Here’s a quick wrap up of the episode, and some links where you can watch the full length interview..
Watch the Full Interview (Just Hit Play)
Or listen to the Audio on Spotify and other podcast apps;
Subscribe for more Interviews each week!
In Summary
Colt Power the CEO & Nick Williams Director of Agriculture for Power Biopharms join Chase Nobles the Founder / CEO of kush.com on this HempList Podcast!
Power Biopharms operates an indoor hemp facility out of Fort Worth, Texas that prides itself on being fully vertically integrated, from ‘seeds in to finished products out’. Chase asks Colt & Nick about the learning curves faced while trying to get the business going, and having to master everything from growing indoors to extraction. Colt tried to do it himself, but it wasn’t easy, Nick explains some of the steps they had to take to get the indoor grow bug free, and growing high quality hemp flower.
Finally, the laws in Texas have been changing in regards to smokable flower and products like Delta 8 THC.. Chase asks Colt & Nick how it’s been dealing with Texas politics, and what their plans are for the future in the Hemp / Recreational Cannabis spaces.
Based in the heart of Dallas-Fort Worth, we are a family run indoor hemp cultivator, solvent-less processor and small-batch, cannabinoid-rich product manufacturer. We pride ourselves on being 100% Texan and transparently producing ultra-premium quality hemp flower and select offerings of hemp-derived products. We emphasize the community feel of a craft brewery while producing top-tier products and providing education and resources to consumers along the way.
https://www.powerbiopharms.com/
Subscribe for more interviews each week, also available on Spotify and podcast apps.
Transcript (Auto-Generated)
hey everybody chase nobles here founder
over at kush.com i’ve got a good show
for you today
colton powers of power biopharms out of
fort worth texas and we’ve got nick
williams here as director of agriculture
on the show as well can’t wait to get
started with you guys good morning how
are y’all doing
doing great you’re well doing well
right another beautiful day here at the
indoor farm
it always is right sunny and 70. so
all right i want to jump right into it
colton you know you’re one of many
businesses in this space why did you get
into the hemp industry what was the
what’s the origin story here give me a
little bit of background so to help the
audience know where you’re coming from
and why you’re doing it
sure sure well i’ll uh i’ll go i’ll go
back to my experience in college and
kind of where i started there i’d always
been drawn towards medicine i really
thought i wanted to be an orthopedic
surgeon i played lacrosse in college at
notre dame to the athletic
background from my end definitely helped
lead me to where we are here with the
company too but um
it was
uh oh my god i just completely blanked
out on what i was thinking
goodness on
yes yeah i went shout out to some
surgeries i drove down and watched uh
the team the team surgeon for the uh uh
the houston texans and immediately was
like i can’t do that but i still have
always wanted to do something i think we
just saw why you don’t do that you just
blacked out when you started thinking
about it
it really i started sweating through my
scrubs and was like kind of swaying like
i was about to pass out and the surgeon
was like you have to leave the room like
you can’t you can’t stay here for this
anymore so yeah at least it was pretty
cut and dry
that made it an easy decision
it did it did and uh so after that i
went to into the business school and and
loved that and it clicked and and that
ended up taking me into the real estate
world
after uh graduation and
did commercial real estate brokerage uh
in fort worth and around texas and
it was great but it didn’t necessarily
scratch that itch for
helping people i guess in the direct
kind of tangible wellness way that i’d
always wanted to and um
and at the same time throughout that
process i’d had the what is common i’m
sure most founders in the space that
one level or another they had a good
personal anecdote and i
messed my knees up pretty good playing
sports i have kind of degenerative issue
in my left one in particular where it
just always swells up they’re always for
eight years filled up until i started
taking cbd regularly kind of stumbled
into it on my own but it it
got caught my attention enough that i
just dove in had first you know started
reading every clinical study i could get
my hands on um
kind of coming at it from the
like i’ve heard all the anecdotes but if
the science is showing all this too then
i
i feel too compelled to not do it and uh
so when the when the office market
office commercial real estate market
fell out at the beginning of covid uh it
didn’t look like the best thing that to
focus on at the moment and i thought
