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[vc_row][vc_column width="1/1"][vc_column_text]As the Co-Founder & Managing Director of CanopyBoulder, the industry's first business accelerator, I feel qualified to comment on this one. We're working with 10 start-ups in ancillary products and services right now.

95% of new businesses fail. A simple fact (WSJ paywall).

So if your dream business is more likely to be unsuccessful than make you money, why even try?

If only there was a way to increase your chances of success. One that surrounded you with expert mentors and advisors, introduced you to investors, and rapidly accelerated the development of your business.

The secret here is that this model exists and has quickly become the best place to launch a startup. It’s called a business accelerator, and CanopyBoulder is the first and leading business accelerator in the cannabis industry.

CanopyBoulder focuses on ancillary products and services startups in the cannabis industry including software, hardware, media, data, safety, grow-tech and other businesses that don’t “touch the plant”. There will be no grow operations, extraction businesses, manufacturers of edibles, nor dispensaries in our accelerator.

This year we are working with 20 startups, all selected from an open application. We invite them to Boulder for a 13-week business boot camp and surround them with expert advisors, mentors, and investors.

We will also give them $20,000 in seed capital, over $40,000 in business services, $1M in mentorship value, and produce a demo day where they can tell their story to an auditorium of investors and cannabis industry professionals.

New to the industry, but bringing a deep bag of tricks and professional experience? We can introduce you to the cannabis industry faster and more efficiently than anyone. The first month of our program focuses on immersion with mentors, industry leaders, customers and vendors. We get you away from your business plan and into the industry. Launch parties, Meetups, big company visits, mentor presentations, grow operation, MIP, and dispensary tours are just a few of the ways to rapidly raise your cannabis industry IQ.

Lacking an MBA, but working in the industry where you have uncovered a great opportunity, yet you lack the access to capital and the experience to start a new venture? We provide an environment in which to work that is both collaborative and competitive. You’ll work harder than you ever have before to do-more-faster than out on your own. Fair warning - it will be the hardest time of your life, but also the most rewarding.

Plus, we give you $20,000 in seed capital and access to legal, accounting, tax, finance experts who are part of our network.

What else do you need? You need to share a vision of creating the best in class businesses supporting the cannabis industry today. You must be intelligent, driven, inquisitive, hard working, and you must absolutely possess low ego and take advice, suggestion and expert guidance well. The 13-week program exposes your team’s underlying culture and if that’s one of stubbornness, inflexibility, and arrogance you’ll find yourself wasting both your time and ours.

Our goal is to produce investment-ready startups and give you everything you need to build a successful company and become a great leader. In doing so, we will bring entrepreneurs, investors, mentors and the Denver-Boulder cannabis industry community together to build a safe, smart and sustainable course for this emerging industry.

It’s big picture, but it’s exactly what the industry needs right now and that is why many consider CanopyBoulder the forge crafting the future of the industry.

Are you up for it?

If so, apply here: www.canopyboulder.com/apply by June 2nd and get yourself ready for the greatest ride of your life. Class starts August 31^st. Demo day is slated for December 3^rd.

Not sure you believe me, check out this video of current CanopyBoulder entrepreneurs talking about what it’s like.

These nascent and fledgling cannabis industries notched a historic win when Privateer Holdings announced the closing of a $75 million fund raise on March 6, 2015.  The largest capital raise announced in the cannabis industry to date, Privateer Holdings solidifies itself as the leading private equity firm in the cannabis industry.  With interests in Tilray, Leafly and Marley Naturals, Privateer identified early on that a super-majority of younger Americans are supportive of legalization (64% of those aged 18 to 34).  As Gallup states, it seems inevitable that prohibition will eventually change.

I look out upon twenty founders representing ten cannabis startups every day and think about the sacrifice and commitment they have made to be part of our first class.  Many left safe and secure jobs in corporate America staking their reputations on the promise of potential of this cannabis industry.  They have entrusted the CanopyBoulder team with great responsibility in this leap, and it is something we take very seriously.

“The office looking neat and clean before a whirlwind of activity”

The next four months are shaping up to be busy ones for the cannabis industry and also for our CanopyBoulder 2015 Spring Class. Our first class will have many opportunities to meet the industry. Below is a short list of the key events for the CanopyBoulder founders (and you).