Tech Guru Steering the Ship for CanIdeal’s Innovative Cannabis B2B Platform; Plus Exclusive Interview with CEO Joseph Farruggia

Does success really breed success? According to researchers at SUNY Stony Brook in a 2014 study, it indeed does. While the study mostly tested the basic principle without merit given for bona fide accomplishments, every company wants to have leadership at the helm with deep experience and a track record of accomplishments. In that case, it would stand to reason that the likelihood of success is further increased from the 9-31% increase the research showed.

Fast forward to 2019 enter the exploding legal cannabis market.

Those that have been involved in the cannabis space for the better part of the last decade, particularly in the last couple years, have seen something pretty amazing happen within the once clandestine industry. With cannabis now legal in 33 U.S. states for medical purposes and 11 states and Canada for recreational use, the market has moved from the back alley to the board room. Many successful businessmen, business women, entrepreneurs, athletes and celebrities have very publicly made the leap into legal cannabis.

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That’s the type of opportunity where skilled business acumen, financial astuteness, experience with new markets and corporate networking skills are worth their weight in gold. We’re talking about the type of opportunity these men and women will never see again in their lifetime and they don’t want to miss out.

How big? Industry-research experts at Arcview Research and partner BDS Analytics see the legal cannabis market (which doesn’t include cannabinoid and related product sales) growing from $3.4 billion in 2014 to $40.6 billion in 2024.

Joseph Farruggia wasn’t going to miss out either and has now brought his skill set to the new cannabis business-to-business platform, CanIdeal.

CanIDeal? Yes You Can.

Joseph Farruggia, CanIdeal’s CEO and President, is an investment industry veteran that founded CanIDeal after several notable successes earlier in his career. His vision was clear: to build the first B2B e-commerce platform serving the entire cannabis industry, bringing together growers, processors, technology accessory makers and distributors into one network to efficiently and legally transact cannabis-related business.

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As Mr. Farruggia told CFN Media in a recent interview at the Cannabis World Congress and Business Expo in Los Angeles, “We have a B2B platform for the entire cannabis industry so that anyone in the industry can ‘come to the party,’ establish a brand and sell on a wholesale level across the country.”

CanIdeal is a robust solution to the huge problem of the cannabis industry being extremely fragmented because legislative framework underpinned by marijuana being a Schedule I drug at the federal level.

Owing to federal prohibition, states are left to craft their own laws applicable within their borders, all the while understanding that interstate commerce of cannabis isn’t possible and federally insured banks are subject to federal laws when providing banking services to an illicit drug. At the same time, with the passage of the 2018 Farm Bill late last year, hemp – defined as cannabis essentially free of the psychoactive THC (<-0.3%) – became legal at the start of 2019. To wit, cannabidiol (CBD) derived from hemp is open to interstate commerce.

The CanIDeal platform takes all this into account, using geo-fencing to recognize where companies are located. From there, potential supply chain agreements can be presented within the laws of the respective state. Simply, CanIdeal is designed to bridge all the gaps and simplify the byzantine nature of coast-to-coast regulations while simultaneously providing opportunities for companies to sell their products and services at the wholesale level and forge new business relationships. All companies can use the B2B platform for free, with CanIdeal taking a small percentage of each transaction conducted through the system.

Letting buyers buy for free and sellers to list for free is a key differentiator in making the CanIDeal platform neutral and a true open, digital marketplace for companies nationwide, according to Farruggia.

No one else has done this at the scale of CanIDeal.

The Brainchild of Farruggia

Joseph Farruggia is well rounded, to say the least. He has extensive experience in the capital markets and investor relations, serving previously as Director of Sales and Advertising for World Perspective Communications, where he was responsible for the launch and all aspects of Money World Magazine and Money World Investment Conferences. He also honed his Corporate America skills as the Investor Relations Specialist at Atlantic Capital Corp. and Wall Street Marketing Group. In this capacity, Farruggia utilized his network and communication abilities to raise capital for companies listed on national exchanges (i.e. NASDAQ, American Stock Exchange) and international markets by creating demand-side pull.

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Farruggia is an entrepreneur too, pioneering corporate branded Wi-Fi for the restaurant sector. He can stake this claim as a co-founder of Cafe.com, Denny’s (NASDAQ: DENN) Wireless Internet. Serving as VP of Business Development for Café.com, Farruggia negotiated the company’s position as the sole approved wireless internet provider throughout the Denny’s franchise and then through Jack In The Box (NASDAQ: JACK) and Dunkin Donuts (NASDAQ:DNKN) quick-serve restaurants before selling Café.com to then publicly-listed ICOA, Inc.

Moreover, Farruggia co-founded Siddha Flowers, the maker of a line of flower essence products sold in Whole Foods, T.J. Maxx (NYSE: TJX), The Vitamin Shoppe (NYSE: VSI) and Sprouts, amongst other places. Today, the brand has products for teeth and gums, stress, memory and more. On that point, Siddha CEO, Stan Deland, sits on the CanIdeal Board of Advisors.

If that wasn’t enough, he is accomplished with the silver screen. Farruggia was the screenwriter for profitable feature films, including Baby Face Nelson starring Academy Award Winner F. Murray Abraham as Al Capone and C. Thomas Howell as Lester Gillis, better known as “Baby Face Nelson”. He also co-wrote Born Bad with Jeff Yonis, which starred Corey Feldman and James Remar.

As it happens, the genesis of CanIDeal occurred while Farruggia was working as a writer and a producer he was collaborating with, who also was a cannabis broker, heard Farruggia’s B2B idea and explained that no such platform existed. With that, Farruggia got to work and CanIdeal was born.

Farruggia has said that he only intends to serve as chief executive of CanIDeal during the initial launch, which ultimately began in May with a reverse merger that left CanIDeal the surviving entity. Farruggia is on the hunt for an experienced CEO to spearhead growth in the future.

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About Ryan Allway

Mr. Allway has over a decade of experience in the financial markets as both a private investor and financial journalist. He has been actively involved in the cannabis industry since its inception, covering public and private companies.