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This inspiring story is of a rising startup called CBDCapitalGroup, started by Zak Garcia and David Metzler, based out of the US. At CBDCapitalGroup, their objective is to deliver 100 million doses of CBD products that are proven to relieve pain and suffering. CBDCapitalGroup was created to connect investors with CBD entrepreneurs to help them scale their business and combine efforts for a great outcome. To achieve the 100 million doses, they have a vision of combining multiple companies in this space to create more value by bringing together brilliant minds and smart money. Here is the story of CBDCapitalGroup in Zak & David’s own words.
Introduce us to the idea of CBDCapitalGroup
CBDCapitalGroup has acquired stakes in multiple businesses in the CBD space, so we have different business models and products inside of our portfolio.
Our flagship CBD product is from a Hawaii-based brand called Mana Artisan Botanics that combines ingredients from organic and regenerative farming practices, mostly from local farmers, to create a unique set of products using Hawaiian botanicals to help you feel better. Mana’s supreme Hawaii hemp oil uses organic macadamia nut oil, locally grown turmeric, as well as vanilla, and organic full-spectrum hemp extract to provide a great-tasting and proven effective solution for CBD users.
We are taking our knowledge and experience as entrepreneurs, and applying it to brands like mana to help them get to the next stage of growth.
We also have a third-party company that conducts the medical outcomes studies using an actuarial-statistical formula combined with a licensed short-form medical survey that enables us to measure the quality of life improvements from before and after use of CBD products. This is getting a lot of traction right now because so many manufacturers and brands are looking to use studies to validate their products’ effectiveness. Clinical studies are costly, so this is a less expensive and faster way to get data on outcomes.
What’s your strategy story? What led you to start CBDCapitalGroup?
The reason why we started CBDCapitalGroup is partly that both the CEO David Metzler and myself as CMO are veterans, and we’ve seen a huge problem in the world with anxiety, not just in the veteran community but everywhere. Anxiety is negatively affecting our society in a major way.
We wanted to start a company that can make a difference and relieves people’s pain and suffering. And the reason why we chose the CBD industry is because of the amazing potential for this plant medicine to deliver actual results in a non-addicting and natural way.
In a nascent industry where a lot of brands are cropping up and the market is ripe for consolidation, we saw an opportunity in helping to combine smaller companies with building a portfolio of strategic assets that would be stronger together than they would be separately. When we invest in a company, we invest both our time and resources to help them grow to their full potential. Our leadership team is composed of experts in our fields, and we are taking this opportunity to pass that knowledge onto this budding industry.
What marketing, operation strategies are you adopting at CBDCapitalGroup?
We have partnered with some brilliant minds in the healthcare space to develop the medical outcomes study based on survey data that measures life quality. We’ve conducted two of these studies so far, and the results are very promising. What we’ve learned is that CBD absolutely increases the quality of life.
People in the study have reported that they are taking CBD mostly as a way to address anxiety, pain, and sleep issues. The studies that we conducted show that after four weeks of use, you can see a statistically relevant increase in quality of life of approximately 6%. Also, if you use the products for more than 90 days, that result drastically improves.
So, the main takeaway here is that people who use CBD regularly for an extended period of time have significant improvements in their quality of life.
Utilizing this study format as a way to help the entire industry get past the hesitancy of the greater public that CBD can actually be effective. We are also utilizing tried and correct operational strategies from our management team’s combined 100 years of entrepreneurial experience, cannabis activism, operational efficiency, and applying fundamentals in all areas of the businesses that we invest in to help operate and advise these entrepreneurs and raise money for their growth.
What is the competitive advantage of CBDCapitalGroup?
CBDCapitalGroup’s real competitive advantage is its leadership team. We are lucky to say that we are composed of experts in our fields that are now dedicating our knowledge to advancing a mission that we are passionate about every day. For example, I helped Bulletproof expand into the internationally-recognized brand that it is today as its Chief Marketing Officer and learned a lot along the way. Those trials and errors I made in the past allow me to guide our team each day.
In addition to our leadership team, CBDCapitalGroup is standing out from other VCs in the CBD industry through our investment model, designed by our highly-skilled CEO. Our team invests in small-to-medium-sized companies with a proven track record of success, notable distinguishers, and room from growth. From there, we invest not only money but our experience to guide their companies to success. We really are in it together.
We have also designed a short-form medical outcomes study, modeled after those employed by the healthcare industry, to prove the efficacy of our products.
Any strategy mistakes you have made and what did you learn?
CBD is newer industry where assumptions are constantly being made about how best to market products based on how other wellness products have been successful in the past.
There is no robust understanding of this new industry’s regulatory aspects, which creates a challenge for most CBD brands out there to know what they can and cannot say about their products. It also drastically limits the ability to acquire customers because we still don’t have access to traditional advertising channels for e-commerce, such as Facebook ads and Google ads.
We’ve learned that it’s important to differentiate yourself and help alleviate the concerns that CBD may just be a fad.
Share a story when you have been customer-obsessed at Aphex Biocleanse
We understand that customer satisfaction is key and that feedback can be precious. With our subsidiary Mana Artisan Botanics, we asked our customers to give us feedback through a medical outcomes study we designed based on the model used by mainstream healthcare companies.
The results we received back revealed that customers who use our products for more than 90 days get significant increases in their Quality of Life score as measured by the study.
We are obsessed with getting customers on board with the challenge of improving their wellness and multiple areas of their life in addition to their core reasons for using the products. This led to us offering a subscription program that makes it more convenient, accessible, and more valuable to support their health with Mana’s products.
Finally what advice do you have for your fellow entrepreneur readers?
In terms of advice that I would give to fellow entrepreneurs, especially in the CBD space but really across any entrepreneurial endeavors, is to bolster your personal resilience.
As a leader and an entrepreneur, don’t accept “no” as an answer because the people in business who find the most success are some of the most hard-headed and positive people out there.
You have to be because most businesses don’t achieve the success they set out to achieve. And it comes down to hard work and longevity. In the end, there are tons and tons of stories of successful entrepreneurs who would not give up and kept pushing forward until something clicked and the next right step presented itself.
As long as you truly believe in what you’re out to accomplish, you can get there with the right strategies and determination.
Disclaimer: The information in the above story is provided by the startup and The Strategy Story takes no responsibility for the authenticity of the product and services offered by the startup. Reader’s discretion is advised.
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