James Williams: Cannabis Manufacturer’s Guild

Introduction to James Williams

OnlyCannabisNews was given the opportunity to interview James Williams of the Cannabis Manufacturer’s Guild. James brings over 10 years of experience in the financial sector — and a few years in the cannabis industry — to his new company. James, along with his two partners, launched their company just a few months ago and are already gaining traction. The Cannabis Manufacturer’s Guild brings different firms together to create “vertical collaboration” which allows companies to benefit from focusing on their individual core strengths while creating an integrated supply chain.

OnlyCannabisNews: How long have you been working in the cannabis industry?

James Williams: Roughly 3 years. I first started representing cannabis companies in the public markets while I was at Laurentian Bank before moving to WeedMD where I ran Capital Markets and Business Development for just under a year.

OCN: Do you have any previous work experience that is relevant to working in the cannabis industry?

JW: Prior to entering the cannabis industry I spent roughly 10 years on Bay Street in Toronto working with financial institutions like Barclays, UBS and Laurentian Bank. I worked in areas of research, trading, sales and investment banking. All of this provided me with a great understanding of capital markets and public equities. When the cannabis boom happened I was in a good place to understand the upcoming business cycle: I knew what would happen when a new industry is injected with billions in capital. I was fairly skeptical of the industry in its early days. Most of my career was spent speaking with and walking thousands of CEOS and management teams into the offices of the biggest Institutions and Pension Funds. You really get to see what a strong well-operated company looks like and the types of questions real investors ask and expect management to be able to answer. The cannabis industry unfortunately was missing a lot of the bench strength you would typically find at a Fortune 500 company.

The cannabis industry unfortunately was missing a lot of the bench strength you would typically find at a Fortune 500 company. — James Williams, CMG

Cannabis Manufacturer’s Guild

OCN: When did your company start? When did you join?

JW: Myself and two other partners co-founded Cannabis Manufacturer’s Guild in February 2020.

OCN: What prompted the idea for the company?

JW: After leaving WeedMD and seeing the majority of other LPs also purging some great business development, marketing and other talent, it seemed very obvious that the industry and individual companies were going to be unable to fix a lot of their own problems near term. There is now less money coupled with less human capital, however still an overwhelming need for new products and innovation in Canada. We understand that LPs needed more assistance from individuals who have operated these facilities in the past and see where the industry is going: FMCPG and Pharmaceutical.

The model that the Cannabis Manufacturer’s Guild (CMG) has built focuses on external business development and the concept of ‘vertical collaboration’. We support in sourcing biomass, creating new partnerships, creating new products, or simply helping correct some of the early mistakes every company had made while striving for vertical integration. We try to act as the ‘right hand’ of our Guild Members and are incentivized through our success fees, as opposed to large up-front consultancy fees.

OCN: How was the company funded?

JW: We funded everything internally and operate the company in an extremely asset-light fashion. We are lucky though to have a roster of financial backers who review various projects we work on and offer financial support to our members when it makes sense.

OCN: What was the first product/service?

JW: First and foremost we are business managers and problem-solving consultants. Our clients seek our advice to fill in the blanks on supply chain holes because at the end of the day everyone underestimated how difficult it would be to build your own vertically integrated supply chain.

OCN: What is/are the current product/service?

JW: We offer a wide range of services, and typically operate as a white glove service for our clients. We help them sell, negotiate deals, build brands, consult on facility retrofits or install new equipment to create new business channels. We even broker funding using our network of investors, lenders and banking resources. If there is a problem, we use our network to create reasonably economical solutions that don’t just involve throwing money at problem – typically its the knowledge to execute that stops a lot of business from getting completed.

OCN: What were some of the missteps along the way?

JW: I can’t recall many missteps this early on as we see all opportunities as a chance to build experience. I think what every company in this industry regrets is the amount of time spent wasting time. We see a lot of projects or ideas that seem plausible and attractive but end up just sucking up a lot of time. We actually believe this is one of our key benefits to clients as we do a lot of screening and due diligence on deals before we put them in front of our Members.

OCN: What would you do differently?

