Bridge West Consulting had the pleasure of speaking with Matthew Cox, Director of Market and Sales Intelligence at Dutchie. We spoke with Matt to learn more about who Dutchie is, their role as trailblazers in the cannabis industry, and how a technology platform can benefit cannabis operators.
What is Dutchie, and how do you help cannabis business owners?
Dutchie is a technology platform designed for use by the cannabis industry with Point of Sale, eCommerce, payments, and much more. With Dutchie’s technology, cannabis business owners have everything they need to easily run their operations, all in one place.
From point of sale to ecommerce to payments, Dutchie offers user-friendly, integrated solutions to help owners start, operate, and scale with confidence and sell cannabis quickly in-store and online.
What is your background in the company?
Matthew Cox has been with Dutchie since the very beginning. In fact, he was the eighth employee hired in the company about three and a half years ago. Fast forward to the present day, and Dutchie currently has over 600 employees. When Dutchie first launched, they had about 50-100 dispensaries on the platform and solely focused on e-commerce for dispensaries. However, by March 2021, their C-series round of funding allowed Dutchie to merge with LeafLogix Point of Sale (POS) and Green Bits POS, which expanded the company to be entirely vertical. By merging with LeafLogix POS and Green Bits POS, Dutchie was able to serve their customers by offering e-commerce for dispensaries and POS. In addition, since Dutchie is now fully vertical through LeafLogix POS, they cover cultivation, manufacturing, processing, and distribution in integrated payment processing.
Dutchie has grown so much since they first launched in 2017, and they now work with about 5,500 dispensaries throughout North America and Canada. Annually, Dutchie processes about $14 billion in sales through their platform. Throughout the last five years, Dutchie has grown as a platform and dominated the market with its technology.
Matt came to Dutchie because of the brand’s culture. He said, “That’s what it was all about for me. I was able to get to know our Co-Founders, Ross Lipson and Zach Lipson, and some of the other Founding team members. I was just absolutely head-over-heels for their overall emotional intelligence, and I felt really seen when I first started. Based on their high eq, the Founders had a laser focus within their roadmap and vision for the company. Overall, it’s very entrepreneurial and enterprising, and it allows me to have the autonomy to be creative and share my ideas. Dutchie’s culture is that you can be vulnerable and share ideas which sometimes get executed and becomes something really interesting.” Matt expressed that over the past few years, Dutchie has been able to maintain their culture and really grow and evolve. “The culture has only gotten richer since I started, which I didn’t think was possible; even though we’re such a large company, we are still in the dispensary first mentality.”
What kind of cannabis clients does Dutchie serve? Is there a company too big or too small for Dutchie?
Dutchie works with all size companies in the cannabis industry, from small mom and pop shops that are really passionate about the plant, all the way through corporate MSO entities across multiple states. And Dutchie serves everyone in between, which makes Dutchie so versatile in the industry. Dutchie’s recent acquisition in March 2021 has allowed them to really plug and play on the SMB side. “Dutchie is really approachable, especially for front of house and being Apple or iPad based allows dispensaries to plug and play and it makes it really easily for budtenders to navigate. We feel the future of our point of sale must be approachable and applicable for any operators, small to large.”
With two recent mergers, Dutchie inherited technology and new teams. The result was a cauldron of best-in-class technology and created a reality for their retail partners and license holders. Matt explained, “We have been able to make sure that the technology is not an inhibitor for our operators. It is more like a lubricant for their business and helps them succeed and become a lot more efficient in their business, which is always our goal.”
How have you served your clients from big to small to become more efficient through your platform?
Dutchie’s platform functionality is essential to their clients. Too often, technology is an afterthought, or the evaluation of technology can be delayed in the start-up process. Dutchie’s platform is vital to their clients, especially new or prospective license holders who have a large amount of work to navigate in the licensing or application process. Matt shared an objective of his and Dutchie’s, “One of my biggest goals is making sure that we are entering new markets and collaborating with prospective license holders as early as possible so that they don’t have to reinvent the wheel.”
Matt continued, “Working with over 5,500 dispensaries and being in business as long as we have, we have thousands of conversations every day with our customers. It is important to have technology integration initially, and Dutchie likes to collaborate with operators as early as possible. Therefore, operators have a larger pool of partners to choose from earlier in their process. It is crucial because once operators have their license in hand, they may not be able to thrive if they don’t have the right technology in place. Our duty is to make sure cannabis operators are operational.”
Many of Dutchie’s customers that have vertically integrated licenses usually have a retail license and either a cultivation or manufacturing license. Matt said, “One of Dutchie’s strongest attributes is that we can allow our vertically integrated customers to use our platform amongst all their businesses and let everything be transparent.”
What can we expect from Dutchie in the future?
