Todd Sullivan:
All right. Welcome everyone to the Canna Media podcast. It’s Mike Scott, and Todd Sullivan here, with, Art Catapang and Jim Boynton from Budrisk. We’re going to talk about the electrifyingly exciting world of insurance today, and why it’s so difficult in cannabis. Yet another obstacle every cannabis entrepreneur needs to overcome, is how to insure their business, and actually finding someone that will insure it for them.
Todd Sullivan:
So let’s start out. Art, can you give us a little bit about yourself, and what brought you to this side, with your history and the insurance business, and what made you decide to get into the cannabis space? And guys, thanks so much for joining us on the show.
Mike:
Yeah, thank you.
Speaker 3:
How was it for convenience?
Art Catapang:
Yeah, we’re excited about the session, and a little bit of my background. I started my career as a commercial underwriter, large, large national company out of Boston. And yeah, I graduated in the 1980s, so I came out trying to be like everybody else in investment banking. And quite frankly, I accepted a job to go to New York city, but then I found all my social friends were all going to Boston, and took a job with this company.
Art Catapang:
So that’s how I started my career, at how I got into insurance is making a decision strictly on social, but it ended up being the perfect fit, going into commercial insurance, and really spending time in the underwriting component, which essentially you learn a lot of things when you’re an underwriter, you’re a Jack of all trades. So that led me from underwriting, into getting to the brokerage world. And the brokerage world, it’s taking the product; going from the product manufacturing side, to the distribution side. Which to me is more exciting, because it’s the consumer.
Art Catapang:
And so that led to my start into insurance, from back end to the front end, and then I met Jim. And Jim and I have been insurance brokers in traditional business. And we had this opportunity to get into what we call a new to the world industry called cannabis. And in today’s world, there’s very few underwriting companies into cannabis, so there’s a limited market, which immediately kind of like running to the fire. Everybody runs out of the fire, you run into it because that’s the opportunity to say, “Okay, this is where we can differentiate.”
Art Catapang:
So we went into there, knowing that there’s limited market for [inaudible 00:02:32], we know there’s a growing demand, and then we do it right, we will not only be insurance guys, our goal is to be part of the cannabis community. So number one, is we’d love to be a trusted advisor rather than just an insurance producer. And then the only way to do that, is to get in the community and team up and partner with folks like Cannapreneur, and say, “Hey, you guys are trusted advisors, how do we approach this?” Let’s take the insurance, I guess stereotype, and let’s change, let’s disrupt how we approach this, and really approach it from a [crosstalk 00:03:04].
Todd Sullivan:
Yeah, let’s talk about that in one minute. Jim, how about yourself? Give us a little quick background on you and how you ended up here.
Jim Boynton :
Sure. So I’m 20 years Art’s senior, I come from a little bit less experience, but I’m 15 years retail broker in commercial insurance. I started hitting the pavement when I was 21, right out of college, and earning commission ever since. So-
Todd Sullivan:
Your first job out of college was insurance and [crosstalk 00:03:30]-
Speaker 3:
Wow, that’s consistency. You’re insurance through and through, dude.
Jim Boynton :
To date myself, that was ’07, so this is not my first economic recession working on commission, but I will say that I’ve had a passion personal interest for the industry, and just waiting for it to-
Todd Sullivan:
pop.
Jim Boynton :
… legitimize and legalize, so that we can approach it from an insurance end. From my personal background and career background, I’ve spent most of my time working with construction contractors, architects, engineers, all the way to the tech industry, working with startups as well as mature businesses to help them sourcing insurance products, and risk management programs that they need.
Jim Boynton :
So through my connection with Art, we’ve been able to scale, and we’ve been able to approach specialty industries in specifically cannabis. But we’ve noticed that cannabis, as a new industry, as a nascent industry, requires all of these other ancillary industries to help it get into business. And through my experience in working with many of those ancillary industries, we’re able to tie all those vendors and contractors together in a common conversation, and approach from more of a holistic perspective, rather than a transactional perspective.
