March 2022

Scott Moskol, Burns & Levinson Cannabis Advisory Group


Scott Moskol, Burns & Levinson Cannabis Advisory Group

This March, NECANN returned to Boston after a pandemic-related hiatus with a three-day in-person show. I was fortunate enough to be asked to moderate a panel with Tina Sbrega of Lighthouse Biz Solutions and Cathy Corby Iannuzzelli of Kindtap on “Aligning Cannabis and CPG Consumer Experiences with Streamlined Payment Methods.” It was a sunny 70-degree day in Boston and spring was in the air. It was a refreshing feeling of renewal – NECANN was revitalized, as were all the attendees ready to enjoy an in-person event. Here are my favorite experiences and key takeaways from the conference:

  • This was the first all-live, in-person panel I’ve spoken on since February 2020. During the pandemic, I’ve embraced virtual opportunities, but it felt fantastic to return to speaking in front of a live and engaged audience.
  • I was glad to see longtime friends, colleagues, familiar industry friends, and of course our clients. Everyone had the networking bug, and the conference was buzzing with energy as attendees eagerly exchanged ideas.
  • The exhibition hall was packed – both with exhibitors and attendees. It was great to see so many local businesses that had survived and thrived the past two years, despite the toll of
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Scott Moskol, Burns & Levinson Cannabis Advisory Group


Scott Moskol, Burns & Levinson Cannabis Advisory Group

Readers, welcome back to the CannaBusiness Advisory blog! It has been a busy last few months as we took a short hiatus from publishing weekly posts. We first launched CannaBusiness Advisory in July 2017, and late last year we hit pause to re-focus our content and manage some large initiatives in our firm’s cannabis business and law advisory practice. Burns & Levinson’s 2021 Annual State of the Cannabis Industry Conference was our biggest and most successful event since we kicked off the conference series five years ago. This was our first in-person cannabis event in Boston since the beginning of the pandemic, and our team was proud to have nearly 200 in-person attendees (vaccinations were required), 60 virtual attendees, 23 expert speakers, and countless connections made. We are hard at work planning our 2022 conference, and in the meantime you can revisit last years’ panels on our YouTube channel.

The spring season is a time of renewal and revitalization. Just as NECANN held its first live Boston event this past weekend, reinvigorating the local cannabis community with the possibilities of the future, we are excited to see where future blog posts take us and our readers with respect to … Keep reading

CannaBusiness Advisory Spotlight William Schreier


CannaBusiness Advisory Spotlight William Schreier

The CannaBusiness Advisory Spotlight Series features expert perspectives from Burns & Levinson clients and contacts who are blazing new trails in the cannabis market.

This week we spotlight William Schreier, Principal and COO of KreditForce.

From your corner of the cannabis industry, what’s the single greatest challenge?

Like many emerging industries, the legal cannabis industry faces various challenges in raising capital efficiently and at attractive terms. The difficulty is even more pronounced in the early stages of a business’s life cycle. Founders, friends and family, and other angel-type investors often provide initial seed capital for the start-up phase. But most businesses exhaust this initial capital well before reaching stability and gaining access to traditional banks or other institutional financing. The vast majority of traditional financial institutions are still unwilling to lend to most aspects of the legal cannabis industry, leaving many cannabis-related businesses (CRBs) with few options to raise non-dilutive debt capital in modest size (e.g., < $20m) just as they are accelerating into their critical growth phase.

How does your business solve issues related to this challenge?

KreditForce LLC is an independent merchant bank dedicated to legal cannabis and related industries that are highly regulated. We … Keep reading

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