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A Marriage made in Heaven and on Earth: Pure Green

Matt Walstatter has been involved with cannabis for as long as he can remember. Matt and his partner in crime and significant other – his wife Meghan — met back in 2000 and have literally been together since through thick and thin. The two both grew up in Connecticut about an hour apart, but as fate would have it, met across the continent in Portland.

After receiving his undergraduate degree in journalism, and a year and a half after completing law school, Matt suffered from a debilitating, yet undiagnosed illness that caused him to constantly have to deal with nausea and vomiting as well as dramatic weight loss and constant dehydration. He saw scores of doctors over the years and to this day has never learned the root of the problem.

Matt received his medical card in 2005, but he had already discovered that cannabis was the only thing that gave him relief.

Before Oregon’s 2010 ballot initiative (which failed to legalize dispensaries), while Matt was fighting his illness, Meghan and Matt also worked together at a small caregiver grow which became a formal in-house collaboration. She took over the day to day grow activities and pursued her graduate degree in Urban and Regional Planning at Portland State, while teaching yoga, too.

Matt struggled with his malady until his body seemed to finally win the battle, and when the Oregon legislature voted to allow dispensaries in July 2013, he and Meghan had already begun work on a dispensary license, which they received in 2013. Pure Green was one of the eight original Portland licensees and they opened their shop in March of 2014.

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Pure Green is located in the most competitive square mile of medical dispensaries in Portland, and for that matter , all of Oregon. The two have been challenged since the law’s inception, and they utilize on all of the skills and talents that their combined educational and in-house cultivation backgrounds bring to the table.

Ironically, the dispensary is located in the former Hollywood Liquor store, one of Oregon’s four original post-prohibition liquor stores, and is truly a patient owned and operated enterprise with a simple yet focused mission to:

  • To provide a safe and supportive environment for OMMP patients and recreational customers.
  • To provide high-quality cannabis products to OMMP patients and recreational customers at a fair price.
  • To have a knowledgeable and friendly staff that knows which strains are best for which ailments.
  • To help patients feel better and enjoy a better quality of life.
  • To help bring an end to marijuana prohibition nationwide.
  • To set an example of 100% compliance and to uphold all local regulations and state laws.
  • To continue cultivating Oregon’s cannabis community.
  • They are vertically integrated (Pure Green has a grow and a medical dispensary license) and began selling to recreational clients on October 1..

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In addition to Pure Green, they are heavily involved with Oregon Liquor Control Commission with Meghan serving on the Retail Rules Subcommittee and Matt on the Packaging and Labeling Subcommittee. Matt’s legal and Meghan’s urban and regional planning skills have proven to be invaluable. They are also pushing the state to conduct an economic impact study on the effect the Cannabis Industry is having on a local, county, and state level, the study will be funded by the Oregon.Cannabis Association, the trade association that the two helped launch.

With the advent of recreational marijuana and the increase in plant counts for medical grows in the state, Pure Green has outgrown itself and is currently raising additional capital to build a new grow and to open additional locations in the state (in less competitive areas, Matt notes!). They would like to continue their vertical integration play by adding wholesaling and processing to the mix, and like many other industry players, keep running the business with a staff of loyal family friends and skilled professionals. IDXndAjyG8Bh-qCjP4NuZHIydrfPvRAW6yQRs1Oly2LnlFXjT0FNsJFEopxZJlQpyqgeag=w1401-h624

And why not? Pure Green generated $1.6 million in sales in 2014 and expects to exceed $2 million in 2015, largely due to the bump in sales from recreational marijuana and their continued prowess in maximizing yield from the plant count restrictions.

When all is said and done, cannabis has been an important part of the Walstatter’s lives. When you couple this with their commitment to the medical needs of their patients, their strong educational backgrounds, and the desire to help all around them.

In fact, Matt volunteered to contribute to CBE when they were struggling to get Pure Green to operate smoothly on all cylinders, and he has gained a following for his advice and expertise from those journalistic pursuits. This has not only benefited Pure Green, but the Oregon and national industry as well.

I would say it sounds like a marriage made in heaven, wouldn’t you?

Background Information

Company Name: Pure Green

Year Founded: 2013

Ownership structure/operating entities: Multiple Corporations (S & C Corp and 1 LLC)

Management Team: Matt & Meghan Walstatter

Headquarters: Portland, Oregon

Website: puregreenpdx.com

Industry Segment/Category: Producer, Processor, Retailer

Current Markets/States Served: Oregon

Current Number of employees: 14

Market Strategy/Goal: Become a fully integrated cannabis PPR serving retail and medical patients in Oregon

2014 Revenues: $1.6 million

2015 Projected Revenues: $2.0 million

Product Mix: Flower, Concentrates, Edibles, others

Expansion Plans: Currently raising money to build a new grow and more retail outlets

Financing strategy: Initially self-financed, offering equity in current round of financing

 

Rob Meagher

Rob Meagher

Rob Meagher, CBE’s Founder, President and Editor-in-Chief is a 30 year veteran of the media world. His career has spanned from stints representing the Washington Post, USA Weekend, Reader’s Digest, Financial World & Corporate Finance to the technology world where he worked at International Data Group and Ziff Davis where he was part of the launch team for The Web Magazine, Yahoo Internet Life, Smart Business and Expedia Travels before starting his own marketing and Publisher’s Representative Firm. He also ran all print and online media sales and marketing for the Society for Human Resource Management before partnering with Forbes and then Fortune to create Special Sections covering a variety of topics. Rob, who started CBE Press in 2014, can be contacted at [email protected].

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