it’d be a good time to
follow my lifelong dream of taking the
entrepreneurial jump and
i guess that at the same time
on the coincidental side
march of 2020 when covid really hit was
when texas finally launched their
production and processor programs were
finally able to participate and get a
license and not just
push products that have been made in
other places right we had just done our
trade show the texas same convention in
january of 2020
february march covet hits you know kind
of the world falls apart
and we were like holy cow did we you
know miss a bullet on that one because
if it was two months later
probably wouldn’t had a show you know
the whole thing was the whole world shut
down really really fast we got home from
that trip and the world was collapsing
around us watching at some of those
first cases as you guys know
but that being said you’re in it now
you’re in the entrepreneur you made that
leap
and you’re full bore building a great
brand down there in texas
and it has it does have that personal
story you know you mentioned you’re a d1
athlete or we’re a d1 athlete um
lacrosse you know at notre dame pretty
big school
parents were athletes your mom has some
challenges
i imagine you found this product and you
just couldn’t wait to tell everybody
else about it how did you turn that into
a brand though
um
i think what led us into the brand was
um
the rubber hitting the road with you
know it got my attention and it helped
me
and i knew it could help my mom and i
knew it could help my dad and other
people but i didn’t know what to
recommend to them and so it was kind of
building the brand and the company from
the ground up of like
how
would i make this in such a way that i
could trust it and believe and get
behind it to anyone i want to introduce
it to uh in a way that i didn’t feel at
that time uh or at least i wasn’t aware
of anything plus there’s always a
special uh do-it-yourself and
i think the differentiator that they got
me over the hump and we’re doing it
we’re doing the right way for what i’m
trying to accomplish is we do everything
start to finish here in-house i mean we
are our farm we are our extractor we are
the product manufacturer seeds come in
the door and finished product come out
the door and to me that means i know we
can deliver a
consistently a medical grade product
that
i can i can confidently tell people
we’ll help them
and it’s gotten better but as you know
you really didn’t know what you were
getting in a hemp or cbd product prior
to 2018 a lot of the product was
imported from other countries
no idea where it came from you know but
to take that on
farming
processing manufacturing and packaging
all of that must have been a pretty big
you know jump and having to learn that
quickly because that wasn’t that long
ago you know that was two years ago a
little less than two years ago really so
tell me about nick nick i know you’re on
the team i can’t wait to get into it on
the agricultural side you know colton
how’d you find nick nick what do you do
let’s just you know open up that can
because it like i said you must have had
to hire some good people to be able to
get that learning curve up and going to
do as much as you do you know in less
than two years
well yes let me say i we would we’ve
come a very long way we would not be
we’d be a very very different place that
had nick and i not been introduced to
each other when we were
um yeah that’s really been a
differentiator it has been and you know
we moved into the space we’re in here
that where we house
the entire operation described about a
year ago it was in february uh of last
year and it took until right now dealing
with the city and construction and just
the nuance of of you know how many
moving parts it is to really
become fully operational so yeah there’s
there’s a lot of learning curves but
um yeah i thought i was going to be the
grower myself was struggling in this big
warehouse by myself
was doing a great job of raising some
beautiful beautiful hermaphroditic
plants that were already seeding
themselves when uh when i was finally oh
man nick he just handed it over to you
man it sounds like you had bugs it
sounds like you probably had some you
know genetic issues all kinds of stuff
nick what was that cleanup process like
from and i hate to say it colton but
everybody that kind of thinks they can
jump in and grow a great product it’s
not easy especially indoors where you
know you’re in control of everything
outdoors you’re gonna get what you’re
gonna get to some level but indoors you
have to make sure it’s perfect if you
want a good product nick what was that
like jumping in getting started you know
to create a great product coming out of
the house versus you know um something
that you maybe weren’t as proud of
yeah at first you know
of course getting all the parameters in
the rooms and things like that set up