JW: We try to focus on inefficiencies at the macro level and then try to create structures that not only benefit our clients but also benefit the industry if adopted. We like to use the term “vertical collaboration” in cannabis (vs vertical integration) as we truly believe a company can’t be good at all things. We try to focus on each one of our members core strengths and then help them monetize it. There are enough assets in Canada already and there is demand for all sorts of products, but parties can no longer pretend that they can do it all or have it all figured out.

OCN: What were some of the really good ideas you had?

JW: We reserve all of our good idea’s for our Guild Members I’m afraid 😉, but I think the concept of asset-light, high return on investment projects, while not a new concept, is a good idea we are trying to bring back into focus in cannabis.

OCN: Did you have any strokes of luck along the way?

JW: Oddly enough, launching this business during the COVID-19 crisis and after the cannabis industry washed out turned out to be very fortuitous timing for us. As a result, the reliance on third party consultants and the amount of projects CMG gets to work on continues to climb. When times are extremely tough and there are a lot of problems outside of peoples control, you’ll end up in a good place when your mission is to help your closest partners in any way you can.

OCN: Who were some of the key people instrumental to the company’s success?

JW: My partners Brett Moon and Cartel Cutler were obviously very instrumental and we have built a team that has minimal overlap in knowledge but where we can back each other up on almost any deal or project. Its very important in this industry to have people who questioned the way things were done because now we all know it didn’t really work. We all need to continue to have a level of skepticism when looking at this industry because there is very little patience out there for wasting capital.

Our first wave of members/supporters were also very important to us getting this platform off the ground. Companies like XTRX Solutions or Great White North, Cole Miller at A1-Cannabis, Michel Dab at Cannamerx, and a lot of the larger LPs who told us right off the bat “We get it. Here is a list of projects we’d like CMG’s help on.”

Company Differentiators

OCN: What does the company offer that makes it different from similar people/companies?

JW: We do get compared to the brokerage model a lot because at the end of the day we solicit transactions for all sorts of products. In my mind the word ‘broker’ is extremely detested in the cannabis space now, and rightfully so. There are a lot of time wasters and individuals with shallow understandings of the rules and hurdles it takes to execute on cannabis projects. As opposed to focusing on one area of the supply chain like brokering hemp sales between LPs (licensed producers), we look at their entire product life cycle and not only source input material but also assist with other steps including product development, formulating, sourcing packaging, brand building, distribution or whatever else an LP looking to launch a CBD product may need. Our network of Guild Members also get familiar with other LPs in the network and partnerships are built as opposed to one time sales. When we get folks in a room together it’s not just about, “Can I sell you this?” We focus on creating revenue opportunities largely unattainable if an LP were to go it alone.

The Future of Cannabis

OCN: Where do you see the cannabis industry headed?

JW: Well it’s already proved to be very ugly but I think it’s going to get a lot better. Will there be more companies shutting down? Definitely. But, there is also going to be a lot of new ventures coming that will just have very different strategies on executing. I seriously doubt there will be another wave of investor interest similar to 2017/2018 but there are some amazing opportunities and luckily most of the infrastructure has now been built out.

OCN: What do you see as some of the hurdles the cannabis industry is facing?

JW: There are hurdles everywhere – cash constraints, supply chain constraints, regulatory uncertainty, competitive global forces, but those are opportunities as well depending on what side of the equation you are on. Our goal is to match companies with the capabilities to solve these problems with those companies who have a need for them.

OCN: How is your company planning to deal with some of these hurdles?

JW: Our business is to help our Members navigate the hurdles and to be the first, not the last one to get the memo.

OCN: Where do you see your company in the future? What’s your projected timeline for this?

JW: I would like to get CMG up to 40 Guild Members before year end, complete the roughly dozen product or brand launches we have in the hopper, complete a number of facility and extraction retrofits and hopefully help make this years outdoor crop in Canada more successful than last year by fixing some of the supply chain issues.

OCN: Any other words of advice?

JW: If you are going stir crazy due to COVID-19, go and adopt an animal. It will add both joy to your life but also provide a necessary distraction for anyone else who keeps finding themselves pacing back and forth in their kitchen all day on the phone.