Vangst CEO Has Snoop Dogg's Backing in Quest to Staff Up the Cannabis Industry
*By Brian Henry*
The founder and CEO of Vangst, a cannabis recruiting platform, wants to help budding cannabis companies staff up ーand she has Snoop Dogg's support to make that happen.
Founder and CEO, Karson Humiston, told Cheddar she was inspired to create the company back in college after a trip to Colorado.
She said cannabis companies “were hiring for every type of position under the sun and they listed hiring as their number one pain point.”
And with just 10 ten states having legalized recreational marijuana, those looking to get a start in the cannabis industry might not know where to begin.
“We saw an opportunity to connect all the people looking for jobs in the industry with the employers looking to hire," she added.
Now one of the leading cannabis recruiting platforms, Vangst recently secured $10 million in Series A Financing. The round was led by Snoop Dogg’s cannabis-focused VC fund Casa Verde Capital.
“I actually haven’t met Snoop Dogg himself yet,” Humiston told Cheddar, but she had high praise for Casa Verde.
“Casa Verde led our round and participated in our seed round and we worked incredibly well together over the last year.
Humiston says she the funding will go to implementing new technology as the industry continues to grow.
“There’s right now around 160,000 people employed in the space and this number is expected to grow to 350,000. Obviously, we have a lot of work to do to connect hundreds of thousands of people with jobs. We know with technology we can do this more easily with our clients.”
Humiston, who is just 26 years old, said the cannabis business benefits from being a relatively new industry.
“I definitely think that this industry is really unique in the sense that we’re starting from nothing. We have the opportunity to build what hopefully will be one of the most inclusive industries in the world and for companies to be able to prioritize diversity and inclusion programs really into their hiring early on is something we’ve seen companies do really well.”
Humiston added that cannabis offers opportunities to people with all different backgrounds.
“What I really believe is that all these businesses have jobs that are very transferable. Finance, marketing HR, tech. You can pretty much continue whatever you’re doing and apply those skills to the cannabis industry.”
For full interview [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/vangst-raises-10-million-series-a-fundraising).
Wealthfront’s CFO Alan Iberman talks the $2.05B IPO and the major moment for robo banking as the company bets on AI, automation, and “self-driving money."
A rare magnum of Dom Pérignon Vintage 1961 champagne that was specially produced for the 1981 wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana has failed to sell during an auction. Danish auction house Bruun Rasmussen handled the bidding Thursday. The auction's house website lists the bottle as not sold. It was expected to fetch up to around $93,000. It is one of 12 bottles made to celebrate the royal wedding. Little was revealed about the seller. The auction house says the bids did not receive the desired minimum price.
The New York Times and President Donald Trump are fighting again. The news outlet said Wednesday it won't be deterred by Trump's “false and inflammatory language” from writing about the 79-year-old president's health. The Times has done a handful of stories on that topic recently, including an opinion column that said Trump is “starting to give President Joe Biden vibes.” In a Truth Social post, Trump said it might be treasonous for outlets like the Times to do “FAKE” reports about his health and "we should do something about it.” The Republican president already has a pending lawsuit against the newspaper for its past reports on his finances.
OpenAI has appointed Slack CEO Denise Dresser as its first chief of revenue. Dresser will oversee global revenue strategy and help businesses integrate AI into daily operations. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman recently emphasized improving ChatGPT, which now has over 800 million weekly users. Despite its success, OpenAI faces competition from companies like Google and concerns about profitability. The company earns money from premium ChatGPT subscriptions but hasn't ventured into advertising. Altman had recently announced delays in developing new products like AI agents and a personal assistant.
President Donald Trump says he will allow Nvidia to sell its H200 computer chip used in the development of artificial intelligence to “approved customers” in China. Trump said Monday on his social media site that he had informed China’s leader Xi Jinping and “President Xi responded positively!” There had been concerns about allowing advanced computer chips into China as it could help them to compete against the U.S. in building out AI capabilities. But there has also been a desire to develop the AI ecosystem with American companies such as chipmaker Nvidia.
