Cannabis Edibles and Drink Review had the opportunity to sit down with Austin Stevenson, Chief Innovation Officer at Vertosa.
CEDR: Can you share a little bit about your path to getting into the cannabis industry?
Austin: I’ve been in the cannabis industry for almost six years now. Before cannabis I worked in Finance & Tech. I’m a products guy. I love products. I’m the guy who probably takes 20 to 25 supplements per day. I enjoy going to the super market to explore any new products they have in the functional space.
It was after a trip to Africa as a part of the M.I.T. Innovation Lab, where I saw people growing green, leafy vegetables in the middle of the Kalahari Desert, that I got really curious about how they were cultivating plants indoors. I really kind of pulled back the layers of the onion and found that the cannabis industry drives a lot of the growth in technology, advancements in indoor agriculture and vertical farming. And that’s when I took it upon myself to learn more.
I became an advisor to an accelerator in Colorado called CanopyBoulder. As part of that program, I leveraged much of my software and tech experience to advise cannabis startups. In 2016, I became a Fellow at Canopy and I started working with all types of cannabis companies across the supply chain. I ultimately found myself starting a couple of companies and then running an analytical chemistry laboratory for a company called Eurofins Scientific, where we built the quality program for testing hemp and CBD products for retailers like CVS and others.
So, it has been a journey, but at Eurofins, I really got to see the good, the bad and the ugly of infused products. I identified a big problem in product potency / stability, and around the same time an old friend, someone who I respected in the space, my now business partner and Vertosa CEO Ben Larson, reached out to me. He said he has been working with a a PHD scientist focused on surface chemistry. This turned out to be Vertosa Founder and CSO Dr. Harold Han. He loves cannabis. He wants to take all of his expertise and apply it to cannabis for infusing products.
CEDR: That’s a great story. What makes Vertosa different from the other companies?
Austin: We built this company with one focus and that’s to be the best delivery mechanism for cannabinoids. What makes us different is that we lead with science.
We are essentially an ingredient manufacturer in a formulation laboratory. In our process, we believe there’s no one size fits all. The chemistry for an infused beverage is different than the chemistry for an infused edible. And it’s our responsibility as formulators to really know the complexities between all of the different edible and beverage types. So, understanding the principle foundation that there is no one size fits all solution has enabled us to really explore different technologies for beverages, for gummies, for baked goods, and more, and then apply those different technologies to ensure that the product we’re using in the infusion formula is stable, consistent and reliable.
That’s the foundation, but what makes it better for the consumer is that our technologies enable fast acting onset, they enable greater bioavailability and they ultimately create the experience that consumers want from their infused product. We provide a cannabis experience, whether it be CBD, THC or any minor cannabinoid that’s out there, that consumers can actually feel and want to share and experience with their family and friends.
CEDR: Can you speak Vertosa’s approach to the difference in onset time between a drink and an edible?
Austin: The quote that I use the most, is from the Snoop Dogg, “there’s no off switch in edibles”. We’ve all had the experience in college or somewhere else where we ate a brownie and it took forever to hit, and then boom your whole day or maybe two are wasted. As a result, Snoop, and the many others who had that negative brownie experience stayed away from edibles for a long time . Until now, because of our technology. What sets us apart from legacy edibles, is edibles infused by Vertosa are fast-acting.We have aimed to change the slow-onset/no off-switch problem that Snoop was talking about, and designed a new cannabis experience that is more analogous to any other functional type of product.
For example, with a glass of wine, you feel it within ten to fifteen minutes. You know what that’s going to do to you. You enjoy the feeling over an hour and a half and then it dissipates. Our process includes an advanced infusion technology that incorporates energy, pressure and cool drying. So, there are three different technologies that we deploy to take cannabis oil and make it fast acting, like a glass of wine.
CEDR: We recently spoke with Alana Burstein of Viv & Oak. One of the interesting points she shared was the social aspect of a glass of wine versus, just doing an edible or smoking by yourself. Can you share where you see the future on the social side?
Austin: I’ve written about the need for more access. Access is critical to everything cannabis related. Alana, Founder & CEO at Viv & Oak has amazing infused wines, and one ofthe best infused red wines on the market.
And so, the problem historically is that cannabis has been stigmatized so much so that people have had to hide consumption in their homes. And it’s largely because there’s also another stigma around smoking. People don’t want you smoking in public places. We saw that transition toward the end of last century and into this century. People have always congregated and socialized around a beverage. There’s got to be more active legislation that helps enable safe access to buy and use cannabis products.
California is doing a good job with licensing legal consumption lounges. Colorado is working on consumption lounges as well. Pretty soon you’ll be able to go to West Hollywood, hang out and get bottle service of Viv & Oak and other infused beverages. You’ll be able to have a five-star meal, sipping a cannabis beverage and have an amazing experience. That is not the cannabis from the past. It is innovative, creative and only technology and access enables that.
CEDR: What’s coming down the pike in terms of the infused cannabis space?
Austin: Something new is the expression of minor cannabinoids. You’ve seen such a wide proliferation of THC and CBD and those are the major cannabinoids, but cannabinoids like THCV are great for enhancing energy.
CEDR: Thanks Austin for these fantastic insights. We look forward to exploring the new products that Vertosa is helping to infuse.
