High Touch with Jake & Duffy dives into how today’s cannabis businesses create emotional impact and real-world value—from seed to software, and store design to storytelling. Hosted by two cannabis tech founders who’ve seen it all (and still have questions), each episode brings candid conversations with the founders, creatives, and operators shaping the industry's future. Whether you're in the biz or just curious, expect human stories, hard-won insights, and maybe even a little lift along the way.
Every cannabis brand is fighting for shelf space. But Jamie Lipowitz realized early on that shelf space was never the point—the person standing in front of it was. Jake and Duffy sit down with Jamie Lipowitz, founder and CEO of High Buds Club, who built a 7,000-member budtender community from scratch with $5,000 and zero outside funding. It started with a single moment in a Venice Beach dispensary, when a budtender flipped her purchase decision in thirty seconds flat. She flew home to Toronto...
23 Apr 2026
A Higher Calling | Jesse Redmond
Some people find cannabis through opportunity. Jesse Redmond found it through his father—a man who spent decades managing chronic pain with opioids before cannabis changed everything. That personal story became the thread that pulled Jesse out of a successful finance career and into an industry he couldn't walk away from. Jake and Duffy sit down with Jesse Redmond, Chief Strategy and Investor Relations Officer at Leef Brands, to talk about one of the more unlikely origin stories in cannabis. ...
16 Apr 2026
Deals, Distress & What It Actually Takes to Win | Seth Yakatan
Cannabis has no shortage of storytellers. What it's short on is people who can turn those stories into assets that actually get priced, sold, and survived. In this episode, Duffy sits down with Seth Yakatan—dealmaker, capital raiser, and one of the loudest voices in the room when it comes to what's real versus what just sounds good on a slide deck. Seth has spent 30 years closing deals across pharma, biotech, CPG, and cannabis. He's raised over a billion dollars, sold more than 20 companies, ...
3 Dec 2025
Hospitality, Hemp & the Future of Adult Beverage | Jon Halper
When people talk about retail disruption, they usually focus on pricing, scale, or e-commerce. But in this episode, we get specific about the thing most operators miss: how hospitality turns a “routine run” into a real experience—and why that matters even more as new categories like hemp THC explode. Jake and Duffy sit down with Jon Halper, CEO and owner of Top 10 Liquors, to unpack the playbook behind one of the most innovative independent beverage retailers in the country. From competing he...
20 Aug 2025
From Luxury Fashion to Cannabis Tech | Melissa Hanson
What can cannabis learn from luxury fashion retail? Melissa Hanson, VP of Operations at Flowhub, brings decades of experience leading teams at Michael Kors and scaling cannabis retail at MedMen and Sunburn. Now at Flowhub, she’s focused on helping dispensaries operate smarter, smoother, and more profitably. In this conversation, Melissa explains why true retail excellence comes down to people, process, and purpose—not hype. She shares her philosophy on clienteling, building technology that em...
7 Aug 2025
Trust, Timing & the Long Game in Cannabis | Patrick Rea
In cannabis, fast growth used to be the story. Now? It’s all about staying power. In this episode, we sit down with Patrick Rea—investor, mentor, and co-founder of Canopy Boulder—to unpack what staying power actually looks like in a volatile, still-maturing space. Jake and Duffy trace Patrick’s journey from the natural products industry to building one of cannabis’ first accelerators, to his current role managing Poseidon's $50M growth fund. Along the way, they explore what great founders hav...
31 Jul 2025
Design, Discipline & the DNA of Great Cannabis Brands | Ryan Cook
Most cannabis brands obsess over strains, stores, or scale. But Ryan Cook has always approached the industry differently—by designing cannabis businesses from the ground up with intention, precision, and soul. In this episode, Jake and Duffy sit down with Ryan, co-founder of The Clinic, The Lab, and The Bank, to explore how world-class operations translate into unforgettable customer experiences. From the earliest days of caregiver licenses in Colorado to running dispensaries with 25 counters...
16 Jul 2025
Trust, Touchpoints & The Brands That Belong | Angela Pih
When people talk about cannabis marketing, the conversation usually starts and ends with compliance hurdles. But in this episode, we go deeper—into how brands actually earn trust, scale innovation, and show up meaningfully in consumers’ lives. Jake and Duffy sit down with Angela Pih, a powerhouse brand strategist behind top names like Papa & Barkley, CannaCraft, StateHouse, and CCell. From fashion to wellness to tech, Angela brings a cross-industry lens to cannabis that’s all about design...
16 Jul 2025
From Budtender to Brand Builder | Kristi Ryder
When Kristi Ryder stepped into her first dispensary job, she didn’t smoke weed, didn’t know an eighth from a gram, and definitely didn’t see it as a long-term career. Fifteen years later, she’s leading sales and field strategy at PAX, one of cannabis’ most iconic and innovative brands. In this episode, Jake and Duffy sit down with Kristi to talk about her journey from behind the bud bar to the forefront of brand-building. They dig into how PAX carved out a premium position in a crowded vape c...
10 Jul 2025
Experience, Edge & What Cannabis Could Be | Emily Paxhia
When people talk about cannabis brands, they usually focus on flower, flavor, or maybe THC percentage. But in this episode, we zoom out—and zoom way in—on what makes a brand actually matter. Jake and Duffy sit down with Emily Paxhia, co-founder of Poseidon and one of cannabis’ earliest institutional investors, for a wide-ranging conversation on what separates products from platforms, and trends from real traction. From low-dose drinks to Sunburn’s origin story to why every good brand needs a ...
9 Jul 2025
Budtenders, Buyers & the Menu That Moves | Danny Gold
When people talk about “experience” in cannabis retail, they usually mean the furniture, the lighting, maybe even the packaging. But in this episode, we zoom in on two overlooked pillars of customer experience: training and inventory. Jake and Duffy sit down with Danny Gold, COO and Head of Product at Happy Cabbage and former co-founder of ZolTrain, to unpack how real-world retail is shaped by the systems behind the scenes. From onboarding budtenders to curating menus to turning inventory eve...
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