About Us
Cannabis Consultant Tyler Stratford
- Starting in 2003 Tyler held various positions at a construction (fix and flip) company called Construction Design Group. He was responsible and integral in the scrape and remodel of dozens of houses, some in the value range of $3million. He helped throughout the process, demolishing, framing, finishing, staging, and showing the properties to prospective buyers. This has enabled Tyler to have a hands-on approach in all of his cannabis startup operations, truly being able to assist from the beginning, a blank parcel, all the way to a finished and functioning operation.
- Tyler spent over 4 1/2 years as an Army infantryman, where the motto is “improvise, adapt, and overcome”. He was in charge of a squad of soldiers, and responsible for their monthly counseling, daily accountability and wellbeing, professional development, and personal growth. He lead regiment-wide instruction on various weapon systems, led joint-service missions in the national capital region, and was promoted 5 times in a matter of 3 years. Tyler’s Army experience, has prepared him to lead people in some of the harshest conditions, facing strong adversity, relentlessly.
- After leaving the Army, Tyler began with Boulder Kind Care, one of the first licensed medical cannabis companies in Colorado. He held positions in the cultivation operation, maintaining the integrity of the equipment and environment, and even constructing a new cultivation, all the while working his way up to Vegetative Manager. Since he is so gifted with regulatory interpretation, he focused on compliance and was soon given the role of “Director of Compliance”, responsible for adapting to regulatory changes and keeping both the installed, and operational compliance in order.
- After Boulder Kind Care was sold, Tyler then helped another operation, Herbal Wellness, transition compliantly from Medical to dual Medical/Recreational status. This involved construction, hiring, training, system selection, security design, managing multiple licenses/locations, and contract management.
- Tyler was then recruited by MJ Freeway (now Akerna) to be their lead implementation consultant, as the only one with experience operating cannabis businesses. Through that position, Tyler helped over 500 operations become operational on MJ Freeway. Tyler opened the first 5 dispensaries in 5 states (FL(Trulieve), NV (Las Vegas Releaf), MN, AK, and IL(HCI), and worked with many notable MSO’s. He trained employees and implemented “go-live” with Columbia Care, GTI, and Trullieve, as well as Harborside Health which continues to do more volume in California, than most MSO’s do in multiple states.
- After his time at MJ Freeway, Tyler set his sights on one of the industry's best consulting firms, Canna Advisors. Tyler’s primary role was to apply his operational and start-up knowledge, to helping clients win licenses to operate in emerging markets. He was responsible for site/building planning/design, security procedures and equipment placement, community engagement, and buildout, of clients in over 30 markets, and all along the cannabis vertical. Through this, he helped win over 100 licenses for their clients. He also started their “Strategic Partnership Program” which required him to negotiate referral contracts with over 40 companies, to support Canna Advisors clients during buildout and operation.
- Tyler also was an expert witness for an Ohio cultivation that he wrote the security plan for, where he went to court and argued with the state AG about his plan, the appeal was granted and they now have a cultivation license. Working with governing authorities is necessary to moving the cannabis industry forward in the right way, this, along with lobbying congress with NCIA, has prepared Tyler to confidently solve issues with government entities in the future.
- Tyler then transitioned to the leading edge of the cannabis industry when he moved to West Hollywood, CA to open a consumption lounge/dispensary/delivery. He worked with all local authorities, designers, licensing bodies, neighbors, and owners to set Monica’s House up for success. When Covid-19 pushed our investors out, Tyler moved to South Lake Tahoe, to get a Dispensary/Delivery up and running (one of 4 recreational facilities in the county), which he did in 5 months during a pandemic. That dispensary, like so many others Tyler has opened, was profitable after 2 months of being operational. This project, heavily relied on technology and integrations, as well as very specific workflow procedures in order to be one of the most unique dispensary experiences in the world.