This episode elucidates the transformative journey of Laura Roos, a distinguished entrepreneur and co-founder of Mary and Jane, a pioneering wellness company dedicated to making micro dosing cannabis mainstream.

Throughout our conversation, we explore the nuances of her entrepreneurial path, characterized by both triumphs and setbacks, which have collectively shaped her approach to leadership and innovation.

Laura shares invaluable insights on the importance of understanding one's ideal dosage, illuminating how her personal experiences have informed the development of her products. We delve into the significant impact that women-led businesses can have on the industry, as well as the necessity for a supportive community in fostering this growth.

By amplifying the voices of women like Laura, we aim to inspire future generations of female entrepreneurs to pursue their visions with courage and conviction.

Our Guest This Week:

In this week’s episode of #WisdomofWomen we have a 🌟Microdosing Maverick 🌟 in our midst!  

Laura Roos is a three-time founder whose entrepreneurial journey has been marked by both grit and grace—one flop, one successful exit, and now a bold new venture. She is the Co-Founder of Mary & Jane, a wellness company on a mission to make microdosing cannabis mainstream by offering fast-acting, low-dose edibles designed for control, calm, and clarity. With over a decade of experience navigating the highs and lows of entrepreneurship, Laura has learned to transform setbacks into steppingstones for growth. Her leadership combines purpose with innovation, centering on products that not only serve customers but also give back—partnering with groups like The Legal Revolution to address the inequities of cannabis convictions. For visionary women founders building companies of substance and scale, Laura’s story is a masterclass in perseverance, reinvention, and building with both courage and conscience.

Takeaways:

• The podcast emphasizes the importance of amplifying women's voices in the business sector, particularly in leadership roles.
• Laura Ruz's entrepreneurial journey showcases the value of resilience and adaptability in the face of challenges.
• The discussion highlights the significance of microdosing in cannabis as a means to enhance wellness and mental clarity.
• The conversation explores the evolution of Laura's businesses, underscoring the importance of recognizing when to pivot or let go of ventures.
• Listeners are encouraged to engage with local businesses and support women-owned brands, enhancing community connections.
• The episode underscores the importance of education and understanding in the cannabis market for new consumers.

Chapters:

• 00:08 - Amplifying Women's Leadership
• 02:01 - Laura Ruz: A Journey of Entrepreneurship and Resilience
• 13:58 - The Birth of Minnie and Paul
• 17:35 - Starting a New Venture: Mary and Jane
• 25:37 - Scaling and New Product Development
• 26:57 - Funding Growth: Navigating the Investment Landscape

Burning Questions Answered:

1.What does it mean to lead with courage instead of control?

2.How can founders stay grounded while scaling purpose-driven companies?

3.What are the untold challenges of building a brand in the wellness space?

4.How can entrepreneurs bring more intuition into their decision-making?

5.What daily practices keep visionary women aligned and creative?

Favorite Quotes

“There’s bravery in slowing down when the world tells you to speed up.”

“I don’t separate my wellness from my business—they rise and fall together.”

Guest Offers & Contact Information:

www.shopmaryandjane.com 

https://www.instagram.com/discovermaryandjane/

https://www.tiktok.com/@simplymaryandjane

https://www.linkedin.com/in/lauraroseroos/  

hello@shopmaryandjane.com

Follow the #WisdomOfWomen show for more inspiring stories and insights from trailblazing women founders, investors, and experts in growth and prosperity.

YouTube: https://tinyurl.com/yja3w7nh

Spotify: https://tinyurl.com/4tak8ajk 

Amazon Prime: https://tinyurl.com/366syddj 

Apple Podcasts: https://tinyurl.com/bdhananz 

RSS Feed: https://feeds.captivate.fm/womengetfunded/ 

Coco Sellman, the host of #WisdomOfWomen, believes business is a force for good, especially with visionary women at the helm. With over 25 years of entrepreneurial experience, she has launched five companies and guided over 500 startups. As Founder & CEO of A Force for Good, Coco supports purpose-driven women founders in unlocking exponential growth and prosperity. Her recent venture, Allumé Home Care, reached eight-figure revenues and seven-figure profits in just four years before a successful exit in 2024. A venture investor and board director, Coco’s upcoming book, *A Force for Good*, reveals a roadmap for women to lead high-impact, high-growth companies.

