Rob DiFazio served in the US Navy's nuclear power program, and he went from operating submarines to running cannabis dispensaries. The discipline transferred. The stakes changed.

Today he is the founder and CEO of CNA Stores, a veteran-owned, vertically integrated cannabis company with dispensaries in Haverhill and Amesbury and a cultivation facility down the street from mello's farm. His business partners are all Navy veterans, all nuclear program. They have been building something in Massachusetts cannabis that most operators cannot replicate: loyalty among veterans and their communities that no discount program can touch.

Matt and Rob recorded this conversation at the mello dispensary in Haverhill. They have been working together for four years across two companies. Their stores sell each other's products, their farms share equipment, and one of them owns a scissor lift that the other one borrows when needed. That is the relationship.

They get into what it actually means to be a veteran-owned business versus a business that just offers a military discount. Rob raises $20,000 to $25,000 per month for a different community organization every single month, including Mass Fallen Heroes, the Jordan Sha Foundation, Tough Warrior Princesses, and a Snow Angels program where Rob and his team go out personally and shovel out elderly residents and veterans after storms. This is not a marketing strategy. It is an operating philosophy that started on a submarine and never stopped.

They also talk about the financial realities of cannabis M&A, including why operators who are not adequately capitalized are the most vulnerable when the consolidation wave hits, what happens when one senior debt holder gets a judgment and 150 people lose their jobs overnight, and why the operators who survive long term are the ones whose investors are people they have known for twenty years rather than institutions with monthly debt payments hanging over every decision.

They close on something both of them believe and operate by. The dispensaries that build real loyalty are not the ones running the best promotions. They are the ones where the bud tender already knows what you drink before you say a word, where the connection is real, and where the customer keeps coming back because of it.

Direct, specific, and worth your time whether you are building a cannabis business, investing in one, or trying to understand what separates the operators who last from the ones who do not.

Topics covered: Veteran-owned cannabis business, military culture applied to operations, community giving in cannabis, cannabis M&A and debt risk, vertical integration margin math, competitor collaboration, dispensary floor culture, capital structure and financial survival, brand loyalty versus promotional discounting, cannabis industry consolidation.

ABOUT THE GUEST

Rob DiFazio is the founder and CEO of CNA Stores, a veteran-owned vertically integrated cannabis company with dispensaries in Haverhill and Amesbury, Massachusetts. A US Navy nuclear power program veteran, Rob built CNA with his partners around a simple principle: stronger together. CNA raises $20,000 to $25,000 per month for community organizations and runs programs including Snow Angels, which sends their team out to shovel for elderly and veteran residents across the North Shore.

Connect with Rob: cnastores.com

ABOUT THE HOST

Matt Richman is the CEO & CFO of mello Cannabis, an award-winning vertically integrated cannabis company based in Haverhill, Massachusetts. A former Deloitte auditor, he entered the cannabis industry in 2017 after two decades in corporate finance, public and private company CFO and COO roles, and M&A advisory.

He is both the CEO & CFO, and the difference comes through in every conversation.

Connect with Matt:
linkedin.com/in/matthew-richman-508aa413
mellocannabis.com

New episodes of The Blunt Boardroom drop twice a month.

#TheBluntBoardroom #CannabisBusinessPodcast #VeteranOwnedBusiness #MassachusettsCannabis #CannabisCEO #CannabisOperator #VeteranEntrepreneur #CannabisIndustry #CommunityGiving #CannabisBusiness #MilitaryVeteran #Dispensary #CannabisMarketing #SmallBusiness #VeteranOwned

Most dispensaries are spending money to drive traffic to their website. Varun Patel thinks that is not the primary problem to solve.

In this episode, Matt sits down with Varun Patel and Lauren Laplante-Rottman from Spokes Digital to talk about what AI is actually doing to cannabis marketing right now, why the conversion problem is more important than the traffic problem, and what operators who are not paying attention are about to miss.

They get into why most cannabis marketing still operates like a traffic problem when it is actually a conversion problem. Why sending ten thousand people to a dispensary website does not mean anything if fifty percent of them cannot figure out what to buy. How AI budtender tools are evolving from basic product recommendation engines into something that could replicate the best consultation your floor staff has ever given, at eleven-thirty at night, to someone sitting on their couch.

Varun explains why cannabis AI has to operate differently from every other industry. You cannot pull training data from outside the store. The compliance constraints are real and the consequences of getting it wrong are serious. Today, the machine learning has to come from your own data, your own menu, your own customers. That encapsulation seems like a can be a limitation, but can also be a competitive advantage for operators who understand it.

They also cover what the relaxation of Massachusetts advertising restrictions actually means in practice, why the platform policies of Google and Meta matter as much as the state rules, and why 280(e) tax treatment has been quietly shaping every marketing spend decision in this industry for years and what federal rescheduling might do to that math.

And Lauren closes with something worth writing down: the dispensaries that win long term are not the ones with the lowest prices. They are the ones that are known outside their four walls. In the community. At local events. On the merch people wear in public. That is the brand that survives.

