Photo Credit: Nathan Avila

“The largest contribution the Catalyst team made was our time and resources. Government funding should be used to supplement these practices and incentivize established businesses in the cannabis space to help social equity businesses get off the ground” – Elliot Lewis, CEO Catalyst Cannabis Co.

LONG BEACH, Calif. (PRWEB)
August 04, 2021

Catalyst Cannabis Co., a leading California-based cannabis retailer is pleased to announce the opening of their first private sector social equity incubator, Pusherman Delivery. Co-founded by Carlos Zepeda, Pusherman Delivery marks the first and only social equity applicant run cannabis delivery business in Long Beach, CA and is one of the few private sector funded social equity incubators in the industry. As the creators behind the Weed For The People movement, Catalyst is committed to long term change in the cannabis space with a new Catalyst Cares division that takes industry injustices head on and activates numerous philanthropic causes in the communities they serve.

To make Pusherman Delivery a reality, Catalyst Cannabis Co. put up their delivery licence under the Eastside Catalyst location along with funding 100% of the start-up costs, compliance and workforce training. In return, Pusherman Delivery will receive 100% of incoming sales when profitable. Catalyst also worked with Weedmaps to get Pusherman a free account for a year which accounts for a big chunk of start-up marketing costs. “This is about creating true equity in the cannabis community.” says Catalyst Cannabis Co. CEO, Elliot Lewis. “There is a lot of pushback from special interest cannabis groups that are worried about dilution. Out of over a hundred approved applicants in the Long Beach social equity program, only one person has received a licence, this is the heart of the problem.”

“The largest contribution the Catalyst team made to this project was the use of our time and resources to train the staff and get the business up and running. Government funding should be used to supplement these practices and incentivize established businesses in the cannabis space to help social equity businesses get off the ground.” says Lewis. Pusherman’s incubator model is meant to give social equity applicants a pathway to start a legitimate business in the cannabis space. Pusherman is dedicated to hiring practices that will continue to empower the community, with a team made up of a 75% female staff chosen from a pool of social applicants.

“When I first reached out to Elliot, we immediately started brainstorming on how to overcome obstacles for social equity applicants. He made himself available, shared knowledge, and later shared his resources which included access to his entire Catalyst Cares team, his operations team, product and a building space. Besides policy, major barriers to overcome in the legal cannabis space for the Black and Brown community is access to capital and access to property. In Long Beach 0% percent of cannabis businesses are owned by the Black community and 2% percent are owned by the Brown community. Unfortunately, this is not unique to Long Beach; it’s endemic statewide. Private sector social equity projects like this one are part of the solution. I am proud to be part of Long Beach’s first ever social equity delivery, Pusherman.” – Carlos Zepeda, CEO, Pusherman Delivery

Zepeda is a first generation immigrant whose parents came to the United States at a young age from the Caribbean coast of Honduras from a small coastal town named Tela. He was the first in his family to get an undergraduate degree and later completed his Master’s degree in Public Health. Zepeda’s interest in entering the cannabis space stems from the direct impact the war-on-drugs had on him and his family. When legalization in California passed, Zepeda saw a chance to somewhat correct the disparity of the past. After spending and losing a significant portion of his life savings plus accruing debt from his initial attempt to enter the legal cannabis space, he decided to enter the social equity program in Long Beach and was approved as an applicant. After getting approved, he again encountered extreme obstacles to getting a licence from being able to lease a space to navigating City politics. It was from these roadblocks he reached out for advice and partnership opportunities from numerous local government and cannabis companies, only to get the runaround. It was Catalyst, who answered the call and responded to help develop this project.

Earlier this year, Catalyst Cannabis Co. was the only cannabis operator in the city of Long Beach in support of additional brick and mortar licenses, pushing the city to include these additional licenses as part of ongoing study into expanding social equity ownership. The initiative was passed by the city council but is dependent on an upcoming study session in which a town hall will be held virtually to gather comments from the community which will be used for a feasibility study on this initiative. Lewis, having a passion to push these initiatives forward, realized the red tape that social equity applicants had to go around made it near impossible to own and operate a profitable business. The opening of Pusherman will mark a unique case study in the industry on what it takes to create and empower social equity applicants to achieve success and long-term careers in the industry.

For further information on Catalyst Cannabis Co. please visit catalyst-cannabis.com or follow them on Instagram @PushermanDelivery710 or any of their five locations @catalyst_eastside, @catalyst__cherry, @catalyst__bellflower, @catalyst_santaana, @catalyst_belmontshore, and their community outreach page @catalyst.cares.

For Media Inquiries Contact:

Julia Axelrod

HiFi Exchange

julia@hifiexchange.us

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