While some twentysomethings are still acclimating to adulthood and figuring out how to survive without the usage of their parents’ health insurance, Hope Wiseman, 26, has been busy making history. The Spelman graduate, business mogul and entrepreneur can now add youngest U.S. Black dispensary owner to her already impressive résumé.
The Maryland native began her career in investment banking before surprisingly making a drastic shift into the cannabis industry. In 2017 Wiseman founded Mary & Main, a dispensary created as a safe space to inform consumers on the truth about cannabis, the benefits of medical marijuana, healing herbal treatments and much more. Below Wiseman digs into how she launched her business.
How does a girl from Prince George’s County Maryland end up the youngest Black dispensary owner in the USA?
I come from a long line of women entrepreneurs so I was raised with an entrepreneurial way of thinking. Once I got into college, business became more of my focus and I became an economics major which ultimately led me to a career in investment banking. It was my inherited entrepreneurial spirit coupled with my economics and finance background that allowed me to be inspired by the growth of the Cannabis industry.
Take us through the early stages of founding Mary & Main.
I had seen the CNBC Cannabis reports and was amazed at how mainstream it was becoming with people along the likes of Dr. Sonja Gupta bringing awareness to the medicinal benefits that the plant offers. I thought to myself, how can I be a part of this? I began to do my research and realized that the laws surrounding the industry were extremely complicated and simply difficult to find. Finally, I uncovered that my home state of Maryland had passed a bill legalizing medical cannabis and would be issuing licenses within the next year. I knew then, that was my in.
Click here to read the rest of the article written by Ashley Mcdonough over at Essence Magazine