Jim Boynton :
So my whole career has been based on developing relationships and networks, and cross-pollinating those networks to help businesses that I insure can grow. And that’s what we’re doing with the cannabis industry now.
Mike:
Beautiful. Question for both of you, Art used the term, “I ran towards the fire,” right? So decided to come into the cannabis industry, and all of us essentially chose to run towards the fire, so to speak. I’m just curious, for different people on this podcast, what was your, “Why?” Of why you said, “Hey, I’m going to jump into this crazy industry called cannabis, run into the fire.” And by the way, it’s federally illegal; the federal government looks at this as a controlled substance that has zero medicinal value. So what made you guys run towards the fire?
Jim Boynton :
Sure, if you don’t mind me jumping in, all right?
Art Catapang:
Absolutely.
Jim Boynton :
Just being a retail broker, I had a lot of commercial clients who were looking for new opportunities, new investments, new ways to use their business to grow. And one of those, was the landscaper up in Everett who was interested to retrofit his warehouse into a growth space. The other was a tanning salon that had the wattage to do that on a small sort of canopy space, but local to the city, which would be interesting.
Jim Boynton :
So both of them came to me with the same idea, which is to set up a grow, and trying to figure out how to insure that. Those were both current clients of mine, coming from very different industries; one being retail, and the other being more of a contractor construction risk. And both very interested in the end to cannabis at the time. It wasn’t possible, it wasn’t legal from a req standpoint in Massachusetts, but I started to research that, and I started to talk to Art as a specialty underwriter, in terms of how we could develop a retail brokerage specifically aimed at helping the cannabis industry develop in Massachusetts.
Art Catapang:
Well, on that acronym, that statement, “I run towards the fire,” so let me clarify that. Essentially, most underwriters are journalists underwriters, and it’s standard business. So 95% of underwriters, aren’t always willing to run into the fire. When a fire [inaudible 00:07:08], I define fire as being the opportunity rather than running away from it, and there’s a need there. So it’s just like firemen running into save, or rescue, or find a solution, that’s when I say, “Run into fire.”
Art Catapang:
There was an industry that needs our advice, our help, and that’s why I said, “While everybody’s running out, the better opportunity’s to run in and figure out, and solve a solution and find an opportunity.” And that’s kind of what I meant when I said, “Run into fire.” That’s the opportunity.
Todd Sullivan:
Yeah. So everyone who has sat in your chairs, from different places in the cannabis space, have all lamented the difficulties in doing cannabis. And this person, “I’ve opened five other businesses, we opened them up in a matter of months, and cannabis takes two years.” I’m going to make the wild leap here, that’s the exact same thing in insurance. Where if I was opening up a tanning salon, I could call any broker in town, any insurance company, and have a couple of quotes in the afternoon for insuring my business. Tell us how that happens in cannabis?
Art Catapang:
Well, in cannabis, first of all, there’s a lot of insurance brokers that don’t want to be in cannabis, mainly because it [crosstalk 00:08:16]-
Todd Sullivan:
Won’t even touch it.
Art Catapang:
Won’t even touch it. The other part of it want to touch it, but they don’t have relationships like Jim mentioned, there’s only a certain few underwriters that are in it, and so it’s important that that broker has a relationship. I think we have that advantage, mainly because of my background in underwriting. And it’s just not the relationship, it’s really understanding the industry.
Art Catapang:
And then there’s no actuarial table, like a personal auto where you can go right and pick a number, right? There’s no data. So because there’s no data, it’s all in a lot of these cannabis [inaudible 00:08:48] start or fairly new, a lot of the pricing of what underwriters look at, is basically on the story; meaning the application. It’s who’s behind it? Who are the leaders? How has it capitalized? What’s their plan? Can they execute? Have they executed before? That’s the story.
Art Catapang:
And then because of that story, the underwriters who are in it, then price off that, and they use discretion to figure out whether it’s a preferred account, a standard account, or something that’s non-standard, they don’t even want to consider it. So those are really the approach and that start to differentiation, on why we differentiate as brokers. So, Jim, I don’t know if you have thoughts on that.
