The legal cannabis industry is growing and new avenues for entrepreneurship are flourishing. One Black woman cannabis entrepreneur is leading the way in a new sphere of activity: cannabis data analytics. Sarasota entrepreneur Carmen Brace founded Aclara Research in 2016. Aclara, one of the leading cannabis analytics entrepreneurs, surveys consumers, conducts focus groups and works with large global data companies to learn more about what consumers are looking for in the cannabis market.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, which forced Carmen Brace ancillary cannabis to steer clear of in-person focus groups and consumer panels, Aclara Research connected with two large players in the data industry, Nielsen Global Media and Ipsos. Together, they developed profiles of the consumer preferences of 30,000 cannabis consumers throughout the country. The companies are marketing their results to retailers and manufacturers to provide consumers with more choices that are better attuned to their needs and wants. The model they developed is scheduled for release in 2022, and Sarasota entrepreneur Carmen Brace looks forward to it becoming an industry standard.
Carmen Brace ancillary cannabis was featured in a profile in Forbes magazine, hailing her as an innovative Black female CEO in a space that too often excludes women of color. Between 2014 and 2019, the number of businesses owned by Black women grew by 50%, and there were over 2.5 times as many Black women with more than $1 million in external investment in their companies in 2020 as there were two years before in 2018.
Brace, playing a leading role among cannabis analytics entrepreneurs, is building on her experience in consumer packaged goods, or CPGs. These are typically the kind of items shoppers might find in a supermarket or retail chain, like food, drinks or personal care products, that require frequent restocking. The scanning data collected by supermarkets, drugstores and other major retailers feed into a large data system maintained by major food and grocery companies. This information is used to make decisions about product changes, introductions and discontinuations.
Brace worked for 20 years in CPG analytics for a range of major companies, including Walmart, Publix, Kroger and Campbell’s Soup. Now, she wants to bring that level of data knowledge and customization to legal cannabis. Forecasts predict that the market for cannabis products could reach $41 billion by 2025, a massive market ripe for data collection and analytics to improve retailers’ and manufacturers’ reach and customer satisfaction.
Brace expects that the capture of point-of-sale data about cannabis consumption, then funneled to manufacturers and vendors, will soon become a major business. Unlike other industries, the cannabis market actually expanded during the COVID-19 pandemic, with sales in 2020 reaching $18 billion. This marked a 33% increase in sales over the prior year.
As more states legalize cannabis for medical or recreational use, the federal classification of marijuana as a Schedule I drug continues to limit some investment in the cannabis industry. However, Brace expects that some other barriers may soon fall, including the 280e section of the federal tax code. Unlike other businesses, cannabis companies may not deduct expenses related to their sale of cannabis from their income, leaving all of their revenue fully taxable. Brace expects that the political changes that have taken place in Congress and the White House may provide a more receptive environment for this type of cannabis industry reform.
