Cannabis-tech startup Green Bits just replaced its longtime CEO with a tech industry veteran. We got the first interview with the new exec.
- Cannabis tech startup Green Bits is bringing in Barry Saik, a tech industry veteran, as its new CEO. He'll be taking over from co-founder and longtime CEO Ben Curren.
- Green Bits is a Silicon Valley-based software platform that provides point-of-sale and retail management services to cannabis dispensaries in California and other states where cannabis is legal.
- The company is backed by Tiger Global Management - the firm led Green Bits' $17 million Series A funding round in April of last year.
- Click here for more BI Prime stories, and subscribe to our weekly cannabis newsletter, Cultivated.
Cannabis tech startup Green Bits is bringing in a new CEO, Business Insider has learned.
Barry Saik, a tech industry veteran and former chief operating officer at HealthTap, has replaced Ben Curren, Green Bits' co-founder and longtime CEO. Curren will stay on as executive chairman.
Saik has held a number of senior roles at tech companies including a stint as a senior vice president and general manager at GoDaddy, as well as various senior roles at Intuit.
"I wasn't specifically seeking out the cannabis industry," Saik told Business Insider in a Wednesday afternoon phone interview. "Once I learned about the business and the industry, it was a good fit," with his career history, he said.
"When you add in the cannabis industry, which is this exciting, burgeoning, nascent industry with all kinds of things going on, and huge growth coming, it's a really exciting opportunity," Saik said.
'The right time to hand over the reins'
Curren said he'll remain involved with the company and focus on engineering and innovation.
"I'm a serial entrepreneur," Curren told Business Insider. "I'm a very good starter. So as the company continued to grow, it was always my plan as we got to a certain scale to take us from an established business to something even larger."
"It really felt like the right time to hand over the reins to someone that's much better at taking us from hundreds to thousands of employees," says Curren.
Green Bits is based in Silicon Valley. The startup provides retail management software and point-of-sale services to dispensaries in states with legal cannabis.
The company most recently raised a $17 million Series A funding round in April of last year, led by Tiger Global Management.
As for future plans, Saik says a startup at Green Bits' stage is always looking to hire new people and always looking for new investors.
"It's interesting right now that in this marketplace, we're actually seeing a lot more interest from the investment community," Saik says.
- Read more:
- The CEO of the top-selling cannabis shops revealed how a strategy he shares with Starbucks is crucial to his success
- Wall Street stock traders are piling into bets against cannabis stocks, even as shares have plummeted
- Accountants are making millions from the Canadian cannabis industry, and KPMG is leading the pack. Here's how much each of the top firms is raking in.
- The man who built Canopy Growth into the world's biggest cannabis grower before being ousted told us why he picked pet-food CBD and psychedelics for his next ventures