Jim Boynton :
Oh, I agree. I agree with everything you’re saying. I mean, from an underwriting perspective, Art really understands the markets, and the network of specialty underwriters that compete and exist in this space. And so I rely on Art to help navigate that. I’m more frontline, helping the clients get comfortable and understanding what those products can help them do, and what their exposures are. So from a market standpoint, I think I would defer to Art, but I agree with everything that you’re saying Art, absolutely.
Todd Sullivan:
If… Go ahead.
Speaker 3:
I’m just curious guys. Everyone’s got different reasons for coming into the industry. You know one of the things that struck me? Yeah, there was lots of opportunity, right? That’s a big reason that pulls a lot of people, but for me, I’m an entrepreneur through and through. The sheer excitement and tenacity around that entrepreneurism? I just don’t see that in other industries. If you guys noticed that just there’s these passionate driven entrepreneurs, who are excited about this amazing opportunity, do you find it has a different level of entrepreneur-ism, being that this is a kind of a brand new green gold rush?
Jim Boynton :
Absolutely. I think one of the interesting things about this industry, is it’s cropping top talent from all of these [crosstalk 00:10:44]-
Speaker 3:
It is, yeah. That’s a good point.
Jim Boynton :
… and the leaders and entrepreneurs, and business owners that we meet, are coming from all sorts of backgrounds. But no matter where they’re coming from, they’re probably in the top 1% of whatever industry they fell from into cannabis. And because of that, we’re meeting some incredibly interesting people, incredibly successful and driven people. And it’s been an upgrade for us.
Speaker 3:
It’s amazing.
Todd Sullivan:
I feel like you have a large number of people who’ve been waiting for this legality moment for so long, right? As soon as it comes, it’s like they flood in. It’s like, “Finally, we can do this,” and everyone, it’s amazing. Like you said, some of the people you meet, you’re like, “Oh my God.” This second wave of entrepreneurs, especially in Massachusetts are really high quality people.
Art Catapang:
Guys, I first got into this game, I was relatively early adopter. I’m going on four years now in the industry. And my whole approach was I wanted to retain the right law firm, and then I wanted to meet talent, right? And I wanted to find my partners I was going to partner up with. I took for the first six months, a lot of pitches by a lot of cannabis entrepreneurs. Here’s how I define the level of talent today, versus three and a half, four years ago.
Art Catapang:
Freaking Cro-Magnon, man, to modern day entrepreneur. And it’s not an exaggeration guys. It is insane, the stuff I used to see three and a half, four years ago, people visibly, obviously stoned in in-person pitches or conference calls. I could share with you hilarious stuff that I’ve seen in this industry. I am, to your point, Jim, seeing top 10% talent from other industries, with proven track records of success saying, “The risk level has gone low enough now, I’m willing to stake my net worth, my personal reputation and charge into this industry.” It has been crazy how this landscape has changed. It’s crazy.
Jim Boynton :
I suppose we had to do that ourselves, Mike. Coming from an industry where the average age is 64 years old, we had to sacrifice our reputations among our peers who are very [crosstalk 00:12:57]-
Todd Sullivan:
That’s the average age of insurance industry is 64.
Jim Boynton :
Yeah, a lot of the principal owners, yeah. Wow.
Speaker 3:
So you guys coming in from insurance, was not dissimilar from me coming in from wealth management, because wealth management deals with both investments and insurance; it’s the same thing for me, guys. I was like, “I’m legit…” My wife, first of all, thought I was crazy. She said, “What?” Because I was the principal of the compliance officer, and the primary owner of my wealth management business. And it’s FINRA/ SEC federally regulated.
Speaker 3:
So I was putting a lot on the line, because for the first couple years, I still owned that business jumping into this industry. But yeah, you worry about your reputation, you worry about what your neighbors are going to think, you worry about losing clients over it. It’s a real thing, and I will tell you, I have so much respect for entrepreneurs jumping in this industry, because all of us took major bold risks to jump into this industry.
Mike:
Did you see any of those issues? Did you lose clients? Did you get kind of the shady eye look at you when you announced that, from people in the industry? I mean, obviously you were early into it compared to most of them.