Learn more about A Force for Good:

Website: https://aforceforgood.biz/ 

Are Your GROWING or PLATEAUING? https://aforceforgood.biz/quiz/

FFG Tool of the Week: https://aforceforgood.biz/weekly-tool/ 

The Book:  https://aforceforgood.biz/book/ 

Growth Accelerator: https://aforceforgood.biz/accelerator/ 

Welcome to the Wisdom of Women show.

We are dedicated to amplifying the voice of women in business.

A new model of leadership is emerging and we are here to amplify the voices of women leading the way.

I am your host, Coco Selman, five time founder, impact investor and creator of the Force for Good system.

Thank you for joining us today as we illuminate the path to unlocking opportunities and prosperity for women led enterprises by amplifying the voice and wisdom of women.

Today we have a microdosing maverick in our.

Laura Ruz is the three time founder whose entrepreneurial journey has been marked by both grit and grace.

In her own words, she's had one flop, one successful exit and a bold new venture.

She is the co founder of Mary and Jane, a wellness company on a mission to making microdosing cannabis mainstream by offering fast acting, low dose edibles designed for control, calm and clarity.

With over a decade of experience navigating the highs and lows of entrepreneurship, Laura has learned to transform setbacks into stepping stones for growth.

Her leadership combines purpose with innovation, centering on products that not only serve customers, but also give back.

Partnering with groups like the Legal Revolution to address the inequities of cannabis.

Convictions for visionary women founders building companies of substance and scale, Laura's story is a masterclass in perseverance, reinvention and building with courage and conscience.

Welcome Laura.

Wow, Coco, that was really lovely.

Thank you.

I'm very happy to be here.

Oh, it's such a pleasure.

We met through Carrie Kirpin's wonderful Whisper collective and I just am so honored to share some time and space with you right now.

Me as well.

Thank you.

I think Kellyanne Parker was who originally brought me into the Whisper collective.

I keep sharing the whisper collective with all the women I know that have exited.

It's a really cool community.

So I'm very glad we met there too.

We've had Kellyanne on the show too.

She's wonderful.

She's one of my faves.

Yeah.

Tell us Laura, what is a book written by a woman that has significantly influenced your life?

Love this question.

I'm glad I got it in advance.

Just to really think through this one.

For me, I think back to before I started any of my businesses.

I read Darren Greatly by Brene Brown.

It's a classic business book that also reads like a novel.

It's so, so good.

And then of course I read Dare to Lead but Daring Greatly was had a really strong significance for me personally.

And that, that's a metaphor that talks about being in the arena and showing up for life and actually participating.

It's from Theodore Roosevelt.

And she talks about it pretty significantly in the book.

I mean, I've used that.

I feel that I. I mean, it's one of those things that has really stuck with me and I think that would be my.

My answer.

It's really, really had a strong impact on me.

I love that.

You know, that is such a great book and that idea of daring greatly as a mantra, impact mantra to facilitate for ourselves what brings out the best in us.

Britti Brown's just pretty up there, right?

Yeah, she's a baddie.

She's.

She's at the top of the charts for me.

And I love that you can lead by being vulnerable.

You don't have to put up any sort of front.

And that's definitely something that I do throughout my life with my friendships.

I'm an oversharer.

Everyone knows everything about me and I love that.

I'm so curious.

I want to know that about all of my friends and all of my.

Anybody in my life.

I'm just like constantly trying to understand people and understand the why of everything that's going on.

So.

Yeah, and that metaphor in particular, I think as an entrepreneur, to just get okay with the fact that you're out there taking risks and people can judge you, people can cheer you on, but you're at least on the field.

You know, taking a swing, you might hit a home run, you might strike out.

I love that and live that.

I love it too, though.

You know, on the show, I always like to.

With founders like you have been through a lot and experienced all of it.

