Most people know Karson Humiston as the founder and CEO of fast-growing Vangst, a hiring platform for the cannabis industry.
Denver-based Vangst recently raised $19 million in Series B funding to support the growth of its team as it builds out a three-pronged technology business: a jobs marketplace, training platform and a payment platform for employees.
But people around Crag Burn Golf Course might know her as the kid who tried to sell their stray shots back to them.
Humiston grew up in a house near the private golf club in East Aurora, and that’s where her entrepreneurial roots started.
“I used to go around Crag Burn, pick up the golf balls and clean them,” she said. “I convinced the pro to let me sell them to the golfers. I always had that entrepreneurial bug in me.”
Humiston’s father, Dan Humiston, is a well-known Western New York businessman. He is the founder and owner of the Tanning Bed chain and an active supporter of the legal marijuana industry.
Humiston went to Elmwood Franklin School and then Buffalo Seminary before matriculating to St. Lawrence University, just as the legal cannabis space was starting to look like a potentially large marketplace. She showed up to a trade show in 2015, where every conversation turned to the struggle of hiring the right skillsets and backgrounds in a niche, highly regulated industry. She came back to school, built a rudimentary website herself and called her fledgling cannabis staffing business, “Graduana.”
Humiston moved to Denver after graduation and started slowly building her book of business, raising a $2.5 million seed round in 2018 and a $10 million Series A the next year.
Vangst works because it is built for the characteristics of its industry instead of the generalized job boards such as Indeed, Humiston said. By identifying the right talent but also giving them resources to prepare for a career in marijuana, she said, Vangst is a more efficient place for both sides of its jobs marketplace.
“We’re growing our team to help us build new products and launch into new markets,” she said. “It’s all with the idea of helping cannabis employers get connected with talent.”
The company now has 55 employees, including a handful in Buffalo, where she’d like to hire more. Vangst has roles across its business, including tech, customer service and sales. She said that if the Vangst team in Buffalo continues to grow, the company may lease a physical space for the team.
“There are people in Buffalo who are even outperforming their peers in major cities like Denver, Los Angeles and New York,” she said. “I think there’s something in the water in Buffalo.”
