When veteran retail executive Ed Schmults received an out-of-the-blue phone call from a headhunter in July, he had no idea that in just a few short months he'd end up as the CEO of a cannabis company.
As the new CEO of Massachusetts-based Calyx Peak Capital — a firm that invests in cannabis retail licenses in a number of states — he's now looking to build out his team.
And he's not looking for big-name executives.
"Some of our competitors are out there trumpeting their executives from multibillion-dollar companies, and I'm sure those men and women are awesome," Schmults told Business Insider in an interview. "But I think what you really want at the start of an industry are people who've been involved in smaller companies who can work fast, be nimble, and wear multiple hats."
Schmults said the cannabis industry is "evolving almost daily." That's why he's focusing his recruiting on people who have deep experience in smaller businesses "where everyone's going all out," rather than mega-corporations.
"You know, I'm looking for people with the quintessential entrepreneurial experience," Schmults said. "I need people who can create the reports themselves and make decisions on the fly."
To Schmults, that sweet spot between startup and multibillion-dollar firm is what he knows best.
After a stint at Goldman Sachs, Schmults spent seven years at Patagonia in California and Tokyo in the 1990s — while the outdoor-oriented clothing brand was rapidly growing — before he was recruited to turn around another clothing company, Moonstone Mountain Equipment.
He parlayed that experience into executing a turnaround of FAO Schwarz, the storied New York City toy retailer.
Schmults said the headhunter calling him about the CEO position at Calyx was "one of those cock-your-head-to-the-side" moments.
"I was like, 'Huh, cannabis? I'll have to think about that,'" Schmults said. But the more he dug in, the more he realized that the potential health benefits of the plant were "astonishing."
"At the end of the day, I really liked the investors," Schmults said.
And the chance to take what he learned across his career to build a team from the ground up was a "rare opportunity" that doesn't come along so often, Schmults said.
"I just think it's a fascinating intellectual opportunity and a chance to remove the stigma," Schmults said.
See also:
- The top 12 venture-capital firms making deals in the booming cannabis industry that's set to skyrocket to $75 billion
- The CEO of the biggest cannabis company in the US reveals what's next following a $682 million acquisition
- Hedge fund legend Leon Cooperman is investing in the marijuana industry — and it's another sign the sector is heating up
