Family Tree S2: Lockgreen
Lockgreen: Hey
448: Hey!
Lockgreen: Hey hey, everybody. Ron is driving so he won’t be on the Live but he will be ready for the actual interview.
448: Okay. Sounds good. Yes. Yes.
Lockgreen: Happy to be here with you guys today.
448: Yes. Thank you for joining us. We’re happy to have you.
Lockgreen: Absolutely
448: All right, so we have Sarah (Morton) with Lockgreen here. This is the Prelude to the Family Tree Series Season 2.
Sarah, we’re gonna let you introduce yourself.
Lockgreen: Yes. Hello everybody. As he mentioned, my name is Sarah. Sarah Kiah Morton. I am the CEO and Co-Founder of Lock Green. My husband and I have this company. We make stash boxes that give cannabis consumers peace of mind as they safely store and travel in their cars with cannabis.
I have one here. This is one of our designs. We have a built-in combination lock on it, which is really important, because as I mentioned, it keeps out people who don’t need to be in there. Including kids, roommates, pets, anybody else who you don’t wanna have access to your stash. But also very important when we’re traveling with cannabis in our cars. Many states have laws which require you to put it in your trunk, and also many states require them to be locked up or in some type of sealed container.
So it was very important to us that we provided a tool to the cannabis industry that helped protect cannabis consumers. So, this is one of our styles. Lockgreen OG. It’s just discreet, all black, has that built in lock, it’s smell proof, & has all types of compartments inside.But that’s our mission.
Our mission is, We’re trying to help prevent people from getting cannabis law violations. And we do that through educating the community and we do that through promoting the use of our stash boxes.
448: Yeah, that’s super important. I mean, hell, how long ago was it? I think It was like a month ago. Or maybe a little bit more like a month and a half ago.
I got hit with a simple possession charge. I got two of them. So I gotta pay like $1100 in fines, but we’ll figure that out.
Lockgreen: Wow. That’s in North Carolina
448: South Carolina.
Lockgreen: Oh South Carolina. Okay. Wow.
448: I mean, what you guys are doing is super important. Because if I had a lockgreen box at that point, I probably would not have gotten a charge.
Lockgreen: Whoa. Whoa. See? You need to get one! You need to get one! It’s what we do!
448 (Raz): Honestly, that’s a really great product for the people that actually grow their own. Um, because pretty much, it has to come in like a dispensary bag for you to be able to carry it around out here as well, in Massachusetts.
So for the people like myself, that grow for themselves.. We don’t have that kind of packaging. That’s just a great product to have. That way, you know, it’s safe and it’s locked away. Even if you do have to talk to the police, you know, you have at least a leg up then just walking around with a clear plastic baggie.
Lockgreen: There you go. There you go. Because, really.. The goal of it, and thank you @noshameinmyflowergame (in the audience). I saw your comment. I appreciate that. Thank you. The point of it is to make sure that if you get pulled over in your car, that the cop can’t assume that you’re consuming while driving.
Even if they’re being a jerk and they’re like, “I’m still gonna give you this. You had cannabis in your car.” Well, you know what? If it’s locked up and in your trunk, How are they gonna fare when you get in front of a judge? You know? You’re just arming yourself. You’re protecting yourself with a tool to where you can say,
“You know what? I was not consuming while driving. It was in my trunk. It was locked up.” You know, so we just wanna educate folks about the laws. It varies from state to state, but there are some similarities across the board. So we just wanna make sure that everyone’s protected.
448: Got it.
Q: So in a very lean way, without giving up too much information. Cause we’re gonna save that for the actual interview. They gotta wait for that content. How’d you guys come about? How did you come up with this product and this concept?
Lockgreen: Yeah, so when we do the interview, the content will be more robust cuz my husband will be on it as well and he’ll be able to talk, tell his piece.
Um, but we came about because, and I’ll just keep it real high level. We are very much involved in the cannabis industry here in Virginia and we’ve been involved in it for years. But when the law changed in 2021, when Virginia became the first state in the south to legalize adult-use cannabis, we’re proud of that.
When that happened, we looked at the laws and the open container laws, hey Derek Robertson (in the audience). The open container laws were so gray. It was clear because it said that it needed to be in your trunk, but it was not clear because just like what you said Raz, it’s has to be in an originally sealed manufacturer’s container, which doesn’t even exist because we don’t have a legal retail market.
