Confident Cannabis, provided excluisvely to Benzinga Cannabis.” data-reactid=”19″>Article by Confident Cannabis, provided excluisvely to Benzinga Cannabis.
Born in London, Libby’s parents relocated to California, where she grew up in the Menlo Park area and developed her love for art as a very young girl.
“In Kindergarten, we had to write a letter to ourselves, and I wrote that when I grew up I wanted to be an artist,” Libby said. “But my parents wanted to make sure I could make a living and support myself.”
“My partner, Scott, has many skills that complement my own,” Libby said. “I do the brand and creative vision, and he’s more the financial logistics side.”
Scott and Libby were each working for other companies at that time yet had this name “Space Coyote” from a mind-blowing experience in Joshua Tree (that you can read about on their website), but nothing else, not even a product category.
“We launched Space Coyote in November 2018,” Libby explained. “While we haven’t been around that long, we have seen huge success. Like many people, I came to the cannabis industry because I wanted to learn.”
Libby admits to being passionate about two things: rescue dogs and weed. One of them was going to make her money, and one was not. She had previously worked with local shelters as a foster parent for dogs and supported the animal community in many ways, but ultimately decided to join the cannabis industry in her next career move.
“I was relatively new to taking responsibility over a product, and I remember being so terrified that very first time we put our product through testing,” she said. “Each new step had so much unknown. I was holding my breath a lot of the time, but everything ended up going smoothly.”
“We make a product that resonates with the customer,” Libby explained. “We see our customer base as not only the end-user but also making a joint that the buyers and budtenders in the dispensaries would want to buy and take home at the end of the day. We wanted to make a product for stoners because we are stoners ourselves.”
As a woman coming from Silicon Valley and UX design, Libby would like to say there is an extreme difference being in cannabis when, in fact, it feels very similar. While she finds it incredible to see more women in the cannabis industry than she worked with in Silicon Valley, there still aren’t enough women in leadership roles.
“I do see a lot of women starting businesses in this industry,” Libby said. “But when you’re talking about the companies that are really big, really successful, have raised a lot of money, they are all male-led. We need to spread the word that women can do this, don’t be afraid.”
Libby confided that she and Scott have frequent discussions about whether it will be an issue to go out and raise money with Libby as CEO.
“Will that hurt us if we decide to raise VC money? I don’t know,” she said. “I hope it doesn’t, which is why we must have these conversations now. Women have come so far, but we still have a long way to go.”
Libby says she definitely thinks differently about running a cannabis business. It bothers her when people enter this industry entirely for financial gain. As she puts it, this plant is female, and everyone needs to honor that feminine structure. It’s not always about women leading versus men leading. Instead, she believes we all need to tap into our male and female brain when each is necessary.
“All people are made up of masculine and feminine energy,” she said. “I typically look at myself as a balanced combination of the two, and it takes both to run a business successfully.”
“Our entire team works remotely,” Libby explained. “If someone wants to go out and work from a foreign country, we encourage that. We want people not to have work as the end-all-be-all of their lives. When people are happy, well-rounded, and satisfied, it makes them more efficient at their jobs. It makes their jobs their passion.”
“We’re a group of empowered women who are working at the top of different cannabis companies,” she said. “It’s just inspiring and supportive to have these women around. We get together and have cannabis sleepovers and book clubs. We’re always on text threads; there’s constant communication. Everyone is there to lend advice or give congratulations because we’re all so proud of each other. We’re here to build each other up.”
“We like to support artists in whatever way they need,” she said. “We provide a monthly retainer to the artists we support and help them throw events, which allow them to focus on performances and being a community leader. We also will commission art pieces, anything to give back in any way we can.”
“It’s a dream come true to be an artist and now a business owner who can go back and support other artists,” she said. “It’s everything I’ve wanted to be doing. I’m 28 and thrilled to have done so much in my career. I can’t wait to see what the future holds.”
No matter what those next ventures will be, the one thing Libby knows is that she will one day get back to starting that animal shelter she postponed to join the cannabis industry, but she’s pretty sure that’s still about ten years away.
The preceding article is from one of our external contributors. It does not represent the opinion of Benzinga and has not been edited.
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