, they're like, you should start out with a smaller milligram content. Like when it comes to the beverages though, like it's almost like gummies, like it's a uniform serving measurement, uniform serving. So like you can measure how you feel off of one or two. Right. And, and then go from there, you know, these vapes and, and other things you get in the gas stations and that like, there's no consistency in their manufacturing process. You don't know, you know, one gummy might have a smaller amount, the other gummy might have a larger amount.

Yeah. So like there's no regulations around those.

 

Justin Frytz: And you know. There's no way to safely regulate those products. Right. So, you know, that's where, um, I'm all for the, the natural stuff and the naturally derived THC and, and measuring, putting 'em in beverages and universal serving sizes, but let's get rid of all the, the synthetic stuff, you know? Yeah. It's just educating the conservative side of the legislature. Hey, going up two milligrams isn't gonna be a big deal. It's not gonna hurt the consumer and it'll give them more choices, which means more tax revenue for the state, which means more options, which means more, yeah. Money in your budget to do stuff with.

Sarah Westby: And people buying the regulated products. As opposed to going to the gas stations.

Justin Frytz: Exactly.

Sarah Westby: Yeah. So Justin, I wanna pivot a little bit and talk about some of the social equity initiatives that your business has pursued. And, um, I know White Oak Bridge was not a social equity designated business by application type, um, but I know that you have engaged in some targeted efforts to give back to the community, and I'd love to hear a little bit more about that.

Justin Frytz: Yeah, yeah. So I mean, with, I will preface and say that our packaging license was a social equity license. Um, but as part of the process, every license is required to do a social equity program and, and give back to the community in which they operate. Um, when we started and got the business going last year, we were, uh, looking at moving to and putting our business in East Hartford because of the favorable zoning laws there.

Um, and as part of that, we partnered with some of the East Hartford community and our social equity program that we get back through is through the, the Connecticut Food Share System. And so we, we volunteer our time at the Connecticut Food Share facility, sorting food, and um, a lot helping them get food out to the communities.

Um, I don't remember our most recent tally on, you know, the number of pounds that we, we we do, but about every time we go, we say we sort through about several thousand pounds of food, um, and a period of a couple hours to go out and, and they give those to the, to the needy people in our communities. Um, and, and then we also sponsor their, uh, uh Thanksgiving Food Drive every year. Um, so we donate money towards their Thanksgiving meals that they give out turkeys every year to families and, and food for those meals. So, um, that's part of our, our goal as a company is like we, we provide and give back to the community that through, uh, people that are facing challenges with hunger and working with Connecticut Food have to offset that as much as we can as a small company.

Sarah Westby: That's great. Yeah. How big is your current workforce?

Justin Frytz: Uh, right now it's just, uh, myself, uh, my wife, uh, and our partner Sol. Um, we've got a few, uh, independent contractors that we call for delivery routes. When we have, um, the, the need, um, if I'm not available or you know, a partner's not available to do the routes with me, um, you know, we have a couple of drivers and, uh, that will do the routes and then um, my, my mother helps us with a lot of our bookkeeping and, and backend management stuff. She's been a bookkeeper for nearly 30 years, so she helps out in the business. And, um, and we've got a couple of advisors that we lean on quite heavily as well. Um, we've got a great, uh, fractional CFO and Marcello Ello and, um, uh, dope tax, uh, that helps advise us and, and do a lot of things with, uh, managing our, our numbers and understanding where, where we're sitting.

Sarah Westby: You mentioned when you were getting the business started up and even now you've had to wear a lot of different hats, you know, learn some of the law and the regulations. Do your own lobbying. Do some of your own legal work. Um, but you also mentioned working with consultants, so looking back and if you were to advise someone who wanted to get into this industry, what type of consultants do you think are necessary versus what type of things do you think it's more efficient to do on your own?

Justin Frytz: I really feel like that comes down to the, the time and competency that you have to invest in it. And, uh, there's, there's a consultant for every aspect of the, of the work that you need to do. But it's how much time do you have to invest and what is your overall knowledge of the process? And like we, I've been self-employed for nine years, so I've had a lot of time flexibility on my hands over the last four years to, to really launch this.

Whereas if I was working a W2 job. I wouldn't have been able to do anything that I've done over the last four years.

Sarah Westby: Sure.

Justin Frytz: You know, like that, that would've taken a lot of my time and I wouldn't have been able to accomplish as much. And same goes for my wife as she took the last three years off, um, to help with our son who was autistic and getting him up and off, uh, on the, uh, uh, caught up, I should say.