It's good to understand more about you as a person.

What are three moments in your life that have been really shaping of who you are today and crafting who you are.

The leader you are, the entrepreneur that you are.

Three moments where you're either faced with conflict or overcame something or maybe you had a big moment of success.

What would be three moments that have really shaped your life?

Yeah, I abs.

This is like to reflect.

I wish I was more of a person that journaled or like, you know.

So I. I've been thinking a lot about this and I think the.

The obvious one.

So I'll start there with the personal is becoming a mom was changed my life.

It's pre mom, pre Laura.

Being a mom and post it was very significant.

2020 had my first child and I mean everything becomes clear.

Life is just like very clear the second I held him.

It's like not only the heart Explosion, but also just like, oh, all right.

You know, I. I overthought a lot of stuff.

A question that, you know, I need.

Just life seemed for me personally to be like, all right, I get it.

This is how it's gonna go then when it comes to.

Let's see.

Okay, so I'll give a college.

When I was in college and this is sort of what led me to become an entrepreneur, I would say, or go on that path.

It would be my junior year.

I went to University of Wisconsin, Madison.

I was a Badger.

And I was in the school for journalism studying strategic communications.

Advertising was definitely where I thought I was going to pursue my career.

I was going to be an account manager, maybe.

On the strategy side, I loved it.

I was in a club.

I got some award for being.

I don't know.

And I got sent to San Francisco for a summer internship.

So that summer, senior year, it was great.

I got really lucky because they place you anywhere.

You could go to any state.

It was just sort of like a luck of the draw.

And I got San Francisco.

I was at a really cool ad agency called 11 when I was out there.

I loved the experience, but I kind of had that first noticing of something going on that you're wondering, huh, why aren't we doing it a little differently?

Or why is everyone so crazy about this thing?

So it was the cupcake craze at the time.

Do you remember when cupcakes were like, the thing in San Francisco in particular?

It was really every other corner.

There was a cupcake shop and some had bubbles, and it was fun.

And I thought, oh, this is interesting.

But I would be eating the cupcake and thinking, like, it's hitting my nose.

This is not that I don't get it.

I don't get why we haven't thought of a better way to eat a cupcake.

Why don't we just, like, take the bottom half of that and put it on the top and make it like a ice cream sandwich, but a cupcake.

And then you go down the road and you realize that's basically a whoopie pie.

And whoopie pies are.

My dad's from Maine, so I have family there, and they're kind of only really popular in Maine.

And then I wondered, why aren't they more popular?

These seem to be.

So I go down that rabbit hole and realize, okay, they make them with Crisco, and Crisco.

It.

It's.

It doesn't taste that good, these whoopie pies.

So couldn't we do it where it.

You make it the same way you make a cupcake, just changing the form.

Maybe it should be like a chipotle style.

You get your base, your cool filling.

Then you decide on the top.

Maybe I'm going strawberry.

Bottom, I'm going, like, buttercream filling.

I'm going chocolate.

And then.

And then you got your dip.

Maybe you're putting a little bit of, like, a drizzle of caramel, a sprinkle of nuts.

Then you go through the line.

There's a milk bar at the end.

And I'm like, okay, I gotta do this.

I'm gonna call it Waldo's Whoopie Pies.

My last name is Waldman, my former last name, so my friends would call me Waldo.

I come back from this experience thinking, like, this is a good idea.

I want to do this.

And this could be franchisable.

Like, I mean, so then it's my senior year, and I'm thinking, how can I get course credit for exploring this idea further?

So I pitched a professor, like, hey, can I write a business plan?

Really go for this idea I have.

Sure enough, that was accepted.

I got a few credits to build this out.

So all through that, I decided, I'm not gonna take that job.

I did get a job offer at that San Francisco firm.

Decided, okay, I gotta try this whole whoopie pie thing out.

So I moved home, moved in with my parents, and to save money, I don't have a job.

I'm trying to build a business.

Moved in with them, and really took six months to meet with business owners in Minnesota that are, you know, own a cafe or just, like, learn about it.

Like, do I really want to do this and how would I do it?

