A Chicago startup that helps cannabis firms with marketing just landed a big hire, bringing on the co-founder of Buddy Media, which was acquired by Salesforce for $745 million in 2012.
Chicago-based Fyllo announced Wednesday that it hired Jeff Ragovin to be its first chief commercial officer. Ragovin co-founded social marketing platform Buddy Media in 2007. The company helped brands like Ford and Hewlett-Packard with social media content before getting scooped up by Salesforce.
Fyllo launched last year to help cannabis brands execute and create ad campaigns that comply with state and federal regulations. The startup quickly raised $18 million in funding and in January acquired CannaRegs, a database for state and municipal cannabis regulations, for $10 million.
Ragovin will oversee Fyllo's M&A activity and fundraising, in addition to driving the startup's global commercialization, the company said. He will be based in the startup's New York office.
"We're pleased to add someone of Jeff's caliber to our team," Fyllo CEO Chad Bronstein said in a statement. "His experience in leading companies through massive scaling and growth efforts is invaluable and will be extremely helpful as we plan to bring Fyllo to the next level in the cannabis marketing space."
As cannabis becomes legalized in states across the country, marijuana and CBD brands are required to only run digital ads in states where their product is allowed. Fyllo says its goal is to give companies piece of mind that their ads are being shown to their intended user base. The startup was recently named one of Chicago Inno’s 20 Startups to Watch in 2020.