Direct, specific, and useful for any cannabis operator thinking about where marketing is going in 2026 and beyond.

Topics covered: AI in cannabis marketing, conversion rate optimization, AI budtender tools, customer segmentation, Google Ads AI optimization, GEO and generative engine optimization, Massachusetts advertising restrictions, 280(e) and marketing spend, wholesale brand strategy, community presence and brand loyalty.

ABOUT THE GUESTS

Varun Patel is the CEO and founder of Spokes Digital, the number one cannabis AI and performance marketing agency in the United States. A former IBM executive with six years of international business experience across digital, energy, and e-commerce, Varun has helped over 200 cannabis and CBD brands build data-driven growth strategies. Connect with Varun: linkedin.com/in/varunpatel-spokes

Lauren Laplante-Rottman is the Chief Growth Officer at Spokes Digital and a Carnegie Mellon graduate with deep experience in strategic marketing, business planning, and cannabis industry growth. Based in Amesbury, Massachusetts. Connect with Lauren: linkedin.com/in/laurenlaplante

ABOUT THE HOST

Matt Richman is the CEO and CFO of mello Cannabis, an award-winning vertically integrated cannabis company based in Haverhill, Massachusetts. A former Deloitte auditor, he entered the cannabis industry in 2017 after two decades in corporate finance, public and private company CFO and COO roles, and M&A advisory.

He rebuilt mello on one operating principle: run it like a real business. Financial discipline, compliance rigor, and a team culture that develops people rather than burns through them. Under his leadership, mello has grown into a multi-award-winning cannabis company with a dispensary serving the North Shore, a licensed delivery operation, and a valued wholesale partner to dispensaries across Massachusetts.

New episodes of The Blunt Boardroom drop twice a month.

#cannabispodcast #cannabismarketing #cannabisbusiness #AImarketing #cannabisindustry

Chris Fevry built two cannabis companies from scratch during COVID. No funding. No connections. Just a research rabbit hole and a co-founder willing to bet on an idea nobody had proven in Massachusetts yet.

Today he is the CEO and co-founder of Your Green Package, one of the only third-party cannabis transporters in the state with its own proprietary logistics software, and Dris, a licensed home delivery operator serving the Boston metro area. He is also a Massachusetts Social Equity Cannabis Advisory Board member, appointed by State Treasurer Debra Goldberg.

Matt and Chris recorded this conversation live at NECANN 2026 from the mello booth, one week after Massachusetts dropped two of the most significant regulatory changes the delivery market has seen: the move from a two-driver to a one-driver rule (which changed in November 2024), and the increase in the purchasing limit from one ounce to two.

They cover what those changes actually mean for delivery unit economics, why the average delivery basket is already double the in-store average and what the two-ounce limit does to that number, and how operators who built their businesses around the old cost structure need to think about what comes next.

They also get into the threat nobody in cannabis delivery wants to say out loud: Door Dash and Uber are watching. Chris explains why owning your customer data is the only real moat, and why companies that have been focused on brand loyalty are better positioned than the ones that competed on price.

And he tells the story of what it actually cost to build YGP from two cars and six drivers with no customers, why the social equity framework is real support and a harder road simultaneously, and what he would tell any founder standing at the point where the bills are due and the customers have not shown up yet.

Direct, specific, and useful for anyone operating in or adjacent to the Massachusetts cannabis market.

Topics covered: Cannabis delivery economics, the one-driver rule change, two-ounce purchasing limit, B2B cannabis transport, social equity in practice, Door Dash and the delivery threat, proprietary logistics technology, unit economics, building a cannabis brand from zero.

ABOUT THE GUEST

Christopher Fevry is the CEO and co-founder of Your Green Package and Dris Cannabis, and a Massachusetts Social Equity Cannabis Advisory Board member appointed by State Treasurer Debra Goldberg.

Connect with Christopher: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christopherfevry/

ABOUT THE HOST

Matt Richman is the CEO & CFO of mello Cannabis, an award-winning vertically integrated cannabis company based in Haverhill, Massachusetts. A former Deloitte auditor, he entered the cannabis industry in 2017 after two decades in corporate finance, public/private company CFO and COO roles, and M&A advisory.

He rebuilt mello on one operating principle: run it like a real business. Financial discipline, compliance rigor, and a team culture that develops people rather than burns through them. Under his leadership, mello has grown into a multi-award-winning cannabis company with a dispensary serving the North Shore, a licensed delivery operation, and a valued wholesale partner to dispensaries across Massachusetts.

On The Blunt Boardroom, Matt brings that same perspective to his guests. He asks the questions that operators actually need answered. The unit economics of delivery. The real impact of 280(e) on marketing spend decisions. What everybody wants to know about the new MA laws and pending federal rescheduling. What social equity actually looks like in practice, versus what the marketing materials suggest. How technology and AI are and will be impacting the cannabis operator.

He is both the CEO & CFO, and the difference comes through in every conversation.

Connect with Matt: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthew-richman-508aa413/ https://mellocannabis.com/

New episodes of The Blunt Boardroom drop twice a month.