And then I was baking a lot and burning a lot of it, and I'm not a good baker.

Learn that really quickly.

So going down that road, it was very pivotal for me to realize, okay, I can take this from idea to branding and all of that, but when it comes down to it, I found out I can't bake.

So that's fine.

But then I thought I could get a baker.

But by learning about the business and realizing I'm going to also work all of my weekends, I'm going to probably feel like 4am every day.

If I want to do this business and have a friend, fresh product, this isn't going to be the one I'm going to pursue.

Like, I don't want to do this.

This isn't it.

So I never did anything with it, but it taught me so Much.

And I remember thinking like, okay, now it's time for me to get a real job.

I mean, I want to do this.

I love it.

I'm on fire and alive by it.

But I think I should actually start by working for a startup and see how that.

So that's what led me to my first job in Chicago, and I worked at a small startup and spent a couple years there.

So that's experience number one.

Professionally, I would say.

Another defining moment I would say is.

And also, that was not a moment.

That was a long story.

So thanks for bearing with me, Coco.

It's a good story, though.

I think that it's so characteristic of founders.

This is who we are.

We question things, we look at things.

And we also don't just say, this might be a good idea, somebody should do it.

We actually take the steps to decide whether or not we're gonna do it.

Yeah, that comes up so much for me, where it's one thing to think of the idea and it's one thing to be like, this is a good idea.

It's another to decide that you're actually going to do it and take it into action and execute.

Because that's the hard part.

Actually, the hardest part was he has good ideas.

But, like, implementation, you know, is.

Go ahead.

You were going to say something.

I was just going to say that launch is also the easy part, which people don't even realize.

So it's like not only getting that execution to launch, but the scaling and the tweaking and, like, how much harder.

So that's an aside.

Okay, last one, though, that comes to mind is when I knew that it was time to stop on that first business that failed and to just let it go.

How was hard?

That was definitely.

If I look back on everything, I have a terrible memory.

But I'll never forget that memory, you know?

You know when you say, like, okay, wow, it's time.

I knew it was time because I was working full time.

I was in a job where I couldn't sit at a computer.

I was always on my feet.

I was managing a team.

I remember I had an instructor call me before, like, the class.

I had a.

We don't have very few clients, but we had one client, an ad agency in Minnesota, and they were doing a series of classes.

And my instructor calls me, like an hour before and is like, I can't make it.

Sorry.

And it's just that moment where I actually am not even supposed to be on the phone right now.

Someone's going to notice and say, what are you doing?

It was so overwhelming.

I have no control and I'm not making money and I'm still working full time.

I'm dirt on my weekends and I'm about to let all of those people down who were excited to do a rooftop yoga class.

I have no time to get a sub.

I'm even trying.

I'm texting all my other.

But it's so.

It was just a moment where I was like, this is not worth the stress level when there's no reward.

You know, it's been a while.

It had been like two years at that point.

So it was clarity too, which also gives you relief in these struggles when you're feeling like you're in the mud with the business.

And I was proud to recognize the feeling because it is very hard to let something go special when it's your first.

You're kind of like, can I do it again?

And.

And are people gonna trust me?

So that, that was a toughie, but it was defining and I'm really glad because it made way for what was to come.

So you had a business that did yoga programs and that kind of thing.

You scheduled them and you decided not to do that.

What happened next?

Yeah, that first business, it was called Yogaloo.

Bringing yoga to you was kind of like the time of Uber becoming the gig economy.

I really needed to build an app and take it to the big stage.

And I was not ready yet.

I was just not confident in myself yet.

So it didn't work.

It really didn't.

So what came next was I thought I had to get a job.

I knew I was not very happy in that full time job I mentioned.

So it was kind of like, okay, next up, I need something else.

I don't have any other ideas right now.

I started interviewing for other places.

I got this great interview.

It went forward to the point where I was hopeful that I was going to get the job.

And then I went on a little trip with my mom.

It was a beach walk.

The idea I had for my next business, Minnie and Paul came when I was on that trip with my mom.