and and the temperature of the humidity
you know it’s it’s the big thing
so that the plants are happy
and i will say it being an older
building and thus happened to retrofit
everything it was at first a bit of a
struggle you know you you fight against
these pests they want those plants so
bad you know they’re hungry too
and that’s what they’re gonna eat you
know that’s what they’re there’s no way
around bugs in an indoor grow you’re
never gonna get rid of them but you can
keep them very under control
well you you so what you do is you get
them under control and then it’s just
preventative maintenance you can get rid
of them they’re gone
but you just keep spraying so they never
come back
and it’s it’s it’s that simple you just
stay on top of it so it doesn’t become a
problem
but we’ve got it under control we did
have a problem you know whenever we’re
finding strains we want to run and we
don’t know these genetics companies and
you get bad genetics
yeah it’s just hard to tell you can only
get so much information um until you
really run them and run them in you know
we we grow on a vertical system where
we’re height constrained or you know
because we we grow in aisles
we don’t grow on
rolling tables so everything the spaces
around the plants are fixed so we need
to find those strains that work really
well within that space um but laughing
about how far we’ve come to when you’re
saying as a challenge when we first
started here we now have i mean a lot of
sinks and drains you need you have to
we’re an indoor garden there’s a lot of
water going on but when we first started
we had a sink in a toilet of our ada
bathroom and that was it trying to run a
full garden and uh yeah it makes you
appreciative of the upgrades real quick
that sounds brutal that sounds brutal i
mean it’s it’s
no wonder that it was a challenge right
and and it is you almost have to do it
to know what you need to know right
there’s all these unknown unknowns and
the fastest way to learn what you guys
have had to do
um
is to do it right and so i’m sure you
realize real quick that sync wasn’t
going to power what you need to do to
grow in that space oh no definitely not
definitely not no now we have a 1100
gallon water tank right here i don’t
know if you can hear it in the
background but it’s just sloshing our
water around for us but yeah we don’t we
we’ve made significant upgrades to the
building and it’s just
this by the time we’re done with it and
scaling up within the next few months
it’s going to be a state-of-the-art
facility for sure hands down
now what is going on in texas you all
are kind of right there in the heart you
know of texas and texas is
poised to be such a good market but it
seems like regulators it’s kind of
three steps forward one step back you
know kind of a lot of variability and uh
fear i would say lack of stability
things changing what has that been like
operating in the state with you know
kind of that fear and uncertainty with
what’s going to happen moving forward
right well i mean it’s it’s definitely
part of our plan it has been all along
that we you know intend to play in the
medical space and eventually in the rec
space as things evolved and we’ve
incorporated that into our plans and and
the way we’ve designed facilities and
and decided to design the whole
operation and vertical integration but
with that said it became pretty clear
the more we we paid that much closer
attention to
the things that were happening yeah with
this the bands going on and off and and
new legislation and new challenges local
flower has been kind of one of those
conversations too right
that’s one of the reasons that uh yeah
we’re just now having this podcast now
and not six months ago or whenever the
first time i scheduled it was that was
our original 100 plant was growing
indoors for smokeable flower and so we
had to uh yeah we’ve had to pivot at
least at least within our heads like
back and forth three four different
times um
but it became clear that we were going
to just need to be extremely flexible
you know nimble on our feet and and take
an approach that wouldn’t be dependent
on um nothing against the some of these
other cannabinoids that have come up in
the last year but i think there’s
definitely fad trends and it’s just
going to be finding those you know the
loyal customers are there for for
something that they can count on on a
regular basis more than buying what’s
what’s hot right now um
because it could be five ten years
before texas opens up where we where we
uh
originally plan plan and hope to be and
even then there’s a chance that they
they go the way of florida or some of
the other states where they only issue
three or four licenses you can only have
them you never know i think texas is a
pretty free market so i’d like to see
some you know free market capitalism at
work but you know it’s always a hit or
