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Shaina Kerrigan founded Molly J., a CBD gumdrop company, in January 2020 to make cannabis more approachable for newbies. She spent nine months in her kitchen coming up with a recipe that didn’t feel “medicinal,” but still responded to consumers’ woes.
- For example, Molly J. released a sleep gumdrop during the pandemic as people struggled to catch Zzzs.
It’s a tricky, crowded space. “When the federal government passed the Farm Bill in 2018, it was this boom, somewhere in the range of 3,000 CBD businesses,” Kerrigan recalled. “A year and a half later, we’re down to 1,500 or so.”
So how does a small business like Molly J. set itself apart?
Stay focused: While some CBD brands want to offer a little bit of everything (bath bombs, chocolates, tinctures), Kerrigan said that approach can be risky.
“When you spread your efforts across so many different products, it’s harder to go deep in the quality of any one of them...We’re hyper focused on doing one thing and doing it well: highly effective CBD confections,” she noted.
Gray area: Kerrigan also has to focus on navigating regulations. Because of “changing policies and nebulous rules” around CBD, Molly J. has had to change its website platform four times and was once banned from Facebook, she said.
“Any new space is a challenge to launch in, but CBD in particular, has the added weight of being in a legal gray area that makes it frustratingly more difficult than it should be,” Kerrigan said.
- Molly J. leaned on its community and fellow brands, which were “going through the ringer alongside us.”—JG