Of course I get the job offer and then I have to make the decision here, what are you really going to do?

This thing where you try to work full time again and also build a business.

Luckily, I was living with my boyfriend, now husband, and he was able to cover the rent for a few months.

So he was like, go for this full time.

Do it.

I think he thought it was a good idea.

He believed in me, thankfully, and my mom really believed in me.

So that was the next.

That was the next idea.

It was a gift.

What was?

Minnie and Paul.

So Minnie and Paul, it started as a locally curated gift box company.

They're a dime a dozen now.

But at the time I was like, why is it so hard to get really great local products?

I got to go on Etsy and then I have to pay for shipping of it too.

And I just kind of want to get a nice set of beautiful things.

I want to support local makers and I want to do that.

We're from Minnesota.

We're very generous here.

We're very kind.

And that's kind of the reputation here.

And let's do it through gifting.

So that was the initial start.

I'm going to curate some beautiful, high quality products.

I had been around a lot of makers in the maker community from my previous job.

So I was exposed to a lot of these cool products and thinking, I don't want it to feel like, oh, this is obviously from Minnesota.

This is wild rice, this is maple syrup.

I just want it to be like this nice surprise that.

Oh, wow.

Thanks for this beautiful gift.

It's a bunch of baby products, right?

It's my.

The baby gift.

And they're all from Minnesota.

Makers, really.

I would have never guessed that.

This is just beautiful products.

So that was our kind of the beginning.

And quickly it became clear that like B2B and corporations, that was about 80% of the business we did where someone would want to send a thoughtful gift.

With all women owned brands, we would curate that for them for a specific conference and then they'd send that to all their employees.

And so that was.

And they would have a branded little goodie in there or a branded box.

That was what the business became.

Although I did not anticipate that.

I just thought we were going to have a cute little online store.

Yes.

And that's so typical because most businesses, especially in the first two to three years, pivot like six times.

You have to hear your market.

Right.

That's part of being a good entrepreneur.

That's right.

I definitely thought we were going to be all wedding and real estate.

I thought if we're ever going to work with businesses, it's going to be real estate agents and the wedding industry.

And honestly, they were a fraction of our business, maybe 10%.

The first gift we ever did, our large scale gifting initiative was for a bank and it was 250 gifts.

They wanted all Arizona products for this conference.

They had you just learn like, at least don't have to beat these really cool things.

It could just be that we're filling this need for businesses to make their clients, customers, or employees feel super special and that they were thoughtful and then just send a gift card.

That's about eight years of my life until I sold that business one year ago at this point.

Oh, my goodness.

You're a girl after my own heart.

You exited last year and you started another company right away.

I also exited last year.

So it's, you know, already.

You started a new company.

Begins over itself.

Exactly.

Congratulations on your exit.

And now tell us about your current business.

Mary and Jane, Everybody.

Go to shopmaryandjane.com Is that right?

That's right.

And you are going to fall in love when you go to this page.

It is so beautiful, well done and elegant.

Tell us what your company is and does.

Thank you.

It's a big leap.

I went from, you know, gifting to cannabis and before, from yoga to gifting.

And my path is never one of passion first.

It's typically like finding a hole or a little bit like, huh, why is this?

Seems like we should be checking this out.

There's something missing in this market.

So for me, with why I got into Mary and Jane and creating these microdose edibles, originally it was going to be a curated marketplace.

I thought, okay, I know marketplaces.

And I had a business come to us and say, look, can we put some of these THC beverages in here?

We want to do two of those.

We're going to do that instead of wine.

This is getting really popular.

And I had tried in the past.

My experience with cannabis was that I always took too much.

And I had a extreme experience where, like, my brother would give me a gummy or a lollipop, and it was not the experience I wanted.

I thought for me personally, oh, this isn't, you know, I guess I'm just not a cannabis person, Right?

I guess that's not me.

But came to find that dosing was the problem.

I was taking too much.

I didn't know my perfect dose.

I've now come to learn that my perfect dose is between 2 and 3 milligrams.

I love a 2.5.

I was always taking 5 or more.

And 5 is really the lowest on the market most of the time.

