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This week, Brendan McKee, co-founder, CFO and COO of Silver Therapeutics, joins the Cannabis Equipment News podcast to discuss how he continues to open successful adult-use dispensaries while maintaining a 90% employee retention rate and nearly 1,200% revenue growth on private-label products.
A few years ago, Brendan McKee saw an opportunity in Massachusetts. He landed a medical license in 2018 and opened a recreational dispensary in 2019 in Williamstown, a progressive community in the northwest corner of the state open to cannabis businesses.
McKee and his business partners were among the first medical license holders to receive priority access for adult use. Silver Therapeutics opened its first store in April 2019 and hasn't looked back.
Before opening the first location, McKee spent nearly three years visiting as many dispensaries as possible, cherry-picking his favorite traits from experiential and operational standpoints.
McKee says the company's first shop was 714 square feet, all in, and while it was challenging at times, like serving hundreds of customers each day with just three registers, it made them better.
The learning curve was steep, but now Silver Therapeutics has about a dozen stores, and McKee says they have improved with each one.
When McKee was visiting dispensaries as a prospective patient, he found walking into a place filled with familiar faces and being recognized was meaningful. It was a relationship he cherished and why he insists that everyone who walks in a Silver Therapeutics door is treated like a patient.
Jump around:
- The steep cannabis industry learning curve. (3:58)
- Cherry-picking the best of cannabis retail. (5:31)
- The cost and disruption of turnover. (11:28)
- Retail best practices. (13:02)
- Selecting the right products to put on the shelf. (16:30)
- Playing by different rules in different states. (25:37)
- Suggested regulatory changes in Maine. (28:11)
- The company's 13x revenue growth on Silver Therapeutics products. (30:07)
- Team sports breeds better leaders. (42:40)
- Purchasing best practices. (45:25)
- Success in New York. (49:06)
- How to make sure you don't scale too fast. (50:06)
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].