miss you never know if uh
if the brother of some politician is
going to get one of those licenses that
you want that being said though you know
you can grow a ton of hemp outside get a
decent product extracted to make
products right you’re growing indoors
and you’re growing high quality flour i
would assume
and that is something that you know it
sounds like you are structuring for the
medical recreational cannabis market
um what are your expectations there in
texas how do you think about the
timelines how do you think about
planning for
you know expanding you know your total
addressable market to that product
category and then nick what do you look
at as far as like being ready for that
um
i to me this the security in in the
model in the plan was the vertical
integration from the start where we can
we can control our own operations enough
that we can really operate like a craft
brewery craft distillery where you know
we we don’t have to make oodles of the
stuff to be to be viable we can make
what we
have built a good audience for and and
serve a good strong local market and
obviously if things go well
expand and be poised um with the
competencies start to finish um i think
that that to me is where the real
comfort is if we know if we can figure
out now and over the next next
however many years really how to nail
every step in this process
whether that means texas hits us with
well your facility’s not gonna cut it
you’re gonna have to go build a new one
over here you have to do this to meet
the requirements you know it’ll be an
adjustment instead of starting from
scratch and and then trying to dive in
um yeah i feel like it’s a win-win uh
just kind of taking that approach yeah
and then from from my side of it
from the the growing standpoint all it
is is a different seed that’s all it is
i mean you just feed them a little bit
more the cannabis plant it just eats a
little bit more than the hemp implant
and with with how we’ve leaned into
solventless extraction and decided to go
that route and really become passionate
about it and we know enough to be
dangerous on the side of
as as easy as it is
or is not with cbd plants it only gets
easier and higher yields and and there’s
a lot more you can do with it once you
get into the
the high thc world and so i feel like if
we can nail it with this more
challenging
uh
extraction material then we’re going to
be even that much more better off right
the stability and the credibility on the
genetics of the thc side is much
different right there’s a lot of history
with that product and you know what
you’re getting and you know what you can
expect on a good yield especially with
you know controlled conditions like the
indoor garden
um you know at a microscopic level too
it’s fascinating because we’ve you know
been been trying to make sure it’s not
just us getting bad yields on on a
bubble hash wash or or dry saffron or a
rosin press but because the different
shapes the thc or tsc heavy plants and
cbd heavy plants have different shaped
trichome heads or predominant well they
don’t break off as clean and so you’re
just you know it’s an uphill battle
and uh yeah learning things like that
are definitely definitely a helpful part
of the process yeah if you can do those
processes with cbd
nailing it with thc is going to be much
easier and i i’m excited to see where
you all are a year from now two years
from now three years from now especially
when that market starts to open up in
texas and i think you all should be very
proud of the progress you’ve made over
the last you know year and a half that
it is incredible to see businesses pop
up
and you know really do something
interesting especially with a longer
term vision in mind you know a lot of
people are trying to make that quick
buck
and you all are building a business for
the future and i’m very excited to see
you all grow so
colton william it’s been a pleasure to
have you on the show is there anything
you want the audience to know before we
wrap up here
uh no i guess i’ll articulate that you
uh help me hit the nail on the head with
what i’ve thought all along it’s like in
in this market it’s like the training
wheel’s on you know it is a bigger
audience and you can go nationwide and
there’s definitely things that are that
can be easier but yeah we’re excited to
however this takes us and taking that
long-term approach
uh is exciting to me yeah definitely
right the power of brand building early
is there and you have a national market
with cbd and him i mean the opportunity
is still big um but targeting that local
market and having it you know play in
thc also makes it super interesting for
anybody else out there looking so um
colton appreciate your time nick
appreciate your time good luck power bio
farms it’s a pleasure having you guys on
the show
thank you very much really appreciate it
all right we’ll talk soon guys thank you