From Seed to Sale #5: Saving Grace

When I asked Susie Gress to tell me the story of how she founded a cannabis company – from scratch, with no prior cannabis experience, and in the wake of her husband’s passing – she made me clarify.

“Well, there's kind of a shorthand story, and then there's the in deep story. Which one are you interested in?”

Susie represents a lot of good things, including female-led businesses in cannabis and a lack of fear. Mostly, though, Susie represents the maxim that if you want to do something, just do it. When I asked her how she learned to grow cannabis, she told me that she read books and got to work. Simple as that.

(In case you were wondering, I chose to hear the long story. Please enjoy)

Endings and Beginnings 

SG: Well, my husband passed away suddenly, and that left me feeling very – I guess the way to put it is the rug was pulled out from under us. All of a sudden, I was a widow and mother and [my daughter] went away to college and I felt very…disoriented.

I had no self-confidence about what I was going to do. It felt like I'd lost my identity. So, I started looking around for what to do with my life. And I tried several things. I walked the Camino Santiago, I tried going to Paris and learning couture sewing. I didn't really enjoy that. The Santiago was nice, but you can't do that for a living, you know?

One day, I saw the rules for how Washington state was going to regulate cannabis and it was kind of different from the way anybody else did it; there was this 30-day window when it’s only going to be $250 or $300 to get a license. And I thought, ‘wow, what an opportunity that would be for somebody.’

 I hadn't smoked pot since college – which was a while ago. So, it didn't cross my mind really that this is something I would do. About a week later, though, my sister brought over a movie. It was called Saving Grace. It's a comedy with Martin Clunes, this British TV star.

(If you think a Martin Clunes reference is esoteric, you’re right. If you think that’s the last time you’ll hear that name in this interview, you’re wrong.)

SG: It was about a widow who starts growing pot after her husband dies to make some money. And it was very cute – kind of funny. And over the next couple of weeks, I just started thinking, ‘hmm, wow. Well, maybe that could work.’

I decided I would go to Vashon Island and look around and see if there was a something that would work for a farm. My mother had grown up on Vashon Island and it's a place I have always loved. So, I came up here and applied for a license. I had to try. Maybe it would work, maybe it wouldn’t, and if I lost $250, not the end of the world. Then I found the perfect little farm. 

And Vashon Velvet was born. Susie was the grower; her sister headed up design and packaging; her daughter, Ivy, was in charge of sales.

Where to start?

It’s hard to start a business from scratch. It’s harder to start a business from scratch in an industry in which you have zero prior experience. And if that new industry happens to be more regulated than just about any other consumer packaged good in the world, it’s damn nearly impossible.

These were the waters that Susie navigated during the early phases of Vashon Velvet. 

SG: [Washington was] the first state to actually go legal, but the second state that came online as legal. So nobody knew what was going to happen. What were the prices going to be? How were the sales going to be? It was all brand new and it was the Wild West.

 When it started out, wholesale prices were at $20 a gram. Boy, how are we going to spend all that money? But then the Eastern Washington outdoor growers came out and prices really plummeted – and we still didn't have our license yet.

When they finally gave us our license, we got all of our packaging in place and we could finally go to market. It was the end of February 2015 and by then we decided, ‘well, I think we could get $15 a gram.’

 Ivy was our salesperson. She went out and started selling, and everybody just laughed at her. They said they were, at that time, were looking for 20% THC and they needed maybe $5 or $3 a gram. These were our targeted stores, and we had put a lot of money into packaging because we wanted to place ourselves as a premium brand.

Dockside finally gave us a chance – they said, ‘there’s a place for fine-quality product, not just the best bang for your buck.’ They agreed to take a chance on us at $7 a gram. So that’s what we did. They also told us that this was a trial – ‘if the customers don’t love it, this is your last sale.’

Well, the customers loved it.

Growth

I asked Susie how in the world she learned how to grow cannabis.

SG: A lot of people told me when I first got into it, ‘Oh boy, this is really hard. This is never going to work. You’d better hire some real experts.’

I thought they might be right. But if I didn’t try, how would I ever know? I bought all of the books and started reading. I’ve always had a garden – you know, tomatoes, vegetables, whatever. And the more I read, the more I thought: ‘this doesn’t sound so hard.” And I came up with a theory that, because it’s always been illegal, there is a certain kind of mysticism around it. A secret cabal of people with special rules and knowledge.

