The West pioneered the cannabis industry, and ever since, states and companies attempting to break into the space have looked to established western markets as templates for success.
But there’s a St. Louisan looking to change that.
Tim Pickett said he hopes to drive innovation in the industry with GreenFrame, a new tool meant to change the way consumers shop for cannabis.
GreenFrame allows shoppers to scan a QR code – branded with a green frame around it and displayed on retail signage or cannabis product packaging – to explore different strains of cannabis. The web-based app provides them with a 3D rendering of the strain, as well as information about its genetics, taste and effects, and even a personal note from the grower.
“I just started thinking, ‘What if there was a way that we could help dispensaries and help cannabis retail get more information out to consumers and to the budtenders?’” said Pickett.
At the time he was working at Paradowski Creative, a St. Louis-based full-service creative agency. About five years ago, he said, he began gaining experience working with the cannabis industry through various Paradowski projects, and started developing the idea for what would become GreenFrame.
Pickett said he then attended MJBizCon, one of the world’s largest cannabis conventions, thinking that someone must have already pioneered the idea, but he was surprised that he couldn’t find it on the exhibition floor.
“So, I thought, ‘Well, let’s at least be one of the first,’” he said.
Pickett led a team of about 10 people at Paradowski who worked on the tool’s development, which took roughly a full year to complete, he said. GreenFrame on Jan. 1 was spun off from Paradowski Creative and is now its own entity to which Pickett owns the rights. Pickett declined to share how much was invested in the project or how it was financed.
He said that he continues to have a great relationship with the agency and is currently looking to fill a team of employees for GreenFrame.
Photogrammetry, the process of obtaining information about physical objects, in this case cannabis, by recording, measuring and interpreting photographic images, is quite lengthy, Pickett said. Creating a single rendering requires about 200 photos of each strain, and he is currently working on ways to streamline the process.
The tool launched earlier this month. It currently provides consumers and budtenders, or cannabis shop employees, with information on Show-Me Organics' Vivid and Buoyant Bob brand flower lines, which are available in more than 80 dispensaries statewide.
Show-Me Organics, a Kansas City-based cannabis company, was GreenFrame's first customer, signing on early enough in the tool's development that it was able to help play a role in testing and integrating the tool, Pickett said. He declined to share what Show-Me Organics pays to use GreenFrame.
Pickett and Tony Billmeyer, Show-Me Organics’ chief marketing officer, first crossed paths while Pickett was working on various cannabis-related projects at Paradowski.
Billmeyer said he’s excited for both consumers and budtenders to have access to the new tool.
He likened a dispensary to a pharmacy: Consumers rely on budtenders to inform them about different strains in the same way they rely on pharmacists to inform them about different pharmaceuticals. The problem is, he said, that budtenders are often tasked with relaying an overwhelming amount of information to consumers.
“Before, the way we were educating people, and the way that I assume that 99% of brands are doing still, is literally a presentation deck that we send a representative of our company to go train the budtenders on, and it’s imperfect for lots of reasons,” Billmeyer said. He added that different learning styles and missed presentations can hinder that education process.
He said GreenFrame will promote education by ensuring that budtenders and consumers alike have easy access to information about cannabis. A bonus, he said, is that it’s presented in a way that people are very familiar with – using a phone to find information on a product.
GreenFrame is actively seeking other cannabis companies to sign on and has already seen some interest from them, Pickett said.
The goal is to continue expanding throughout the state, with hopes to eventually expand nationwide, he said.
“My ideal situation is that other states like California and Colorado take notice that Missouri is being innovative in this space, and that people look to Missouri instead of the West Coast for this type of experience in retail,” Pickett said.
