Here’s an exclusive look at the 14-slide presentation that cannabis-tech startup Pistil Data used to raise $6.5 million from Snoop Dogg’s venture fund and a cofounder of Wired magazine

On Nov 18, 2021

Jeffrey Graham, Pistil Data’s CEO.

Pistil Data

Pistil Data, a cannabis-tech startup, closed a $6.5 million seed round on Tuesday.
The company raised from investors, including Snoop Dogg and a cofounder of Wired magazine.
CEO Jeffrey Graham said he started Pistil to help bring more rigorous data to cannabis.

It’s no secret that cannabis-tech startups are having a moment. Investors have poured more than $1.6 billion into cannabis-tech companies this year.

Pistil Data, which uses data to help cannabis brands figure out how to target and boost sales, closed a $6.5 million seed round led by the cannabis-focused venture firm Casa Verde — which counts Snoop Dogg as a member of its team — on Tuesday.

Other notable investors in the round include JW Asset Management and John Battelle, the media entrepreneur who started Wired magazine in 1993. The company did not disclose valuation.

Cannabis-software companies are like the picks and shovels of the gold rush: They’re figuring out ways to solve problems for the cannabis industry, where regulations often change and consumer tastes remain fickle and hard to pin down.

CEO Jeffrey Graham said he started Pistil after a stint leading business intelligence for Norcal Cannabis Co., a West Coast cannabis brand.

While he was trying to learn the industry, he said, he discovered “really big gaps” in the types of data available to cannabis companies — particularly compared to what he used to analyze in his previous career as a leader of market research and analytics teams at tech companies such as Twitter and Google.

“It just wasn’t available to cannabis companies,” Graham said. “And that seemed to be really holding them back from making good decisions and kind of bogging them down in a lot of work that was inefficient and people didn’t enjoy.”

Here’s an exclusive look at the deck that helped Pistil Data close a $6.5 million seed round.

Graham said he wants Pistil to be the first thing that sales teams open on a Monday morning when they’re planning their week.

He said the company’s app is aimed at “more granular, actionable data” for “the front lines” of the industry, such as sales reps at cannabis brands.

He likened the platform’s potential to how the spread of Bloomberg terminals disrupted traditional ways of doing business on Wall Street by allowing traders to have all the data they need at their fingertips, rather than doing the analysis themselves.

“I don’t see ourselves as sort of trying to replicate what other companies have done for cannabis, but in fact, like Bloomberg, actually create a whole wave of innovation within a new industry,” Graham said.

Taylor Jones, Graham’s cofounder, previously worked at a number of cannabis companies, including Baker Technologies and BioTrackTHC.

Graham said he doesn’t see industry incumbents such as BDSA and Headset as direct competitors. Instead, he sees Pistil as developing a “new category” of market intelligence in cannabis that goes beyond raw data.

The company’s first product is available in California and Colorado. Graham said it would aim to expand to 13 more states in the next year, and that it was working on developing new products.

Graham said the company’s first product is an app geared toward brand sales reps who don’t have much time to do data analysis themselves; they just want answers fast.

The app shows sales trends, product availability, and other information sales that teams need to make decisions, Graham said.

Pistil has about 30 employees now, and Graham said the company plans to grow its sales, product, and engineering teams with the new capital.

Graham said he was focused on raising money from cannabis-specific firms versus larger tech VCs. “We wanted to take advantage of connections,” he said.

Graham’s best advice to prospective entrepreneurs: Build relationships with investors early and focus on the business.

“My north star is: How many people are willing to pay for our service, and can we grow that number every week, every month?” Graham said. “And I think when you do that, there’s a lot of stuff that takes care of itself.”

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