From Combat Vet to Extract Labs CEO: An Interview with Craig Henderson

Can you tell us about how you went from combat vet to CEO of a CBD company? It’s kind of a long-winded answer. I grew up thinking that marijuana was bad and either you used it and you were a loser, or you didn’t use and you weren’t a loser. But then I had good friends in the military who got kicked out for smoking weed and these were some of the smartest, strongest, and hardest working people I’d ever worked with and that was the first inkling in my mind, “Wow, maybe pot’s not so bad.” I started to realize that there are a lot of benefits for people. Then I saw what was happening out West in California, and that Obama signed the 2009 memo saying that the federal government would leave states alone to pursue their own cannabis laws; I realized that people were seeing what I was seeing and that this could change the world. I finished up my bachelor’s degree in engineering, was doing some internships and realized I just hated corporate america. I really wanted to go back to the military at that point, but then I thought “Why don’t I move out west and pursue this whole cannabis thing?” so I reached out to them, Apeks Supercritical out of Ohio, they called me back and I said to said why don't I move out to Colorado and start a location, and the whole time I was doing this I saw there was a need for CBD and saw an opportunity for me to get into the market. What part of the business are you most passionate about? Changes. We’re evolving so rapidly. When I hired my first one or two employees, I thought I’d made it, that two employees was all we’d ever need, but now we’re pushing forty employees. I really love the challenge, and I see every part of the business as very important. In your opinion, what's the biggest issue veterans face when returning home? Not having a plan. You have an twenty-two year old kid who’s gets out of the military and they really don’t have a plan, and that can destroy the human. They spent the last 4 years being this thing everyone talked about and now you’re just a regular person in society trying to fit in. But how do you tell someone that and get them to believe it? I don’t know. Do you do any kind of outreach with veterans? Can you tell us about it? We’re get contacted by different people who want us to send their soldier a package, or are just looking for a natural alternative to the medications they get from the VA. So we ship product to soldiers who are deployed, we’ve shipped some to the veterans who just want to try it, and it's all free of charge. We send huge care packages overseas with shirts and products.

Tell us about an average day for you, if there is such a thing. Today it’s a little bit more normalized. I used to be the guy wearing seven different hats, and luckily, now I only wear three different hats. Now I’m having to learn how to get information from each team to help them make decisions, just learning how to be a better manager, how to be a CEO for a company. What kind of growth has Extract Labs seen as demand for CBD has increased? It’s insane. We turn away more business than we sell to, so we spend half of our day turning people away politely and hope we don’t piss them off so maybe when we do reach a capacity to be able sell to them they’ll call us back. It sucks being a business owner; it’s awesome hitting a record month every month, but it sucks thinking how much bigger you could be. How would you define your primary market and how do you reach them? The original business model was to make CBD oil and wholesale it to marijuana companies. I thought marijuana was the big play in the industry and I thought I could make CBD and sell it to these marijuana guys to beef up their CDB levels. That was our initial focus and it really helped build our business, but now we’re trying to transition out of that since we realized that CBD has its own place in society as a supplement and healthy lifestyle product. So now we’re trying to target athletes.

Are there any new products on the way you're particularly excited about? In the near future we’re expanding our product line, offering better flavors and new terpene profiles. As farmers get better at growing, we’re able to extract better terpenes from the plants, and we can offer that as a product. The big future play is: How good can we get at separating other cannabinoids? For example, CBG is believed to be good for cell repair and who knows? You may have a stroke victim who can’t use half of their body anymore, and CBG might really be able to help them. What kind of changes do you foresee in the industry since the 2018 farm bill legalized hemp farming in the US? I could go two ways: if hemp is legalized everywhere people may start to focus less on quality. On the other hand, the bill could make banking easier, and maybe we could be a big player. Maybe there are enough people like us who care about quality and hopefully it will always be a high end niche product. What's the future for the CBD industry? I’m hoping that CBD will be like big Pharma, but a better version. Not just for CBD, but all cannabis and cannabinoids in general, but not how it’s being done today; we just need better principles.