People may get mad hearing me say this, but it’s just not that hard. It’s a plant.

I interrupted Susie around this point. I told her it takes a certain kind of person to even pick up the book in the first place. Most people would dream – make plans, refine branding, have imaginary conversations – but most people don’t just go out and do.

“Why are you like that?” I asked.

SG: I grew up with it. When I was 15 or so, my mom bought a piece of property and said, ‘We’re going to build a house.’ And I said ‘Mom, you’ve never built anything.’ And she said ‘So?’

Susie loves the plant in its natural state. She argued with another grower about trimming leaves, telling him that ‘the tree wants to have leaves there.’ She postulated that most grows were historically illegal, and hidden, and risky – so growers were forced to grow short plants that weren’t terribly aromatic.

Susie wanted a big, tall, stinky, sticky herb. We discussed designer fruit – the pretty apples you see at national grocery chains that have zero flavor – and how farmers’ market apples are ugly and weird shapes and absolutely delicious.

Tiers and Trouble

Vashon Velvet is no longer selling cannabis – which is a shame, as the company had a waiting list of customers. Turns out, one of the byproducts of Washington’s “tier” system (where your license limits the size of your canopy) is unrealistic limitations on the amount of product smaller farms can produce.

SG: You had to apply for one of the tiers and they were very, very strict at the beginning – you could only apply for one tier. And if you apply for a Tier Three and you only grow as a Tier One, they could take your license away.

Wanting to follow the rules, I applied for a Tier One. The Liquor and Cannabis Board restricted the tiers like that because they didn’t want just a whole bunch of corporate-sized farms. They wanted family-sized farms. Well, it ended up being the death knell for the family farms because 2,000 square feet just wasn't enough to be profitable. 

So, we had to wrap things up. At this point, I think there are only 50 farms left that are Tier One and still growing.

Women

I asked Susie about being a woman leading a cannabis business. I guessed that there were obstacles left and right, and overtly chauvinistic themes.

I was wrong.

SG: It was a part of our story and people liked it. It got us a lot of press and articles and things like that, which was helpful.

Every man I worked with was kind and helpful. I was eventually on the Board of the Washington Cannabusiness Association – but my first meeting with WACA, I was very hesitant about going. These were the people that knew the liquor and cannabis board and could really get stuff done. I called Ivy and she said, ‘buck up, mom, just go.’ So I went. And sure enough, the liquor and cannabis board members were there, all these people that I had no idea what to say to.

They were the top people in the industry, and all men (at the time). And they couldn't have been nicer to me.

I mean, they would call me and say, ‘How's it going? Is there anything we can do to help?’ When I was on the Board, trying to get tier levels raised, those were the guys behind me, supporting me, saying how it wasn’t right, and how small companies should be allowed to grow.

I’m happy to say I did not face one obstacle for being a woman. It was a strength, if anything.

Martin Clunes – and the Future

It’s time to talk about Martin Clunes again.

Because, reader, Martin Clunes represents a through line in this story. You’ll recall he had a starring role in Saving Grace, the movie that kicked this whole adventure into gear. The movie that prescribed Susie’s cannabis solution. He played a big role in nudging Susie into action.

One day, Mr. Clunes calls Susie up. That’s neither a joke nor a dream sequence. The famous British actor picks up the phone and calls Susie. Turns out, he’s making a series called Islands of America and he wants to spotlight Susie’s farm on Vashon Island.

…

I’m not an overly spiritual person, nor do I believe in fate. But when something as far-fetched and coincidental as this happens, I start thinking twice.

I asked Susie about her future plans and, as it turns out, Martin Clunes encouraged her future as much as her past.

SG: When Martin came, I was telling him about the movie and how it inspired all of this. At the end of the movie, the widow marries a French drug dealer and writes a bestselling book. Martin said ‘Oh, you have to write a book. You just have to do it.’ And since Martin seems to be in control of my life, I figured I might as well do it.

My book is really about how we can recover, and be reborn, and it also teaches about growing marijuana and what a rollercoaster ride the first year of legalization was.

I think, for people going through this now, it’s a map forward. You can get through this.

The last page has a sentence, which is really my new motto: “Your lucky day is the day you start.” If you’re suffering through a loss, or you’re depressed, just start doing something. You don’t have to plan it all out in detail. You don’t have to know where it’s going to go.

Just start.