“I have a passion for people,” says Gerry Dumani, co-founder of the cannabis Enterprise Resource Planning platform Figgro, “I love to talk to business owners and operators. We are not in the business of just selling software, we are building solutions.”
Gerry combines compassion and empathy with his skills as a technology specialist to put the needs of cannabis businesses at the forefront, something that he, along with co-founder Marc Wells, has built right into Figgro’s business model. The company was created in 2020 based on what Gerry and Marc had seen unfold in the cannabis industry in Colorado and some of the business challenges cannabis companies were experiencing from seed to sale.
“We understood the pain points,” Gerry said. “What was lacking was data and intelligence and SOP process know-how. Back then, at the peak of Colorado’s cannabis industry a lot of operators grew very quickly, but lacked the savvy skills and tools needed for scale and optimize efficiencies.”
“It became a vision to create a cloud platform where we have the tools to help folks across the entire supply chain, from cultivation through distribution,” says Gerry, who blends his technology specialization with Marc’s over 25 years of experience in entrepreneurial pursuits in Hospitality, Banking, and Real Estate.
Figgro is a seed-to-sale platform built for cannabis extractors, post processors, manufacturers, and distributors. “It is intended to help business owners make important strategic decisions to help their businesses run smoothly, track inventory, manage the supply chain, and optimize for yield and quality.”
Understanding the Needs of Operators
The solutions that Figgro offers hinge on the company’s ability to understand the unique needs of operators. A big part of Figgro’s business model is what they call the “80/20 rule”, where 80% of what Figgro provides companies is a baseline of products such as SOP templates, tracking and compliance tools, inventory management tools, and integration with QuickBooks to manage financials.
20% of the company’s offerings are tailored to the specific businesses they work with. “We recognize that no two businesses are exactly the same,” Gerry says.
A recent partnership where Figgro implemented the 80/20 rule is with the Town of Moffat, Colorado, which has the highest concentration of cannabis licenses in the United States. Figgro worked with the local government and cannabis operators to build a new module to help the companies compliantly calculate and file their taxes and the government bodies collect in a meaningful way.
A Real-Time View of Business Operations
What is unique about what Gerry and Marc offer with Figgro is that it allows operators to track Work In Progress Inventory throughout the production process from obtaining raw materials to formulation, production, distribution, and sales. “There was a lack of understanding on how to track raw materials inventory that wasn’t in a finished state,” Gerry observed.
The SOP templates offered by the company allow operators to automate their processes as they never have before to ensure every material, formulation, piece of machinery used, and process to ensure the best consistency or higher yields is accounted for and tracked. “By creating these templates, we started making it really easy to have a little bit of predictiveness and be in a better position to optimize for a better yield,” Gerry says.
Inventory and order management tools also help producers receive orders through a centralized system and know what’s coming down the orders pipeline at any time through real-time notification and tracking tools. It also automates customer communications.
“[Figgro] allows you to know where things stand at any time,” Gerry explains. “How is your business performing at every stage?”
Advancing Social Equity in the Cannabis Industry
Figgro has a deep commitment to advancing social equity within the cannabis industry. “Sometimes we just see lip service in what people want to do for social equity,” Gerry says. “We put our money where our mouth is.”
The company recently sponsored the MJ Unpacked Social Impact Scholarship Program in partnership with Our Academy, which provides workshops, mentorship programs, and resources to individuals impacted by the War on Drugs, social equity applicants, and legacy operators.
Gerry, Marc, and the Figgro team are witnessing where social equity programs within the cannabis industry are missing the mark and are advocating for better social equity solutions. In Colorado, they are seeing that one of the biggest obstacles for social equity cannabis businesses to be successful is a lack of funding after a company gets licensed as the cost to open and operate a cannabis business is extremely high.
Colorado also implemented a policy where all licenses for cannabis delivery were provided only to social equity operators; however, there was nothing mandatory within that policy that dispensaries could not keep delivery services in-house or must use social equity delivery companies. “The intentions are great,” Gerry remarks, “But let’s put people in a favorable condition.”
To do their part to help social equity licensees, the company offers the Figgro platform for free for a specific period of time, after which a company can retain Figgro’s tools at a heavily discounted price so that using the platform can be sustainable. Figgro invites social equity licensees to reach out to request a demo of the platform through the company’s contact form or by emailing hello@figgro.com.
In early 2024, Figgro will be partnering with BIPOCann on a webinar series to help members optimize their use of materials and cost of goods and understand their cost per unit starting with “Fundamentals of Manufacturing & Production Costing”.
Helping Companies Grow as they Grow
Figgro has gained a lot of ground since it was conceived by Gerry and Marc in 2020. In early 2023, the company gained widespread recognition with a feature in Forbes, and continues to create meaningful partnerships that focus on bringing important solutions to the business of cannabis.
BIPOCann suggests Figgro as a company to watch as they continue to break ground with innovative solutions to some of the industry’s biggest business problems while helping to advance social equity.
“We take pride in what we do because we love solving problems,” Gerry says. “There are not a lot of cannabis technology companies that are minority-owned. It’s important for us to stick around because we need representation.”