Now there's some microdose products, but 5, 5 is what you'll see at the grocery store in Minnesota of a hemp beverage.

It does not make it very clear.

Drink half the can if you want to.

Start.

Well, we thought that education needed to happen, my co founder, Rachel and I. I was still actively running Minnie and Paul when that company came and said that.

And I started thinking about it and then I was like, oh, it's gotta be a sister brand.

Because I actually tried to just create a CBD wellness box on our website and our website was shut down.

I had to figure all of this out as I started the next business.

Stripe was really not playing in anything.

Cbd, you couldn't have that as your payment processor.

I knew it had to be a separate company and it had to be a sister brand.

That's where the name Mary and Jane came from.

It kind of shelved.

It knew that I couldn't do both at once.

I had a young kid at the time.

I now have two boys.

And before starting, Mary and Jane was very pregnant.

So I brought on a co founder and I remember going to her and saying, I want to do this marketplace.

I want to be a place for finding the best high quality, low dose products.

We'll review them and we'll try them and look for the cleanest ingredients and all of that.

She was like, all right, I'm in.

She's amazing too, but like to just be so like, let's do this.

But I was like, I said, very pregnant.

So Rachel, I said, you know, you're gonna have to do all this testing.

She starts testing products, has a 5 milligram drink, goes to a Timberwolves game and doesn't have a good experience.

Just basically, you know, night, ends up in the stairwell kind of freaking out a little bit.

You get the babysitter, you want the fun night out.

I remember the next morning she calls me and she's like, this is a problem.

I can't drink this.

It's not hitting with my system.

Then we started to think, well, if that doesn't work for us, maybe we're not the only ones.

Maybe we should be creating something that really allows people to build and understand 1 milligram by 1 milligram, like where they stand, what's perfect for them, and different occasions.

I love to have one with my coffee in the morning and it really helps in my mental clarity.

It's that ability to choose your adventure and have that function you want.

We then decided to scrap the whole marketplace.

We were like, we're not going to be the authority in this space if we're not actually drinking it.

And feeling like, why can I say this is the best 5 milligram drink?

Because I'm.

It's not genuine.

To me, people are going to smell that in office inauthenticity right away.

So we started on the journey to build the 1mg melt.

At first, we didn't know it was going to be a melt.

We were like, we want it to kick in really fast.

Because for us, we.

We knew our customer probably has friends that drink wine, and they want to be able to pace with their friends, and they want to see that product, you know, working for them as fast as it is with drinking.

You know, like, you don't want to take an edible in it to plan your evening two hours later.

So we partnered with a vitamin manufacturer and created our first product, Sunny.

And it's one milligram of hemp drive, THC and Kanna, another plant ingredient that really just kind of gives us euphoric, blissful, mood boost together.

It's really nice.

And that's Sunny.

And then, you know, we launched with just one product, and we've since released a few more.

Oh, my goodness.

I think it's exciting and fun because I'm in that market where I have in my head that cannabis isn't right for me.

It makes me too high.

I don't feel good.

I get paranoid and nauseous, and I don't feel like myself.

I haven't tried cannabis really in a long time.

Many years, decades, even college, probably.

And so, like.

But your brand makes me think, huh, I could try this.

There might be something here for me.

I might try a little Sunny.

I was actually looking at it with my daughter.

We were just chatting about it.

You now have a few different options, but you launched with the first.

And what did the market tell you?

How did you launch it?

And then what happened?

Great question.

And you're right.

We wanted people to feel like, oh, I would be proud to put that on my countertop.

That could go right next to my bottle of wine.

We took some cues from the beauty industry.

My co founder came from a beauty background.

So it really was like, we're a wellness company, and we want people to feel proud.

This is this cute little tin of my Sunny, and it's in my bag.

It's so easy, it's discreet.

But the market very quickly told us that, wow, a lot of people had never tried cannabis, or they were gone for multiple years and decided, okay, I'll dip my toe back in with this product.

Because it's that lowest option you can feel like, all right, I'll take one.

And that's what we found.

So many people are very like, okay, I'll take one.