Art Catapang:
Well, I think to answer that question, a lot of our clients, traditionally our commercial business, are baby boomers, okay? But surprising, those baby boomers that are owners [crosstalk 00:14:22]-
Todd Sullivan:
They’re the fastest growing demographic.
Speaker 3:
They are, yeah.
Art Catapang:
So they may not overtly tell you, but they’re interested in it.
Speaker 3:
You can totally tell.
Art Catapang:
You see it, they ask you more questions, they don’t want to talk about their business. We’re in there to talk about their insurance renewal, they want to talk about cannabis.
Speaker 3:
It’s one of the most intriguing topics.
Art Catapang:
Yeah, they want to talk about that.
Speaker 3:
It really is.
Art Catapang:
So I saw the exact opposite. It’s how you approach it, right? [inaudible 00:14:42] our clients have been with us, we have high retention because we have clients that have been with us for years. So they treat us like trusted advisors. They don’t treat us like insurance brokers, where, “I’m going to find somebody else to get a better quote.” We’ve helped them grow and figure out their risk management approaches and different things.
Art Catapang:
So they’re always trying to get more educated on this new industry, and then also trying to figure out how they could fit. Whether you’re a contractor, things of that nature. Jim, you might want to talk about… You’ve got some clients that all of a sudden says, “Well, what do they need to do a build-up?”
Jim Boynton :
Sure. Yeah, I mean specifically from an HVAC perspective, I think this industry needs specialists on the construction side.
Todd Sullivan:
Insurance specialists on the construction side?
Jim Boynton :
No, no, no, no. Some of the strategic partners that we’ve connected with in an effort to help our clients, are those vendors or levels of business integration, that the cannabis industry requires earlier than us. And so we need to surround ourselves by strategic partners, and people that can help our clients, in order to get to the point where we can help them as insurance advisors.
Todd Sullivan:
Okay, so go into more details before, give me an example, that’s interesting.
Jim Boynton :
Certainly, so I mean-
Todd Sullivan:
Because if I call Liberty Mutual for insurance, they’re not sending me up with anyone to help me build it.
Speaker 3:
They’re laughing at you.
Todd Sullivan:
Right. [crosstalk 00:16:09]. Oh by the way, it sounds like you guys are taking the next thing [crosstalk 00:16:11]. Okay, “Here’s what you need to do, so we can get you this.”
Jim Boynton :
Sure, yeah.
Todd Sullivan:
It’s proactive, not reaction.
Jim Boynton :
An important part of our missionary work to help the cannabis industry, is to make sure that we’ve qualified businesses that can help our clients, and also manage the risk. And so a lot of what the construction industry is doing for cultivation, is setting up systems, and setting up risk management programs, so that things like pollen don’t get into a growth space, things like mold pathogens, don’t get into a growth space. And we need to rely on specialty contractors to set that up.
Jim Boynton :
So that for instance, a year down the line, we don’t have a crop loss that could have been prevented, because of something that was risk management related, versus an insurance reaction to the loss. And so we’re partnering with people that we know to provide quality service, in an effort to set up our clients with a risk management program, that will then be insured on our end through a program that is solid, because of the individuals, vendors and businesses that have helped our clients getting the business and operation.
Todd Sullivan:
That’s awesome.
Art Catapang:
So just to add to what Jim said, our approach that really differentiated, we created what we call a roadmap, because cannabis clients are at different phases, especially during their license, when to buy insurance. There’s the first phase that typically involves the securing the land, working with the landlord. So we get involved with that, and then we basically read their contracts and figure out what’s required for their insurance.
Art Catapang:
The second phase, is what Jim talked about, is the build out. That’s usually during the provisional stage, and the working on the capitalization of the, build-out. A lot of insurance issues, like when you’re doing the build-out, they’ve the shut off my sprinkler system, how does the underwriter respond to that, right? So we’re very transparent. We want to make sure our underwriters are collaborating with us, so they know everything that’s going on for the build-out. It gets them very comfortable.