Um, and so we had the flexibility to address and set up a business, but if you don't have the time to learn the processes, learn the regulations, learn what you have to do, and everything needed to do that, like consultants are required, you can't wear all those different hats and you don't know everything.

Um, you know, I, I understood logistics and manufacturing from dealing with. Being in corporate retail, I had to deal with 25-week lead times and moving stuff across the ocean from China. And logistically getting it to 1600 stores in the states, in the United States. So, like I understood logistics, I understood warehousing, I understood everything in the, in the manufacturing process.

Um, you know, and I, I even grow at home. Um, as a hobby. So like there's not much about the industry that, I don't know, it's just the nuances of certain areas that I'm not an expert in.

I don't try to, but that's where I'd hire a consultant to come in if I needed to, to do that. But, um, you know, going back, I think to your question, like consultant wise, if you're getting into the industry like it's you, you, you really have to pick your battles and understand what your time is, how much time you have to dedicate something to it, and whether it's worthwhile learning and doing it yourself.

Sarah Westby: Yeah, yeah. Absolutely. And I think it's gonna differ for every business, right? I mean, you know, tax services, for example, is something that probably every cannabis business needs. Mm-hmm. Because it's so specific and nuanced. Um, but lobbying. You know, some people pay for lobbyists in a small state like Connecticut, if you have the time and the mm-hmm you know, the gumption to track down legislators, maybe that's something you can do on your own. Yeah. But you know, it sounds like you've, you and Angie and Sol have really played to your strengths and recognized what you need to outsource and what you can handle in-house.

Justin Frytz: Yeah. I mean, my experience comes a lot from like the, the back office, um, management of knowing what needs to be done.

My, my wife excels at creating systems and operations. Um, she's worked in, uh, medical research for years, and so she deals with the FDA, DEA, like all these government organizations that you have to be extremely organized with processes and paperwork and everything in order to, to deal with. So she's been fantastic at setting up the company and making sure all our processes are in place, systems that we have to have to do certain.

And, and Sol, our other partner, she's really good at the front house people management.

Mm-hmm. And she, like, she's hired people she works with, you know, she owns a spa. So like she's really good at those other aspects that I'm, I'm not good at and neither is my wife. So, like we've, we've really played to our strengths, like you said, and have gotten to the point where, you know, we've been able to do this because our individual strengths.

Sarah Westby: Right.

Justin Frytz: You know, if we didn't have someone else, like we would've had to outsource that, or we would have to like, stumble through it and figure it out and make mistakes. But, you know, that's all part of owning a business. Yeah. Um, but, you know, the, the fractional roles that the people we can bring in.

I, I would say that's probably the biggest thing that I've found is, is having. Not one person bringing into one to do one thing, but like fractional roles, people that do fractional work, fractional advisors, or, um, like Marcella, our accountant, not only is she our accountant, but she's also a fractional CFO.

So she manages all of our numbers as all of our forecasting and keeps us financially on track outside of just managing the tax stuff. So getting into it, finding the correct fractional people that can advise you when the time is right and not necessarily have to have them on staff all the time.

Sarah Westby: Right. Right. So I want to close with one final question, and that is, what are you most looking forward to for your business in 2025?

Justin Frytz: I, I'd really say it's the growth component. You know, now we're getting to the point where all these other cannabis licenses are coming online finally, and we're gonna get more opportunities to grow and scale the company. But where I, I, I think I alluded to this before, like the, the growth that I really see capable with our company is the hemp infused beverage.

Sarah Westby: Yeah, that's exciting. I'm really looking forward to seeing you guys grow. I've been talking for a number of years. Um, yeah, I know you and Angie pretty well at this point, um, from the Connecticut cannabis circles, and I've really enjoyed, you know, watching your business come to what it is today. I know you've had a lot of twists and turns in the road.

Yeah. Um, but let the listeners know where they can find out more about the White Oak Bridge.

Justin Frytz: Yeah, so I mean, you, you can go to our website, the whiteoak bridge.com. Um, we have a contact section on there. You can follow us on LinkedIn. Um, it's the one social media platform that doesn't ban cannabis content.

Um, but, uh, for right now that those are the two places that we operate, um, you know, we're always available. Uh. Someone wants to reach out with questions or, you know, you're an operator or your brand that wants to come to Connecticut with your beverages or whatever. Like I'm, I'm always have to chat and have a conversation and network and meet new people.

Sarah Westby: Great. Well, Justin, thanks so much for coming on today.

Justin Frytz: Thanks for having me. It has been great.