It's no secret that the legal cannabis industry is booming. The investment bank, Cowen, is predicting that cannabis could boom to a $75B industry by 2030. Colorado is proud to be one of the first states to legalize the recreational use of cannabis alongside Washington in 2012. To date, the legal cannabis industry in the state has added just over $1 billion dollars of tax revenue, particularly focused on health and education services. As of 2019, Colorado has over 2900 licensed cannabis businesses and just over 41,000 licensed cannabis industry workers. Of course, the cannabis industry has faced resistance from many people who are philosophically opposed, but it clearly has been a huge economic win for the state.
Because of the timeline of legalization and technology focus of Denver today, of course, Colorado has become a hub for technology entrepreneurs who are looking to change the cannabis industry. The Denver culture and talent pool have proved to be a great fit for leading canna-tech companies.
Here are some of the software companies in Colorado who are making big waves nationally in the canna-tech space:
Baker - Denver, CO
Baker might be the leading CRM and Marketing Automation for the Cannabis Industry that exists today (it's tough to tell with the numbers in such a rapidly growing space). They serve over 1,000 dispensaries who interact with over1.2 million customers across the US and Canada with the Baker platform. Offering simple, tailored toward dispensary functionality that includes, email, customer loyalty, customer engagement tools, and more it's clear that Baker is here to stay in the space.
Baker Technologies has already received over $8 million in funding and has over 52 Colorado local employees in their Denver-Five Points office. Check them out!
MJ Freeway - Denver, CO
MJ Freeway is a full-service cannabis company empowerment organization. Not only do they offer leading software solutions for seed-to-sale tracking and POS, but they also offer the hardware to go with it and consulting services to help maximize profitability. Their vertically integrated software to support approach cuts down on the learning curve for any cannabis company that chooses MJ Freeway.
The merger of MJ Freeway and MTech happened recently and it empowered them to be one of the first canna-tech companies to start trading on the NASDAQ under KERN. Big things are definitely coming for MJ Freeway as they deepen their foothold in the now-national cannabis industry boom.
FlowHub - Denver, CO
FlowHub is a full "seed-to-sale" POS and inventory management and processes over $1 Billion in sales annually. FlowHub greatly simplifies the compliance requirements of tracking the full lifecycle of every cannabis sale for their client and does so on a state-to-state basis. FlowHub has a great reputation as a place to work as well with a 4.7 on Glassdoor with over 52 employees which is no small feat for any company.
MassRoots - Denver, CO
The largest and most well-known cannabis-focused social network -- over 900,000 users. Over $15 million in funding and 25 local Colorado employees today and they have many open positions. People use MassRoots to find smoking buddies, share their cannabis experiences with like-minded friends, and stay connected with local dispensaries.
Wurk - Denver, CO
With over 55 employees in their downtown Denver office, Wurk is making big strides in the underserved cannabis HR and payroll space. The compliance of the cannabis HR and payroll is no small task. Licensing, withholdings, etc. all become way more complex in this locally-legal, but nationally illegal business. Wurk makes all these problems a breeze for the companies they serve.
Here at BWBacon Group, we know and live what you are experiencing as an employer or job seeker in Denver, Boulder, Dallas, San Francisco, New York City or any of the other cities we work in. We believe great recruiting starts and ends with understanding people.
If you have any questions about living, working or playing any of the areas we serve, please contact us. We are happy to help. Seize the day, every day, that’s what we say!