So it was just, it was weird. So we were like, people are gonna be so excited about legal cannabis in Virginia, they’re gonna miss the details. The devil’s in the details, right. Of the law. So we’re like, how can we help prevent people from getting cannabis law violations? Number 1) Through education, as I mentioned. Number 2) By providing a locking stash box that can protect them.
So that’s how it came about.
448: Awesome, awesome. You know, I think that’s definitely something that’s necessary. I just like how you guys have kind of created your own lane and your own niche within the industry. You guys found a way to get into the industry without actually touching flower, your product actually holds the flower.
So kudos to you guys. We love to see more people of color finding their way into this space. Because that’s one of the main questions you hear, “How do I get in? How do I get in?” And when somebody asks that, the first question I always ask them is, “Why do you want to get in?” and then we go from there.
So kudos to you all again.
Lockgreen: Thank you. Thank you. Thank you!
448: Raz. You got anything else for us?
448 (Raz): Uh, yeah, so I always like to, find out a little background on the product.
Q: So when you came up with the idea, how many, I would say prototypes, did you have? Did you get it on the first try? Or did you have a couple models you came out with and were like, eh?
Lockgreen: Noo! Literally we have a bag full of prototypes. It’s in our storage with our inventory. It took a lot of different rounds. I mean, it took researching, I mean like, like if anyone doubts that they can get into it, just look at us. Like literally, I never would’ve thought I would’ve designed a stash box with my husband and we would’ve had a business.
When the idea came, we had so many good reasons behind it. We even made a commemorative version of our stash box because we wanted to celebrate. We wanted Virginia to celebrate being the first state in the south. So we had a celebratory decal on our first version of our stash box, our limited edition.
We just, Had to figure out how to make it happen. And once we figured out how to make it happen, then we had to do a design and then we had to tweak the design. So no, it wasn’t just an easy one time, it was us figuring out different ideas, trying them, and getting those prototypes back and those samples back to see which one worked.
And then we did a focus group as well with friends and family, consumers. We put out all of them and we’re just like, “Tell us what you think about each one.” Pros. Cons.
448 (Raz): That’s a nice market to test (friends & family)
Lockgreen: Oh yea. We threw in some competitors too. We threw some of those in there too. And we’re just like, we want your opinions on all of them.
What do you like? What don’t you like? And we took that literally and put it back into our design and tweaked some of our design into what we have.
448 (Raz): That’s wonderful.
Lockgreen: Yes, you were there @soulstirteawell (in the audience). They were there. Yes they were. Thank you. (Laughs)
448 (Raz): Thank you for giving your feedback on that. Now they have a great product out here.
Um, the other question I had is..
Q: In feedback you have received for the current model that you have, what were some things that people seemed to like or appreciate? Was it apparatus compartments or slots for holding multipurpose things or tools or were they specifically using it just to hold the flower?
What were some things that were interesting to you when you got feedback on reasons they were using it for?
Lockgreen: We designed it to be used across the board as best as we could, right? We wanted it to be used by the occasional consumer all the way to the everyday consumer.
We wanted it to be used by folks with flower, with vapes, with edibles, with tinctures, lotions, whatever. So we wanted to make it semi generic enough to be able to cater to all of those audiences. And who knows, perhaps future versions will be more tailored to certain consumption methods.
But right now that’s how we have it. People can fit grinders in there, glass jars can go in there. All types of things can fit in there. All types of accessories can fit in there. Look (demonstrates stash box). We have all types of pockets because we wanted to have storage, all types of different storage.
And these come out and move around as well. So people can customize them however they want.
448 (Raz): OHHH!!
Lockgreen: Yep. They come out all the way. We have foams that go in there where you can pick and pluck and pull and fit glass items in there so they don’t move.
Customization was very important for us, so that people felt connected to their stash box, but also so that different types of people could use it however they wanted to use it. My aunt is a diabetic. She uses hers for her diabetic supplies that she has to have with her at all times.
She has insulin needles at the top, her alcohol pads, everything and she literally carries it everywhere she goes.
448 (Raz): That’s awesome that is even across other platforms or mediums, it’s helpful.
Lockgreen: Oh yeah. Oh yeah. We just released a commercial. If y’all go to our page, the Instagram page and click on the link in our bio, you’ll see right there at the top is a commercial that talks about everyday lockgreen, everyday people using our stash boxes.
All different types of consumption methods, all ages. And you’ll see my aunt actually is in that video using her diabetic supplies and showing how she uses it.
448: Wonderful. Awesome. We’ll take a look at that.
Well, I think we’re gonna wrap it up right there and then people are gonna have to stay tuned for the rest of the interview.
