Plant Prophets
00:13:18 · S1, Pranav Sood
[00:13:18] S1: Hey. Welcome back. I'm Vern Davis, your host of Plant Prophets. I'm here with Pranav Sud, who is the founder and CEO of Trellis. And he just got through giving us a really cool overview of kind of his why he got into this and why he put everything into this, and he's been really successful. And before we left, he mentioned Akerna and Jessica. Jessica Billingsley. And Jessica's been on this show a few times, and she's a friend of the show. And I'd I'd love to understand how you guys connected, and what made that all click. Tell us a little story about that. [00:13:54] S2: Yeah. For sure. So I definitely met Jessica throughout the the years being in the industry. We spoke on panels together and and things along those lines. So we had a a mutual respect for each other and for MJ Freeway and Trellis and everything that we're doing. For for how the the Akerna transaction kinda came together was we were looking for our series a round of funding. And capital definitely was a little bit difficult to find especially as, you know, corona was coming into play and all those types of things. So I think where the marriage came together was Akerna saw that Trellis was gaining a lot of traction in the California market. And beyond that, we have a a really strong integration into Metrc, which is the state system that's used in a majority of the states in in The US. So we have one of the most thorough integrations there, and that's what helps us succeed in the marketplace. And I
00:13:54 · Pranav Sood, S1
[00:13:54] S2: Yeah. For sure. So I definitely met Jessica throughout the the years being in the industry. We spoke on panels together and and things along those lines. So we had a a mutual respect for each other and for MJ Freeway and Trellis and everything that we're doing. For for how the the Akerna transaction kinda came together was we were looking for our series a round of funding. And capital definitely was a little bit difficult to find especially as, you know, corona was coming into play and all those types of things. So I think where the marriage came together was Akerna saw that Trellis was gaining a lot of traction in the California market. And beyond that, we have a a really strong integration into Metrc, which is the state system that's used in a majority of the states in in The US. So we have one of the most thorough integrations there, and that's what helps us succeed in the marketplace. And I [00:14:54] S1: I That's think that's great. Now before you go further, I really wanna know what that that integration looks like and why. Is that a separate competitive advantage? You're presenting it like it's a a real competitive advantage in the market space with the competitive set. Is that the case?
00:14:54 · S1, Pranav Sood
[00:14:54] S1: I That's think that's great. Now before you go further, I really wanna know what that that integration looks like and why. Is that a separate competitive advantage? You're presenting it like it's a a real competitive advantage in the market space with the competitive set. Is that the case? [00:15:11] S2: For sure. Yeah. So I guess just a little bit of context. Metrc Sure. Is is a compliance system that governments put in place to manage licensees. So all the license... If you get a license in California, right alongside your your license, you'll get an account to Metrc. And within Metrc, you have to use their barcodes. So they ship you barcodes, and then you tag your plants and track them throughout the system. Now where people like Trellis come in third party systems, we layer on top. So Metric only really deals with compliance issues. We deal with all of the operational workflows around it. So, you know, invoicing, sales, fulfillment, purchase orders, pretty much everything soup to nuts, we take care of on the operational side. And... But that being said, if you're using, like, an ERP system like ours and then also using Metrc, there's a lot of dual entry there. So we made sure that we had a very tight integration. So when you create plants and Trellis, that automatically flows into Metrc and creates the records there. And as everything moves through the supply chain, they do it in Trellis and then we just reflect that in Metrc. So it's single entry, but you get the benefit of all the operational workflows around the compliance as well.
00:15:11 · Pranav Sood, S1
[00:15:11] S2: For sure. Yeah. So I guess just a little bit of context. Metrc Sure. Is is a compliance system that governments put in place to manage licensees. So all the license... If you get a license in California, right alongside your your license, you'll get an account to Metrc. And within Metrc, you have to use their barcodes. So they ship you barcodes, and then you tag your plants and track them throughout the system. Now where people like Trellis come in third party systems, we layer on top. So Metric only really deals with compliance issues. We deal with all of the operational workflows around it. So, you know, invoicing, sales, fulfillment, purchase orders, pretty much everything soup to nuts, we take care of on the operational side. And... But that being said, if you're using, like, an ERP system like ours and then also using Metrc, there's a lot of dual entry there. So we made sure that we had a very tight integration. So when you create plants and Trellis, that automatically flows into Metrc and creates the records there. And as everything moves through the supply chain, they do it in Trellis and then we just reflect that in Metrc. So it's single entry, but you get the benefit of all the operational workflows around the compliance as well. [00:16:29] S1: Okay. That's great. Now, how does that marry with... How does that all come together with the the Ocarina offering? How does that all work?
00:16:29 · S1, Pranav Sood
[00:16:29] S1: Okay. That's great. Now, how does that marry with... How does that all come together with the the Ocarina offering? How does that all work? [00:16:38] S2: Yeah. So within Ocarina, obviously, they have a portfolio of products. MJ free... Or MJ Platform, sorry, was the the first one. And then there... There's ample organics that'll be coming into the fold as well. And then you have Trellis. You have Solo. So they have a bunch of different product lines that cater to very specific areas. I think Trellis and MJ Platform are very similar, but we manage different markets. So Mhmm. We have a strong penetration in California. MJ Platform does not. MJ Platform has strong penetration in other markets where Trellis does not. So we're actually very complimentary in But that in addition to that, from a product perspective, there's a lot of expertise that we bring in from Metrc, for example, or CCA, which is another similar compliance system in California that they can leverage for MJ Platform. MJ Platform has a really strong business intelligence engine for data analytics that Trellis does not. And then we can leverage that as well. So there's a lot of synergies between the two, both from a product perspective as well as just market penetration. [00:17:49] S1: No. That's great. That is that is that is awesome. Now the marriage hasn't been that long. So have you seen the benefit? Has it starting to pay off as a unit?
00:17:49 · S1, Pranav Sood
[00:17:49] S1: No. That's great. That is that is that is awesome. Now the marriage hasn't been that long. So have you seen the benefit? Has it starting to pay off as a unit? [00:17:59] S2: Yeah. Absolutely. I I think, I mean, first and foremost, we can start focusing our core competency, which is building really strong software and a good product and and our as opposed to having to worry about capital raise and those types of things. So that was number one. Second is pretty much overnight, we were able to expand and scale the business. We can now leverage a 30 plus support team as opposed to our, you know, four or five person support team prior to the acquisition. So there's a lot of fundamental sort of infrastructure that Akerna brought to the table that we were able to leverage right away. And then I think long term, as we start to integrate some of the back end products and those types of things, there's gonna be even more synergy there while we can continue to focus on a really strong front end system that provides the marketplace with yet another solution to to manage their workflow. [00:18:58] S1: No. That's that's great. Now, you know, when you talk about this, right, and and I think I had the same conversation with Jessica, is it starts to sound like it's an... It's it's a pathway to like blockchain in in the cannabis space.