Art Catapang:
The third phase is what we call the operational final stage, which is that’s where you’re going to buy a lot of insurance, because you’re going to get operational. You’re going to hire people, you’re going to need disability or medical workers’ comp, and you’re going to execution, and that’s when you, you’ve got to have it all ready to go. So we’ve worked with the execution stage, and it’s not over.
Art Catapang:
After that, we get them executed and we want to be there for the longterm. So we’re working with their strategies on how they grow, how they expand, and we’re we’re helping them budget for the growth. What are you going to do when you build that next extra location? Here’s the budget, build that into your costing, so that when you go to capitalize that, it’s all up front.
Art Catapang:
So we’re, we’re really a longterm player. We’re not here just to be your insurance broker, and those are the type of clients that hopefully value that.
Todd Sullivan:
Yeah. Talk about the insurance market. If you have the entire market out there, what percentage of that market actually will share cannabis? Is it 3%, 20%, 40%?
Mike:
I don’t know where they are now, but I remember when you were doing our insurance, there was five carriers. So we don’t have to go into percentages, it was five.
Art Catapang:
Five? Well first of all, it’s all broken up by what type of insurance, okay? There’s workers’ comp, there is obviously-
Jim Boynton :
D&O.
Art Catapang:
… Directors and Officers. So D&O is probably a smallest group, right? So you might have less than 1% of the industry. Okay? As you get into more standard offerings, like worker’s comp where you’re required, you have a bigger… You might have 5%.
Todd Sullivan:
That’s still nothing.
Art Catapang:
So it all depends. On a pure property, you’re going to have more, because they’re underwriting, looking at the traditional structure, what we call COP, which is the Construction, Occupancy, Protection class, and what’s your external side. That’s very standard. So it depends on the line of business, and what the surplus is out there. To write it all, I can’t think of one company that will be able to write all those lines of coverage today. So as brokers and agents, what we do is we have all those relationships, and we go to all the markets and we basically lay it out for the company, to be able to make the informed decision.
Art Catapang:
That’s our differentiation. We know all those pieces, we know when you need to buy it. And it’s not just, what I call, a “Get the order process,” it’s an account count relationship. And so I use the adage, “We’re beyond insurance,” now. We’re hopefully trusted advisors, very similar to what you guys do.
Mike:
Yeah. More like a risk advisor, than an insurance broker sort of thing, right? You have all this risk, how do we minimize that? And how do we build our facilities, or how do we stock our facilities to ensure the least amount of risk and then lower rates, right?
Art Catapang:
Yeah. Our relationships are with either the owners or the CFO. It’s all economics, because let’s face it, there’s a lot of issues, but at the end of the day, we’ve got to make good economic sense.
Todd Sullivan:
Do you see, do you see others getting into the industry at an increasing rate? Or is it just kind of flatlined? Because it sounds like you have minimal competition at best right now. Are people coming to the industry, or are they just waiting for federal legalization?
Jim Boynton :
I think our competition locally, at least, is non-specialty. It’s general brokerages that are dabbling, that don’t really have the expertise, the knowledge, the time to spend in educating themselves, or even networking among the cannabis industry. So where we run into a local competitor, at least in the Northeast, or even the East Coast, it tends to be someone doesn’t have the knowledge or capacity that we do.
Jim Boynton :
Certainly, there’s an established market on the West coast. That’s not necessarily our priority, we’re here on the Northeast and the East Coast, in order to work with what we think is a smarter market. One that has less clean up, in a nice way. And hopefully we’ll help clean up the West Coast at some point too.
Mike:
Yeah. You know Jim, there’s some real truth to the cultural differences from cannabis in the West Coast to the East Coast, right? And I think a lot of that, there’s two things that drive that. I mean, the main thing, it’s how the early days of the regs are. And in California, they really created this gray market culture, because they had these loosely written laws. Nobody enforced. Everybody there from the regulators to the operators, pretty much knew that things weren’t getting followed, and so it was just kind of accepted.
Mike:
And so there’s this culture there. And unfortunately, with our investors, we’re rare to go into California-based deals, purely for that reason, because there’s so many stores that are open and operational in strip malls, that you think is legal. It looks like it, but it’s completely illegal. You don’t see that on the East Coast. It’s a completely different world.
