Founded in 2017, GrowerIQ is a seed-to-sale software system for cannabis licensed producers. The company also offers licensing, cultivation, and business process consulting services.
GrowerIQ was born from conversations between founder, Andrew Wilson, and Master Grower, Shlomo Booklin, who say they felt that there was an opportunity to improve on the existing legacy cannabis software available at the time. With Wilson’s experience creating custom software and Booklin’s extensive cultivation know-how, the idea was formed for a new cannabis tracking software platform that placed the user front and centre, for a more intuitive experience.
While other seed-to-sale platforms were designed primarily from the regulator’s perspective, Booklin says GrowerIQ was created to directly address user needs, like integrating user hardware, environmental sensor data, compliance reporting, and facility irrigation and controller systems. He says it was also the first cannabis software platform designed and is built to EU GMP computer system specifications.
Our goal is to bring together all systems, processes, advisors, and capabilities into one place, to help simplify what can easily spiral into something very complex.
“Our goal is to bring together all systems, processes, advisors, and capabilities into one place, to help simplify what can easily spiral into something very complex,” says Andrew Wilson, GrowerIQ COO. “We built the seed-to-sale platform from the perspective of the grower, and coded those insights right into the system’s process flows. So, users of GrowerIQ benefit from those decades of agricultural experience just by using the system.”
“We also designed it to scale. We can add or subtract modules, turning capabilities on or off to suit your particular business. As the operations scale up, we can start turning on related Quality Management System, or ERP modules to avoid system fragmentation. We now serve micro clients all the way up to larger standard licensees with many millions of square feet of canopy space, indoor and outdoor, all across Canada, and in jurisdictions around the world.”
With all this in mind, Booklin teamed up with the partners at GrowerIQ, combining their experience building custom software with his years of experience growing in a highly regulated environment.
In addition to their crop-tracking software, Andrew Wilson, GrowerIQ’s COO, says the company has a dedicated cannabis consulting practice. After years of working in the cannabis space and accumulating know-how, offering consulting services was like a natural next step.
“In our consulting practice, we help our clients plan their business, draft floor plans, design cultivation processes, draft SOPs, train the team, and act as general advisors,” says Wilson. “We’ve got a solid team and capable partners in our network, so there isn’t much we aren’t able to handle.”
Not everybody can (or should!) grow in heavily fortified bunkers. Growing outdoors takes advantage of all the agricultural space and expertise we have in this country.
Wilson says they especially enjoy developing long term relationships with clients and coming along for the ride as their projects grow and mature. This means that the GrowerIQ team is with you every step of the way from that early license application, through start-up, and onto larger and more complex facilities.
As part of their advisory work, the GrowerIQ team says they also take a very hands-on approach to challenge clients to truly understand their business model and unique differentiator.
“We like to push back and really ensure each client has a strong vision for their operations,” says Wilson. “We can’t supply that vision. This is the secret ingredient that makes you work hard and makes your business successful. We try to ask direct questions on production philosophy, business practices, distribution strategy, untapped market insight, etc.
“The Health Canada application process is becoming more standardized and predictable, which is great. The key differentiators in the space will then become the strength of your firm’s vision.’
Although he says he’s seen a lot of positive changes in the last few years from the cannabis regulator, much more still needs to be streamlined.
“We’ve seen huge improvements in the outdoor licensing process – I think Canada will benefit greatly from that,’ says Wilson. “Not everybody can (or should!) grow in heavily fortified bunkers. Growing outdoors takes advantage of all the agricultural space and expertise we have in this country. Plus, I think it allows you to impart unique soil characteristics from your area into your final product. How amazing would it be to develop another globally desirable protected designation of origin status for regions in Canadian cannabis.
“At the same time, reporting requirements have become very onerous. There are Health Canada report templates I’ve seen with more than 2,000 columns! We’ve heard of clients dedicating full-time staff exclusively on compiling data for this report. Our own team spends a lot of time wiring up the data in our platform to automatically generate this report, and others for governments around the world, in one click. The savings are huge.”
As the industry evolves around the world, Wilson says he sees a lot of opportunity for early adopters in Canada who can position themselves ahead of the curve.
“More and more jurisdictions will open up – that’s already happening. These new areas have tremendous natural advantages (we’re already working with groups in Colombia, South Africa, and Australia) with conditions ripe for growing large volumes of low-cost cannabis. Our thesis is that the Canadian winners in this future must be “technology-first” operations that produce high quality product, analyze their results, and iterate. Pair that with a strong brand, fueled by a firm vision for your business, and you’ll be successful.”
SPONSORED CONTENT: from GrowerIQ
