Slang Worldwide to expand operations in Boulder

BOULDER — CanopyBoulder, an accelerator for entrepreneurs in the cannabis industry, is hosting a public demo day and its Jumpstart Conference. Canopy will host its Jumpstart Conference from 4:30 to 7:25 p.m. on Jan. 15 at Galvanize in Boulder. The conference will feature a speaker and panels covering the state of the market, opportunities and what it takes to launch a cannabis startup. Dominique Mendiola, director of marijuana coordination for the state of Colorado, will deliver the keynote address. One panel will feature industry professionals discussing ways entrepreneurs can improve upon pain points they’re seeing in the cannabis industry. The second panel will feature cannabis entrepreneurs themselves speaking about best practices for starting a business in this field. “We have some fantastic speakers,” Patrick Rea, CEO and co-founder of CanopyBoulder, told BizWest. “If I were an entrepreneur or an investor, I would want to show up to soak in what’s really going on in the cannabis industry. Not just what’s in headlines, press releases or PR pushes but get the real scoop and inside story on how the industry is working.” Immediately after the conference will be Canopy’s public demo day, where Canopy’s current cohort of cannabis-related startups will pitch their ideas to the public. Those companies include: Abaca, which provides cannabis businesses with compliant bank accounts, electronic payments and other financial services. The company is based in Little Rock, Ark. Anna, built by FrostCorp, is the first AI-powered cannabis dispensary kiosk. FrostCorp is a Boston-based company. Azara Solutions Inc. of Boulder, a provider of web tools to streamline operations, hold staff accountable and permeate regulations Bello by Designed Technology, which cleans and simplifies the cannabis consumption process in order to improve the public perception of cannabis consumers. The company is working on an automated vaporizer. Buddle, a Boulder-based provider of automated legal services, legal documents and law experts in order to empower cannabis businesses to navigate the industry’s regulatory environment. Demeter, based in Boulder, which streamlines the communication between brands and influencers. The company’s registered name is Defining the Box Inc. Enabled Label, an Edmonton, Alberta-based company that offers origin certification for supply chains and uses technology to provide batch-level origin and quality verification in real-time. Green Genomix, which uses DNA-testing to make personalized cannabis recommendations. The company is based in Boulder. The Grove, a curated and cannabis consumption space that aims to be a social cannabis collective in Denver. L.A. Cannabis News, a media company dedicated to localized cannabis news, events and jobs. “There’s more investor interest in cannabis than ever,” Rea said, who added that the accelerator would be hosting several investor-only demos in Denver, San Francisco, Boulder and Los Angeles. “The timing is very good for these teams. We are seeing larger interest than ever before in our investors preview events and Demo Day.”

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DENVER — Three companies are looking for combined incentives of $12 million to expand or start operations in Colorado. One of those is an apparel company looking to open a new operations center in the Denver metro area, according to the Economic Development Commission. The company — codenamed Project Playa — is seeking $606,272 in performance-based Job Growth Incentive Tax Credits over an eight-year period. It expects to create 81 net new full-time jobs with an average annual wage of $123,358. The company is also considering Ohio and Massachusetts. The company is like Crocs Inc., reports the Denver Business Journal: Leaders at the commission meeting said it was a publicly-traded apparel company already based in Colorado that had declining assets but was seeing increases in gross profits. They also declined to specify which city the company was based in, saying it would give away the identity. Crocs is based in Niwot. The largest incentive request is by “Project Beam,” an American broadcasting company (DBJ reports its likely NBC) seeking $10.2 million in performance-based Job Growth Incentive Tax Credits over an eight-year period. The broadcasting company is looking to relocate a major technology center to manage and distribute hundreds of thousands of hours of programming every year. Colorado is competing with Arizona for the project. Project Beam is expected to add up to 769 net new full-time jobs with an annual average wage of $90,572. The third project is by the American subsidiary of an Indian IT consulting firm looking to open a new business operations center. “Project Peacock” is expected to create up to 100 net new full-time jobs with an average annual wage of $84,496. The primary job type would be engineers and project managers. The company is seeking $1.7 million in Job Growth Incentive Tax Credits over an eight-year period.

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