Worcester Business Journal

12 Worcester Business Journal | June 25, 2018 | wbjournal.com Milford's Sira Naturals seeks to help entrepreneurs avoid the expensive startup costs of retail pot industry F O C U S E N T R E P R E N E U R S & I N N O V A T I O N A MARIJUANA INCUBATOR BY ZACHARY COMEAU Worcester Business Journal Staff Writer I t took Sira Naturals almost three years before it made one dollar off of its marijuana, which it grows in a Milford cultivation facility. "Two-and-a-half years of spending money with no income insight," said CEO Michael Dundas. e heavily regulated medical and recreational cannabis industry – the latter of which is set to launch in July – provides barrier aer barrier and countless hoops for young cannabis companies to jump through before they can begin making any money. Permitting can take months or even years, and that's assuming a particular city or town even allows those businesses to open and build a multi-million dollar facility, since Central Massachusetts communities like Westborough, Mendon and Upton have banned such businesses within their borders. With those lessons in hand, Dundas and Sira Naturals are now launching the Sira Accelerator, an incubator program aimed at breaking down those financial and time barriers to entering the legal mari- juana market. Companies participating in the program will be allowed into Sira's facility to develop products and expedite the time to market for products with the potential to be successful. ose products will them go straight to Sira's shelves at dispensaries in Needham, Cambridge and Somer- ville, Dundas said. Saving on capital, finding investors Building a facility like Sira's takes a boatload of capital. Young companies not yet ready to do so, but have a product they want to sell, can access Sira's kitchen and manufacturing lab and even use Sira's cannabis oil. e idea is to not only introduce companies to investors and industry experts, but also set entrepre- neurial cannabis companies up with the skills and knowledge they need to be successful and attract the kind of financial support necessary to fund capital projects. "ose are critical pieces of this puzzle," Dundas said. So far, Dundas said more than 250 companies have inquired about the program. e rollout of the adult-use recreational market is expected to begin July 1, which is the first date the Cannabis Control Commission can award retail licenses to marijuana companies. So far, companies have submitted 16 complete license applications to the CCC to open in Worces- ter County alone. Statewide, that number is 53, but dozens more are on the way. According to the CCC, there are 128 pending adult-use marijuana licenses out of 1,145 filed. Of those, 945 are incomplete and 72 have been withdrawn, the CCC said in a June 14 meeting. Access to expensive equipment & supplies One of the dozens of companies looking to enter the adult-use market is Cape Cod's Healing Tree Edibles, which currently manufactures naturally edible canna- bis products for the medical space. Michelle Bennett, owner of the microbusiness, is hoping to partner with Sira and utilize the company's state-of-the-art kitchen to perfect her cra. With many Cape Cod towns under a recreation- al-use moratorium, Bennett and her company are hoping to perfect the natural edible cannabis products. To do so, Bennett is teaming up with Dundas and Sira Naturals to take part in the accelerator program. "e program is going to be extremely beneficial to someone like myself," said Bennett, a stay-at-home Michael Dundas, CEO of Sira Naturals in Milford, stands in his firm's expensive lab where employees process the marijuana grown in an adjacent room. (Below) Dundas holds a container of cannabis oil, which takes a $150,000 machine to extract, not to mention the costs of growing the plants. PHOTOS/MATT WRIGHT

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