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This week, Kyle Loucks, founder of RollPros, joins the Cannabis Equipment News podcast to discuss the process behind building a better automated cannabis pre-roll machine.
Kyle Loucks has been a cannabis user for more than 20 years, and he said it's helped him approach his creative endeavors with a new perspective.
While earning his engineering degree and becoming a product designer, he said it was cannabis that helped him see whatever design challenges he was facing in a new light. So it's not surprising that Loucks turned his cannabis inspiration into his company, RollPros, which builds automated cannabis pre-roll machines.
When cannabis was first legalized in Loucks' home state of Washington, he said he ran out to get his first commercial pre-roll. But he described the experience as a big letdown, and said the pre-roll "burned like crap." Loucks could tell the material was dried out since it burned so hot and there was hardly any flavor.
Loucks was determined to find a better way to make a pre-roll. He went down several paths until he found his way back to a hand-rolling concept that led to a prototype and, eventually, to his company's flagship machine.
In this episode, Loucks discusses:
- How cannabis has helped him solve design challenges (1:00)
- His first pre-roll machine prototype (3:35)
- Conflicts between hand-rolled joints and ones produced by machines (5:49)
- His experience designing medical devices (9:50)
- The cannabis patents he holds (13:57)
- Building one of the first pre-roll machines that doesn't require pre-made cones (15:16)
- Why he questions some paper mills (17:52)
- Pushing a paradigm shift in pre-rolls (22:30)
- RollPros' new DrawCheck machine (29:08)
- The machines he's working on next (31:39)
- His advice for perspective cannabis entrepreneurs (33:37)
Please make sure to like, subscribe and share the podcast. You could also help us out by giving the podcast a positive review. Finally, to email the podcast or suggest a potential guest, you can reach David Mantey at [email protected].
