Justin Hartfield

Justin Hartfield is an entrepreneur and venture capitalist from Orange County, California. He is a co-founder and general partner at the Ghost Group venture capital firm and is the CEO at WeedMaps. He is an advocate for monopolizing the Cannabis industry for big business and has been characterized by Business Insidere.”[1]

Background in business

Born to a Jewish family,[2] Hartfield founded WeedMaps in 2008 while working at an SEO consultation business.[1][3][4][5][6] WeedMaps allows medical marijuana collectives to rate their own marijuana dispensaries.[7][8][9] Under Hartfield, WeedMaps grew to nearly two million monthly visitors with a monthly revenue of $1.5 million.[10] Hartfield serves as CEO of the company.[11][7]

Hartfield founded the privately held Ghost Group in 2012 and serves as the company’s CEO.[1][12] Through Ghost Group, Hartfield and his business partner Alfred E Newman launched Emerald Ocean Capital, a venture capital firm in the legal marijuana industry.[1][5][12]

In addition to Hartfield’s work in the legal cannabis industry, he has also filled roles as a marketing and search engine optimization expert. From 2010 to 2012 he was the Chief web officer at the publicly traded SearchCore, Inc.[12][13]

Board positions and contributions to the industry

Justin Hartfield resides on the boards of NORML and the Marijuana Policy Project. He contributed over $100,000 to the Measure F campaign, which advocates for an open market system for marijuana sales.[11]

During a June 2013 interview in Business Insider, the business and technology news site, Hartfield was referred to as “The worst thing to ever happen to the Cannabis legalization movement.”[1]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 Walter Hickey (June 13, 2013). "Justin Hartfield Is About To Become The First Venture Capitalist Of The Pot Industry". Business Insider. Retrieved July 5, 2013.
  2. ↑ The Jewish Daily Forward: "How a Jewish Business School Drop-Out Created a Marijuana Empire" by Paul Berger September 17, 2015
  3. ↑ "5 Questions for Justin Hartfield: Opportunities as Cannabis Industry Becomes 'Pimply Teenager'". MMJ Business Daily. June 18, 2013. Retrieved July 5, 2013.
  4. ↑ Mike Anderson (May 5, 2011). "Justin Hartfield of WeedMaps". NBC Bay Area. Retrieved July 5, 2013.
  5. 1 2 Chris Rauber (June 5, 2013). "Getting high with a little help from your VC firm". San Francisco Business Times. Retrieved July 5, 2013.
  6. ↑ Kate Linthicum (May 22, 2013). "New L.A. law on medical marijuana shops faces hazy future". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved July 5, 2013.
  7. 1 2 Vita Reed (June 6, 2013). "VC Firm Launches Legal Cannabis Fund". Orange County Business Journal. Retrieved July 5, 2013.
  8. ↑ Eleazar David Melendez (June 6, 2013). "Marijuana Venture Capital Fund Launches As Ganjapreneurs Go Mainstream". The Huffington Post. Retrieved July 5, 2013.
  9. ↑ "California VC Ghost Group launches medical marijuana fund". AltAssets. June 3, 2013. Retrieved July 5, 2013.
  10. ↑ Rebecca Grant (June 5, 2013). "VC firm hopes for high returns with fund for marijuana". VentureBeat. Retrieved July 5, 2013.
  11. 1 2 Warren Olney (May 14, 2013). "Can Prop C Help Overturn Citizens United?". KCWR. Retrieved July 5, 2013.
  12. 1 2 3 "Meet Justin Hartfield, the Pot Industry's First Venture Capitalist". Inc. Magazine. June 13, 2013. Retrieved July 5, 2013.
  13. ↑ "Justin Ross Hartfield". Bloomberg Businessweek. Retrieved July 5, 2013.

External links

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