Jim Boynton :
I guess we have the luxury of being on the outside, and looking back and what mistakes they made. Also from the insurance industry too. As Art said, we need actuarial data, we need an understanding of what type of loss has happened, and what exposures are actually relevant to the cannabis industry. So as we aggregate that data from the West Coast, we get smarter on the East Coast. And it’s really thanks to the West Coast that we can perform better as an insurance industry. So the good, bad, and the ugly.
Mike:
Sure, makes sense.
Art Catapang:
But we love startup states, quite frankly, and Mike, you hit it.
Mike:
We do to.
Art Catapang:
We love startup States, because everybody’s learning new regs, everybody’s different by state, and we have that knowledge. So once we have that knowledge, the underwriters don’t know anything about that new state. So we have the advantage of information, and the underwriters rely on us. Versus a state where the underwriters may already have some experience, and maybe not good experience, and so they’re a little more conservative in certain areas.
Art Catapang:
So I think that going to our strategy right now, is let’s spend our time where people really need us, in in what I call the startup states.
Mike:
You know what’s exciting about that? Those startup states, that’s where that early stage, green gold rush, excited, entrepreneur-ism, it really all starts at those early stages. I liked the early stage states, I think it’s just fun.
Todd Sullivan:
So Mike and I did a podcast yesterday, and the question of federal legalization came up, and is it a positive view, or a negative view? And how is the current status of it affecting you? And so is there any federal… Depends of the federal status of cannabis, are there barriers for you guys in doing your work? Or like we view it, it’s created the opportunity for you because so many people are avoiding the space, because the federal status that has created this vacuum that needs to be filled, and you guys can step into that void?
Jim Boynton :
I got to think the insurance industry will all be there in a matter of time.
Mike:
Yeah, exactly.
Jim Boynton :
And so it’s really just a matter of who’s going to be the innovator, in order to help this industry in the Northeast and the East Coast. And who’s going to create the network? Who’s going to be the helping hand? And I think with three years with Budrisk so far, when you look at the history of the cannabis industry up here, and any competitors that have a sense of what they’re doing, we’re definitely that early innovator.
Speaker 3:
Yeah. You’re the grandfather in this industry in three years.
Jim Boynton :
Especially here in the East Coast.
Speaker 3:
You’re probably first or second into the void, right?
Art Catapang:
Yeah, we’re pioneers. [crosstalk 00:25:56] There’s lots of worlds on our back now.
Todd Sullivan:
[crosstalk 00:25:56] pioneers, but arrows in your back from what….
Art Catapang:
Well, you’re going to take some pain going to lead it, right?
Mike:
When you’re the Guinea pig, that’s the risk.
Art Catapang:
You’re not cutting it from the front, you’re [inaudible 00:26:09] from the back yet. Your friends that you thought were your friends. Also, that’s pioneering, but the answer to the competition, I don’t think we have to worry about competition right now, because it’s two things; it’s building good relationships, and lining up with good partners. And then third, is getting the analytics.
Art Catapang:
At the end of the day, if we have the analytics and the knowledge, doesn’t matter who comes in, they’re going to want that. And they’re not going to have it, because they’re not in it yet.
Todd Sullivan:
That’s interesting.
Mike:
What I think about with this industry, is we just have to recognize with it being so new, with it being federally illegal, it really has kind of doubled the whammy of inefficiency, right? The federal illegal status, and the stigma creates a lot of inefficiency. And then the fact that it’s a brand new industry, you got thousands of dispensaries in the Western part of the US. We have less than 60 adult use dispensaries on the East Coast, right?
Mike:
So I think that inefficiency does two things. It creates a lot of obstacles, but what smart entrepreneurs like us know, it also creates amazing opportunity, right? So the entrepreneurs that basically say, “Hey, I’m going to embrace this inefficiency, I’m going to find the solutions, I’m going to be the pioneer to drill through this.” And yeah, take some arrows in the forehead or the back sometimes because of it, but when you win, you win big in this industry. You win really, really big. I’ve seen a lot of people make a lot of money in this industry on the East coast, in the last three years.
