‘We’re Not Doing This For The Money’
It takes a special breed of person to run a multimillion-dollar company that hangs by a thread, and a special dedication to continue abiding by exacting standards when cutting a few corners might make things easier. But the incredibles team never considers cutting corners, even when they feel as though the world is aligned against them.
“Not only do you have to maintain your quality, but you also have to be compliant,” said Eschino. “You have to do this just this way, or they are going to come in and shut you down. If you don’t know the rule, they don’t care. They come in and you get fined or shut down because you didn’t follow the rules.”
The solution is to “keep your blinders on, because every week someone is coming out of the shadows to try to destroy your business,” continued Eschino. “Whether from the federal, state, or local level, we are constantly being attacked from all sides. You have to be nimble and you can’t be attached to anything, because from the product mix to the way you extract to the way you package and market, everything changes.
“It’s all about responsibility not only to your company, but also to the industry and the patients you’re helping,” he added. “That’s why we know we’re on the right path and doing the right thing. We stay focused on making the right product and moving forward. If shit falls apart, it falls apart. There is so much out of our control.”
Some of the regulations are so absurd Scarpello leaves the legislative lobbying to Eschino, lest he express his honest opinion to the wrong politician. “I tried, but when I get in a room with a politician, I go, ‘What the heck are you doing?’” he said.
“For example, when in this country did we discover how to grow a product and then consume it through our mouth safely?” he asked rhetorically. “One hundred and five years ago. It was called the [Food and Drug Administration]. We know how to grow broccoli and carrots and lettuce and put bug spray on them so it doesn’t kill us. Okay, you can argue about that until you’re blue in the face, but for the most part we’ve made a good supply chain that’s safe. So, why are you now telling me what to put on my cannabis that’s different from the broccoli—different set of rules even though I’m putting it in an edible and consuming it? We figured that out years ago, but now you’re making up a whole new set of rules about how I can spray my cannabis.”
A similar line of reasoning extends to cannabis regulations for BHO extraction. “Most people don’t know this because they don’t come from the food world, but there are companies in America that make systems as large as two cars stacked on top of one another that do butane—really hexane, a hydrocarbon extraction—and you consume it every day when you go to a restaurant,” he said. “When people talk to you about butane being toxic or unsafe, they’re lying to you. You suck in 183 milligrams of butane through your nose every day as you walk the earth. You can’t stop it; it’s in the air. Let me equate that to you: It’s like doing ninety dabs of just a normal hit of shatter.”
In short, the incredibles team is nothing if not confident about their processes and their capabilities. “Where we’ve excelled, where we’ve been able to stay ahead—a giant leap ahead—is that we’ve been multifaceted from the beginning, and nobody knew it,” explained Cumings. “We’ve been in charge of the process for so long.”
Cumings speaks of his own abilities with a confidence that somehow doesn’t sound arrogant. Admitting that “there are better ways to do a lot of the stuff I’ve done,” he added matter-of-factly, “It’s dangerous ground to question my ability to come up with something. I’ve faced so many of these guys that come from a science background who think they’re going to come into weed and take over. Well, you’re sadly mistaken. You know what you didn’t learn about in school? Weed. You should have learned about it at a young age just because of the benefit the hemp plant has given from the beginning.
“In the real world,” he added, “discoveries happen before the understanding of why. I’m not constrained by what I learned in school, or it will kill me.”
Building ‘The Coca-Cola of Cannabis’
MC Brands, the corporate entity that owns all intellectual property for Medically Correct, is about to announce a deal with a large Canadian company, but the details were still secret when this article went to press. Still, Scarpello barely could contain his excitement about the future of his company.
“We say it all the time: We want to be Coca-Cola,” he said. “And I know a whole bunch of companies say that. Well, someone’s going to be the Coca-Cola of cannabis, and someone’s going to be the Pepsi, and the RC Cola. Those are great brands, too, and they do millions [of dollars in revenue], but only one company will be Coca-Cola. It’s been our goal from the beginning, which is why we are getting back to our roots and expanding our brand with incredible Wellness.”
Those ambitions dovetail perfectly with Scarpello’s determination to initiate a sea change within the industry. “I’m speaking in New York, Boston, and Los Angeles this year,” he said. “A part of it is about marketing the company, but it’s really about educating the world. I’ll be speaking to cannabis audiences about food and these other things I’m talking about, like controls.
