Choppin’ it up with Socrates Rosenfeld / Jane Tech

With dispensaries being declared as essential businesses during the COVID-19 outbreak, Jane Technologies’ “Amazon.com” of cannabis is more relevant than ever to consumers.

Socrates Rosenfeld is co-founder and CEO of Jane Technologies, Inc., a retail software company that created the first and largest online cannabis marketplace, IHeartJane.com. The Santa Cruz based company made history last summer when it netted a whopping $21 million in its Series B, marking one of the biggest cap raises ever by a cannabis technology platform.

Rosenfeld has created and scaled a winning e-commerce business in partnership with over 700 dispensaries across the country, providing customers access to 150,000 products with full vendor point-of-sale integration. Jane Technologies holds no inventory, but connects customers to local merchants in a seamless manner, taking advantage of the fact that the online cannabis consumer purchases twice as much product than those visiting brick-and-mortar establishments.

So how did Rosenfeld end up launching his business here in Santa Cruz? Well his story before arriving on our beautiful coastline is just as compelling as his pitch to investors.

Born on the east coast in Boston, MA, Rosenfeld earned his B.A. at Westpoint Academy and served as a Commander flying Apache helicopters for seven years before getting his MBA at M.I.T. Sloan School of Management in 2012.

MBA in hand, he became a consultant with Mckinsey & Company at their Silicon Valley office in 2013, and found himself making the trip down to Santa Cruz every weekend to surf and shop at the local dispensaries.

“On the weekends I would always be coming down to surf as one of my good friends has lived down here for twenty years, and I got to know Santa Cruz and its really rich history in cannabis and quite frankly a rich history in technology that is often overlooked.” Rosenfeld said. “I thought to myself if I could ever move down here and start my cannabis tech startup it would be in Santa Cruz”.

So did Rosenfeld’s time flying metal birds shape his business savvy?

“When you’re flying a helicopter you have to understand risk, and understand the differences between risk and uncertainty. On missions you are going into uncertain areas, into uncertain environments, and that is different than risk” Rosenfeld said. “For me, as a helicopter pilot I was always able to mitigate risk and then kind of take advantage of the uncertainty. And I think in business, more specifically as an entrepreneur, you are balancing what is risk and what is uncertainty with every turn.”

Rosenfeld has some entrepreneurship advice for those who want to try their hand at it.

“What I say to entrepreneurs that is kind of clichéd is to ask yourself ‘what I want to do’, ask yourself ‘who do I want to become’, ‘what do I love?’ ‘What problems can I just not stop thinking about?’ When someone talks about a subject, when can you not stop talking about it. Go there.” Rosenfeld said.

To learn more about Jane Technologies visit www.iheartjane.com.

Guest UserMay 7, 2020