All right, all right, all right.

And then it became okay, maybe I love two.

Two is perfect and one is great at this time.

And you know, it really the market told us that women especially didn't really feel seen in the category before.

The cannabis industry can be intimidating.

Going into a dispensary can be very intimidating.

It can be like I don't the lingo.

I mean for us we just felt like we wanted to meet people where they're at and provide an option.

There's no hangovers.

It's wonderful, right?

There's options for women who are looking for an alternative to feel like themselves, feel functional.

We all want control women, we need control.

I have two kids.

I need to know exactly how I'm going to feel.

It's not like Russian roulette, which you can sometimes feel with edibles.

You wade think it didn't work so you take another.

That whole experience that has to go.

We have no more time for that.

It's got to just be precise, fast and as low of a dose as possible.

We just found that very quickly our customer was loving it and we had to keep up with the demand.

Then we eventually turned on ads.

We started with just friends and family launching to the big email list of anyone we've ever met.

When trying to get into a few local stores.

Right.

We visited a bunch of stores and tried to get more visibility that way.

I remember getting into our first store in Minnesota which is still one of our favorites and our best selling stores.

It's called Marigold.

It's a non alcoholic bottle shop.

We went in there, pitched it and she was like, yeah, love it.

Love you guys.

This is great.

We were like, oh my God, this is so amazing.

This is my first CPG brand where we created the product.

Previously I was just buying everyone else's stuff and packaging it up.

So I had so much pride in this product that changed my life.

I mean for me personally I drink way less thanks to Sunny and, and it's makes me a more present mom.

I'm like just patient like all these things.

So it's so easy to want to share it with the world and, and it, it quickly became like I need to let my other business go hopefully in an exit way and I need to focus on this full time because I was doing them both for a bit.

Yeah.

So tell us now you've got several different products.

You've got I think three or four products and you're.

Are you in sort of scaling mode?

Are you.

That's what you're focused on now?

Right now we are.

New product launches are on the horizon.

So we're actually developing our first beverage.

It's a two ounce wellness shot which we're very excited to release.

The thing I've learned is that everything takes a lot more time when it comes to R and D product development that I.

So we'll see.

But yes, right now the focus is scaling and growing.

We're placing a pretty big emphasis on our wholesale growth because it's such a small part of our business.

It's only about 5%.

We do 95% D2C.

It's simply because of time and resources.

It's really just me and my co founder still and we have a few sort of outsourced fractional help when it comes to like our CFO, our OPS, our 3 PL partner.

We have these great, you know, fractional team members.

When it comes to big next steps, it's still just the two of us.

So that's been a big focus, is just really increasing our distribution channels.

And I've been loving that part because I just want to get Sunny and Mary and Jane everywhere.

I love it.

So how are you thinking about funding?

How are you thinking about how you want to continue to grow this build?

Creating growth is expensive, right?

Yes, exactly.

And we, we were so.

We really did not.

We love control as you know.

So we really didn't want to.

We love that.

We can just do.

We're so nimble.

We move so fast.

It just became.

We really did not want to have to raise.

We were like this and it was.

So we held on as long as we could.

Then our fractional CFO was sort of like, guys, the vision you have for this future, the urgency of this space and this industry, we need a little bit of cash right now to get us to that stage.

If you want to be able to launch these products, build that inventory out.

I mean it's really going to be difficult to continue to bootstrap it in the way you have and you can't make any mistakes.

It was just too tight when it came to cash flow.

So we decided we needed to raise.

We had a firm in Minnesota reach out and they said, look, let me take you to breakfast.

I like your company, I like this idea.

And so we went out and said actively, we're not raising right now, just want to put that out there.

But it was still, like, this is okay.

Let's still meet, let's network, let's build this in case we do want to raise in the future.

And so then it led to, okay, come in, have a meeting with us, meet with our partners.

They want to meet you too.

And then in that moment, we said, we should probably create a deck.

Like, we need a pitch deck.

That was a great experience, a great learning for me.

Anything I've never done before, I get very jazzed about.

I love it.

