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Exclusive Interview with Amber E. Senter, Founder and CEO of MAKR House, Co-Founder, Chairman and Executive Director of Supernova Women
Amber Center has always been passionate about cannabis. Her branding and marketing background first led her to the cannabis business in 2013. She moved from Chicago to Oakland to work in sales and marketing at a small food company.
Today, the center is both a cannabis entrepreneur and an advocate for social equity. She is the founder and CEO of MAKR House, a cannabis brand in California, and co-founder of Supernova Women, a non-profit organization focused on empowering people of color in the cannabis industry. Director, Chairman, and Executive Director of her. She sat down with New Cannabis Ventures to share her insights as a leader in California’s cannabis business and her perspective on future efforts in success and social equity.
Listen to the full interview or read the summary below.
MAKR House
MAKR House creates cannabis products and sells them to licensed retailers in California. The company also sells coffee. It has cannabis and coffee products under the Landrace Origins brand, as well as a cannabis-infused pre-roll brand. .
Funding is difficult in the current situation, but the company has been able to attract private equity investment. Senter said he has found people who trust the brand and the team.
cannabis in california
The illegal market remains in the California market. State regulations raise barriers to entry and provide no incentive for unregulated operators to operate in the legal market, Senter said. She believes that deregulation will create greater incentives to work in the legal field, but taxes will remain a major challenge.
supernova woman
Supernova Women was founded in 2015. The 501(c)(3) organization worked with the City of Oakland to create the nation’s first social equity program. It then partnered with San Francisco to create a social equity program. The organization was focused on giving the community a voice in building these programs. Senter and her team spent a lot of time engaging with the people of the city and communicating with city officials.
In 2018, Supernova Women worked with California Senator Stephen Bradford on SB 1294, the state’s first social equity bill. That law led to the formation of the Social Equity Program, which funds statewide initiatives today.
progress in social justice
Today, Auckland has the strongest social equity program in the country, Senter said. She credits the program with its success because it measured outcomes and pivoted toward improvement. Initially, the program required general applicants to develop social her equity her operators. That approach did not prove successful. Instead, the program has a cannabis cooperative that allows social equity operators to share costs such as rent, insurance, utilities and security. For now, these cooperatives are manufacturing only, but there are plans to include more types of businesses in this model.
Other municipalities across the country can learn from this model, Senter said. Shared spaces and costs lower the barriers to entry for those looking to get their small business off the ground.
Senter and her colleagues continue their research on social equity. Now they are pushing to create a definition of social equity at the state level in California. Most other states with social equity laws have agreed on a definition, Senter said, but California has not.
While the cannabis industry’s recognition that people of color are unfairly affected by the war on drugs is a big step forward, social equity is an ongoing effort. Senter believes funding and accountability are the two biggest keys to ensuring the success of social equity programs. When federal legalization finally comes to fruition, she hopes that her social equity her operators will be able to access grants and loans her program at the federal level.
Highlighting Cannabis Industry Talent
The center spoke about the talent working behind the scenes to make cannabis more equitable and carve out space for small businesses. Nina Parks, who is She hosted the event and, according to Centl, she was the first to add a cannabis element to her festival on the streets of the city.
She also pointed to work done by Chaney Turner, chairman of the Oakland Cannabis Regulation Commission. Caroline Phillips, another director of Supernova Women, said in Washington, D.C., where she organizes a national cannabis festival that attracts more than 20,000 people.
1 year from now
The cannabis industry is going through a tough time, and Center expects it to continue through 2023. However, Senter looks forward to the continued work of advocates pushing for regulatory reform to allow more people to participate in the industry. She’s also keen to see small businesses band together to carve out a space for craft cannabis in the industry.
For more information, visit Amber Senter’s website. Listen to the full interview:
Chicago-based writer and editor Carrie Pallardy started her career covering the healthcare industry and now writes, edits, and interviews experts in multiple industries. As a published author, Carey continues to tell compelling, undiscovered stories to her network of readers.
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