“I want to bring the professionalism of the food industry to the cannabis industry, and it’s not happening as fast as it could,” he continued. “I’m one of the voices out there saying, ‘I know how to do this right. I am the F and the D in the FDA, the food and the drug, because I’m making the edibles.”
To realize these goals, the company is structured to accommodate domestic and international partnerships. Medically Correct LLC owns the licenses in Colorado and is the main breadwinner, according to Scarpello. MC Brands owns all intellectual property and handles licensing, including to Medically Correct.
“Medically Correct owns Colorado and MC Brands is everywhere else,” Scarpello explained. “So, Medically Correct owns incredible Wellness in Colorado, making money, but if I take Wellness outside Colorado, MC Brands owns the name. If [Medically Correct] takes [Wellness] to Oregon or Illinois, they pay MC Brands, which then funnels [the money] back.
“Think of the partnerships as a McDonald’s or Subway franchise,” he added. “They’re like franchises, but they’re called license agreements.”
Coordination makes the myriad parts work. To that end, the company has built its own scalable software system. “We couldn’t find anything off the shelf that did what we needed,” said Scarpello. “There’s QuickBooks for accounting and Salesforce for sales, so we created both in one. It’s been in beta for six years. All our sales reps can go around the country with their iPads, have access to their own modules, and see everything they need to see.” It’s not currently for sale or license, but Scarpello didn’t rule out the future possibility. “I did separate it in case I want to go there,” he said. “If you want to invest in it, we’ll make it a company.”
Meanwhile, everyone is laser-focused on their tasks and goals. Fink oversees teams that travel the country working with a vast network of kitchens to ensure their sourcing and product output meets company standards. “It takes an army. I can’t do it all alone,” he said. “People tell me I do everything, but I joke that I just make coffee and drive up and down the road. Our main two facilities are a mile apart.”
Cumings is doing what he has always done, but with better tools. “Now I use analytical data and more scientific methods, but I’m still Patient Zero,” he said. Much of his time goes into research and development and finalizing recipes. Micro-dosed products, which are already in production, hold particular promise.
An artist, he also oversaw the redesign of the company’s new packaging. “I want to make the cool brand that is successful for Bob and Rick. I feel like we’re at the start of a race, and the best guys have a head start, but everyone else is coming. We’re a known leader and get to start at the front of the marathon, but if we trip or have to stop to tie our shoes, these guys who don’t know anything will run right past us.”
Eschino is busy opening new markets and working with regulators on raising national standards. He understands the imperative to expand the company and has had to change the way he approaches potential partners because of it. “I spent a lot of time finding the right people to work with, and some are still waiting for their licenses,” he said. “We helped with their applications and they got them in, but often they’re still under construction or they don’t have enough capital, and the process can take years. Now I’ve changed my focus to, ‘Are you in operation, and if not, what is the time-frame?”
There are other equally important considerations. “If you’re only about making money, you’re not my partner,” said Scarpello. “Do we need to make a profit? Yes, because I want to be in existence tomorrow. I want to pay my rent and my employees. But if you’re about money you’re not my partner, because that means you’re looking to screw me. You’re looking to take money from me. You better be about the patient, about quality, about the long picture. You better be about marriage. If I have a partner in each state and it’s like a marriage, and they need me as much as I need them, it’s great.”
Scarpello has been married for more than twenty years and understands the effort that goes into making a marriage work, which is maybe not that different from living a principled life. “You need to figure out how to sleep at night, and one way is to not screw people over,” he said. “If your intention is not to just make money, you’ll be able to sleep better at night. If you live your life with other people being important to you, giving instead of taking, you’ll sleep better.”
It’s why he never loses sleep over work, about which his intentions are manifestly clear. “I want to expand this industry with customers and patients foremost in mind,” he said. “I want to become Coca-Cola, but I want to do it organically through the patient, through the customer. To me, it’s about them. I have ninety-year-old patients and four-year-old patients taking our medicine. If we can help these people and everyone in between and make them fans, I’ve done my job. I’m doing the right thing, and that’s how you sell products, I think.”