Matt was excited to share that 2022 is expected to be a big year for Dutchie! The company will rebrand and consolidate its technology and services under one umbrella to make it much easier for their partners. He said, “A new hardware that can be woven into something beautiful. Our payment processing roadmaps are really important to us, and we’ve been offering cashless ATM, also known as point-of-banking technology, for a while now. It is integrated directly to the point of sale. This is super valuable because it allows for a larger basket of retailers and keeps cash out of the stores, which is important for safety and security purposes. So, this has been an impactful part of the improvement process.”
In addition, Dutchie is moving into Automated Clearing House (ACH) payment. This facilitates electronic money transfers and automatic payments between banks and financial institutions. Matt shared that Dutchie will be able to offer DutchiePay to their broader customer base. They will first start with eCommerce customers and will follow with brick and mortar. Matt said, “Dutchie pay will be a game-changer and can be an important retailer tool. We are very excited to offer this to our customers.”
Does Dutchie have delivery challenges?
Currently, Dutchie is highly focused on integrating delivery services into its platform. Their engineers are working hard to continue to make their delivery services even better for retailers. They know their 6,000 retail partners very well so they can continue to keep them updated on innovations within the delivery realm. Matt said, “Dynamic deliveries are a huge subject and especially in markets like California, Michigan, and Massachusetts. We’ve been focusing on continuing to make dynamic delivery an easier solution for our retailers. Especially with routing management because it is key to having the best management platforms out there.” Delivery options allow retailers to reach more customers and the ability to offer this service to their retail partners enables them to extend their business further.
Does Dutchie have security integrated into its technology?
Security is vital for any cannabis business, from large cultivations to mom-and-pop shops. Matt explained, “Ensuring that cameras cover all business areas and function properly is essential when taking measures to protect your business. Security issues are involved when you offer delivery services and allow cash payment because the drivers will be traveling with cash on hand, which can undoubtedly prey vulnerabilities. Dutchie also integrates data security into their platform to ensure maximum security measures are in place. Matt said, “We’ve got the best-in-class tools to keep our customers’ data safe.”
What is the best way to learn more about Dutchie?
Dutchie’s website is user-friendly, but for people just entering the cannabis business or for a current operator looking to make a change, one-on-one conversations are essential. Operators can get to know Dutchie and receive all the information they need to be set up for success. The best way for someone to reach out to Dutchie would be to contact someone from the sales team. The inquiry would go to an inbound team so that the customer can be educated on Dutchie’s technology platform. Then the customer would be assigned to the proper account executive, depending on the market duty.
Matt expressed, “I always encourage folks to reach out to us, and we’re happy to help. Whether you have a license in your hands and you’re about to open shop, or you’ve had a cannabis business that has been open for ten years, or if you’re thinking about opening a dispensary. We want to talk to everybody, so we encourage folks to reach out and shoot a message to sales, and we will make sure that you get connected to the right people.” Dutchie ensures that every conversation they have is customized to that specific customer.
Is Dutchie an approachable platform for new users? Is there training and support?
It is important to Dutchie that their platforms are so approachable that somebody new to cannabis or even new to technology will not be overwhelmed. Matt said, “When folks start to become familiar with those platforms and implement them within their business, they start to gain momentum and start to scale their business and open new locations. So it’s approachable for everybody.”
Matt continued, “A huge part of technology is solid customer support behind it. Dutchie’s average response time on the eCommerce side last year was just north of 40 seconds. So, no matter what the question or issue is, there is always going to be somebody on the other line to help, and that is crucial.”
Each account opened through Dutchie has a dedicated customer success manager. They have a large customer support team, and over 600 employees with 150-200 employees solely dedicated to customer support, and another 50+ who focus on engineering. All this combined allows Dutchie to move fast and support their customers in a way that they need to continue to scale.
When it comes to support, Dutchie provides initial training, which is intensive when they onboard customers for the first time. They also provide incredible documentation with libraries of help articles and FAQs. They also have an excellent self-serve model in addition to a dedicated CSM relationship in case any questions or issues arise.
In your free time, do you have any hobbies or interests?
Matthew lives in Oregon and is a father to his nine-year-old daughter. They enjoy outdoor activities as much as possible, especially camping. Matt and his daughter enjoy music and his daughter plays the piano and he plays the flute. Matt also enjoys paddle boarding, trail running, hiking, and fishing.
Matt was also a painter and an illustrator, and he enjoys creative projects. He loves to meditate and is very intrigued with different spiritual practices, and likes to absorb things that resonate with him, and dismiss things that don’t.
We Can Help.
If you own a cannabis business or are thinking about starting a cannabis business, we’d like to help. Bridge West Consulting’s team of highly skilled and seasoned cannabis industry consultants and advisors is ready to guide you through this exciting and challenging landscape. Feel free to reach out to us anytime to schedule a consultation.