Jim Boynton :
And I think one of the best part of our jobs, is getting to win with those clients [crosstalk 00:27:46]. It’s getting to cross the finish line with them, getting the operation, see them get cashflow, see them actually achieve everything that they’ve worked so hard for, and be part of that team. And so that’s what I look forward to most about the future of working in cannabis, is crossing that finish line with every new operational license, and being considered a trusted advisor, and hopefully friend at that point. Because we get into the trenches with these entrepreneurs, and we know that roadmap doesn’t go without challenges, especially in the beginning.
Todd Sullivan:
It sounds like the amount of it’s, it sounds like how deep you have to go to the entrepreneur in cannabis is multiples of how deep you have to go after in any other business. Is that an accurate statement?
Art Catapang:
Yes, it’s [inaudible 00:28:38] initial. Yeah, the effort is not only… It’s hard, but the word persistency keeps in my mind, because they have to be persistent. And when you’ve seen the license holder, you’ve got a license in this whatever state, you’ve gone through a lot of hurdles. And journey as long.
Jim Boynton :
You’ve spent years and many cases-
Art Catapang:
Long and hard.
Jim Boynton :
… and a lot of money.
Art Catapang:
It’s been a big burn rate, a lot of stress. So yeah, we want to help them celebrate. Part of our goal is we want you to, for lack of better word, I guess that winning line, right? Get to that win stage, and we can help you make more wins. And when they look at us more collaborative, rather than us against them, we’re in the game with them, we’re in the trenches. We’re in build-outs, going through and pointing out things that we should be looking at for the build-out.
Art Catapang:
We’re at the end. How do we help you get the best people? Who can we connect you with? How do we develop good benefit insurance, and [inaudible 00:29:40] good people? We’re into every dialogue. So again, beyond insurance.
Todd Sullivan:
All right, so we have a couple of minutes left. So let’s just talk specifically about Budrisk, all right? And I’ll just ask some questions, and you can write insurance all over, right? All 50 states, you really like the East Coast. And how do people get ahold of you if they hear this and they want to talk to you?
Jim Boynton :
Easily go to www.budrisk.com. And you can also email me directly@jim, J-I-M, @budrisk.com. Art@budrisk.com. We make it easy to get in touch with us. You can also give us a call at (600) 500-1835.
Todd Sullivan:
And if I’m a cannabis entrepreneur, I get a dispensary license tomorrow, when should I start this insurance process? I mean, what’s the lag? What’s the timeframe? Like I said before, it’s not like a car insurance where I could call and get a quote in 20 minutes, right? It probably takes weeks or a month to figure all this out. When should I contact Budrisk?
Jim Boynton :
Well, every state’s different, and so that really depends. But if we’re talking about where we’re sitting physically right now in Massachusetts, in order to submit an application to the Cannabis Control Commission, that requires an accompaniment of a bond, an insurance bond, and a letter of intent to bind certain compulsory coverage. We provide that. It’s a very, very low expense. The letter of intent is free, that’s our service. The bond typically is in the range of 100 or 200 bucks. It could be more, depending on a tier nine or tier 10 license.
Jim Boynton :
But just talking about local regulation, we like to sync up with the attorney who’s sort of guiding that application, if there is one. Or a consultant who’s guiding that application. And just in the business planning phase.
Todd Sullivan:
So day one, really.
Jim Boynton :
Sure.
Todd Sullivan:
You’re you are a one-stop shop. So if I come to [inaudible 00:31:35] my insurance needs, I need not talk to anybody else for anything regarding insurance?
Jim Boynton :
100%, that’s amazing.
Todd Sullivan:
All right. Yeah, so it’s budrisk.com. Anybody interested for help, please , reach out to Art and Jim, and they can help you insure your business.
Jim Boynton :
Thanks for having us guys.
Todd Sullivan:
[crosstalk 00:31:51] Absolutely, have a great day, guys.
Jim Boynton :
Thank you.
Speaker 3:
Cool.
