American rapper Berner, CEO of Cookies, the popular California-based cannabis brand, is the first cannabis executive to grace the cover of Forbes.
In a tweet, Berner called the cover treatment a “dream of some of the world’s greatest CEOs.”
“Extremely honored and blessed to be one of the faces of federal legalization in our country,” the 38-year-old added.
wow! Extremely humbled and blessed to be one of the faces for federal legalization in our country! Even more humbled to land the cover of @Forbes Magazine which is the dream of some of the largest CEO’s in the world. https://t.co/QMVE0OFVvO check it out! RT pic.twitter.com/rL8OWznSZv
— Berner (@berner415) August 2, 2022
In June, Business Insider reported that Cookies was “the world’s first legal weed brand, worth a billion dollars”.
The company operates 49 dispensaries in the United States and also markets a popular clothing line around the world. According Business Insiderthe Cookies clothing line alone generated $50 million in sales last year.
Earlier this year, the company partnered with Gage Growth Corp. to open the first Cookies store in Canada. The Canadian product line is grown by Pure Sunfarms, using Cookies genetics and post-production processes.
Founded in 2010, Cookies has become the most well-known cannabis brand in the world. The company has over 70 proprietary cannabis cultivars and over 2,000 products in its lineup.
Early in his entrepreneurial career, Berner was reportedly offered $800 million for the company.
“I mean, I had to think about it for a while. I want people to be motivated and I want people to know that the first proposal is not the best, ”he said in 2020, discussing the offer mainly in shares of a Canadian producer who was not cited.
“I looked at it this way: If the first contract I got was for $800 million and it was mostly stocks – and stock play can be great then fall – and everyone goes public at the same time, what if I refuse? It makes me a boss,” he said.
Berner did not leave empty-handed, however. Instead, he opted for $10 million in cash for 10% of the company.
“I’ll look at that $800 million and be like, ‘Thank God I didn’t do that.’ Or maybe not. But that’s the risk I was willing to take,” he said in the podcast, which you can find below.
