MJBizMag November-December 2021 - 70

CANNABIS
LEADERS
" I really learned how to fight the government and how to stand
up for yourself, " she said. " I definitely adopted that mentality. "
For instance, Walton said she's had to fight to keep her
delivery company alive through licensing hurdles and having
to relocate headquarters.
" I had to reach out to all my political lobbyists and get
their help in making sure we didn't have to close down. I
knew Steve would never give up and would do anything to
make sure Harborside stayed open, and we made sure to do
the same, " Walton said.
Tre'Von Dorsey
Founder, CEED
Takoma Park, Maryland
A veteran of the U.S. Marine
Corps, Tre'Von Dorsey got into
the legal cannabis industry in late
2017, starting out as an employee
at a medical marijuana dispensary
in Maryland.
Though he couldn't share the
name of the dispensary because of
a nondisclosure agreement, Dorsey
said his previous experience quickly led to his promotion to
general manager. He wound up managing the dispensary for
about a year and a half.
A NEW ENDEAVOR
Dorsey is still working in the cannabis space, this time with a
different direction: He founded an app aimed at helping other
marijuana entrepreneurs network and get the connections
they need to build teams, hire the right personnel and find
the professionals they need to both win licenses and build out
their businesses.
The app is called Community for Entrepreneurs Engaged
in Development, or CEED for short. Dorsey launched the
company in 2019 and has been actively fundraising to get the
app more exposure in the industry.
The idea for the app, he said, came from both the dispensary-management
job and an attempt he and a small team of
colleagues made to win MMJ licenses in Maryland.
" Going into the industry and seeing what was going
on-what they lacked, what was good, what was bad-that
was critical for me, " Dorsey said. " I saw where a lot of their
mistakes were. "
The biggest thing he learned?
" Whatever you're good at, just infuse that with cannabis, "
Dorsey said.
PEEKING BEHIND THE CURTAIN
After Dorsey left the dispensary-management job, he said he
encountered a lot of entrepreneurs trying to break into the
industry, and he thought a platform could help.
70 MJBizMagazine | November-December 2021
CEED stands for Community for Entrepreneurs Engaged in
Development. Courtesy Photo
" There's a lot that goes into having a cannabis business. It's
more than talking to a consultant, talking to a lawyer. It's about
building the right team. That's the most important thing we all
saw when we applied, " Dorsey said. " You've got to build a team
from scratch. You've got to trust them. "
That's where CEED comes in. Dorsey describes the app as a
" collaboration and business workspace, " but, he added, it also
facilitates industry networking to help professionals find each
other.
CEED also builds on many of the templates that states have
been using for both marijuana and hemp business permits,
since a lot of the applications have similar requirements.
" They're using the same framework; that's what we should
do, " Dorsey said.
In the meantime, he's paying the bills working in IT and as
an engineer, but he has not lost his focus on CEED and other
marijuana businesses. And he hasn't forgotten the value of his
dispensary-management experience.
" It all is rooted in the dispensary that I came from, " Dorsey
said of his new career.
MJBizMag November-December 2021

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