I've been loving the process right now of raising because it's just something I've never done.

We build the deck, we pitch it in the full shark tank kind of way where we go through it.

And at the end of it, we of course, end with, we're not actively raising, but we knew we should prepare in case to have a number in mind, valuation in mind.

At the end of the meeting, it was all right, you know, maybe you're not raising, but if you were, how much do you want?

Okay, well, answer.

And they like, okay, we'll give you that.

But of course, you know, it came to wanting too much of the business.

We weren't comfortable with that valuation.

It's a wonderful firm, but what it got us thinking is, if someone's ready to give us a million dollars, we're missing a step here.

Like, let's go backwards and maybe do a friends and family raise and not have to let go of so much equity.

And so that's what we did.

We decided, all right, let's raise with friends and family.

Let's get ourselves to this next stage, and maybe then we'll do a seed round.

But let's start at step one.

We think we're missing a step.

I would highly recommend to anyone considering a raise to meet with other people who've done it.

Talk to everyone you can, and get.

I mean, even understanding and structuring your terms, that was critical for us, can't drive that home enough.

We met with a guy that owns this great company called Best Day Brewing.

It's an alcoholic beer.

Two conversations with him completely changed the way that we structured the deal.

Everything.

We met with another investor going from a difference between a convertible note and a safe note, and we realized we should be doing a safe note, we better change that.

All of that is really important, especially at this stage when you're thinking, oh, who knows?

Who knows?

It's hard to value this early, but really, you're gonna want to have that in place exactly the way you want it.

Learn all the terms, use ChatGPT educate yourself in a way where you feel like, okay, I know this world of investing now.

And so then at the same time, we're kind of, we're in that raise right now, or we're a little over halfway, which is great.

We have also unlocked a loan from a company called Wayflyer.

It's owned by JPMorgan Chase, like short term loans.

And so thankfully now we're feeling in a really good place and not giving away too much of the business.

We feel like, okay, we're making.

We're not ready to give away a third of the company.

We can give away that.

It becomes a decision you have to make.

What level of growth do I want and what are we comfortable comfortable with?

I feel like we made the right decisions and we took our time.

And if you have the ability to do that, I would highly recommend it.

I'm excited about it all.

I love this world and I've kind of gotten that bug of like, hopefully one day I can be doing more of this and be on the other side of that table because it is so fun to pitch and to hear these ideas.

It's really fun.

It is so fun.

Actually, it's a fair amount of what I'm doing now, which is really, it's great.

So let's go to our fast fire.

I'm gonna ask you five questions, answers in five words or less.

What stereotype about cannabis do you most want to crush?

Stoner.

Like just the stoner stigma.

You can be functional.

I'm really thinking this is not gonna be a good one for me.

Coco.

I'm a run on sentence girly.

Hold on just a second.

Okay, so next question is best advice you've ever gotten from another woman founder.

Go slow to go fast.

One word that describes how you want Mary and Jane to make people feel.

Happy.

What's the boldest bet you've made as a founder?

I think just betting on myself to bet on yourself multiple times.

When you've failed before, we will just bet on ourselves.

That's the boldest thing we can do.

Because really, it comes down to you.

When Mary and Jane changes the world, what's the headline 10 years from now?

It's a hard one.

What I think it would be like was just in a.

Sorry, this is not a five word, but it's in the Forbes or in some beauty type of place that you don't typically see.

And it's something that's just, you know, more women are microdosing cannabis than ever.

Learn how to incorporate this into your wellness routine.

Something like that.

Love it.

I love it.

For all of our listeners, be sure to check out this incredible Wellness cannabis brand, shopmark.com you can also find Laura and her company on Instagram.

You can find Laura on on LinkedIn.

We'll put everything in the description our show description below.

Laura, thank you for joining the Wisdom of Women.

Thank you for sharing your story of how you got through your first two companies and exited and now this incredible new business of Mary and Jane.

To all of our listeners, be sure to follow like and share the Wisdom of Women show on whatever your favorite listening reviewing platform is.

The world is made better by women led business.

Let's go make the world a better place.