Justin Hartfield

Justin Hartfield
Headshot of marijuana entrepreneur Justin Hartfield. Taken in 2013.
NationalityAmerican
OccupationInfluencer[1]
Known forco-founder of WeedMaps
Children1

Justin Hartfield is an entrepreneur and venture capitalist from Orange County, California. He is a co-founder and general partner at the Ghost Group venture capital firm and was the CEO at WeedMaps before stepping down in 2016[2] to pursue other ventures.

Career

Born to a Jewish family,[3] Hartfield founded WeedMaps in 2008 while working at an search engine optimization (SEO) consultation business.[4][5][6][7][8] WeedMaps allows medical marijuana collectives to rate their own marijuana dispensaries.[9][10][11] Under Hartfield, WeedMaps grew to nearly two million monthly visitors with a monthly revenue of $1.5 million.[12] Hartfield served as the first CEO of the company until 2016 when he stepped down but remained board chairman of the company.[13][9][14]

Hartfield founded the privately held Ghost Group in 2012 and serves as the company’s CEO.[4][15] Through Ghost Group, Hartfield and his business partner Doug Francis launched Emerald Ocean Capital, a venture capital firm in the legal marijuana industry.[4][7][15]

In addition to Hartfield’s work in the legal cannabis industry, he has also filled roles as a marketing and search engine optimization expert. From 2010 to 2012, he was the Chief web officer at the publicly traded SearchCore, Inc.[15][16]

Board positions and contributions to the industry

Justin Hartfield resides on the boards of National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) and the Marijuana Policy Project. He contributed over $100,000 to the Measure F campaign, which advocates for an open market system for marijuana sales.[13]

References

  1. ^ "Most Influential 2015: Justin Hartfield". 23 December 2015. Retrieved 2020-02-26.
  2. ^ "Doug Francis Succeeds Justin Hartfield as Weedmaps CEO".
  3. ^ The Jewish Daily Forward: "How a Jewish Business School Drop-Out Created a Marijuana Empire" by Paul Berger September 17, 2015
  4. ^ a b c Walter Hickey (June 13, 2013). "Justin Hartfield Is About To Become The First Venture Capitalist Of The Pot Industry". Business Insider. Retrieved July 5, 2013.
  5. ^ "5 Questions for Justin Hartfield: Opportunities as Cannabis Industry Becomes 'Pimply Teenager'". MMJ Business Daily. June 18, 2013. Retrieved July 5, 2013.
  6. ^ Mike Anderson (May 5, 2011). "Justin Hartfield of WeedMaps". KNTV NBC Bay Area. Retrieved July 5, 2013.
  7. ^ a b Chris Rauber (June 5, 2013). "Getting high with a little help from your VC firm". San Francisco Business Times. Retrieved July 5, 2013.
  8. ^ Kate Linthicum (May 22, 2013). "New L.A. law on medical marijuana shops faces hazy future". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved July 5, 2013.
  9. ^ a b Vita Reed (June 6, 2013). "VC Firm Launches Legal Cannabis Fund". Orange County Business Journal. Retrieved July 5, 2013.
  10. ^ Eleazar David Melendez (June 6, 2013). "Marijuana Venture Capital Fund Launches As Ganjapreneurs Go Mainstream". The Huffington Post. Retrieved July 5, 2013.
  11. ^ "California VC Ghost Group launches medical marijuana fund". AltAssets. June 3, 2013. Retrieved July 5, 2013.
  12. ^ Rebecca Grant (June 5, 2013). "VC firm hopes for high returns with fund for marijuana". VentureBeat. Retrieved July 5, 2013.
  13. ^ a b Warren Olney (May 14, 2013). "Can Prop C Help Overturn Citizens United?". KCWR. Retrieved July 5, 2013.
  14. ^ "Doug Francis Succeeds Justin Hartfield as Weedmaps CEO". New Cannabis Ventures. Retrieved 2018-02-05.
  15. ^ a b c "Meet Justin Hartfield, the Pot Industry's First Venture Capitalist". Inc. Magazine. June 13, 2013. Retrieved July 5, 2013.
  16. ^ "Justin Ross Hartfield". Bloomberg Businessweek. Retrieved July 5, 2013.[dead link‍]