Venture Concept No. 2

Last year, the U.S. News and World Report ranked the University of Florida’s Shands Hospital as the second best hospital in Florida and one of the leading hospitals in cancer research. Because of this, people from all across the country have come here to Gainesville for treatment and specialty clinics. Even though Shands is always on the forefront of modern health and technology, medical marijuana was only welcomed to the city a year ago after Florida passed Amendment 2 in 2016. Today, there’s only one dispensary in a 5-mile radius of the hospital, which makes picking up a prescription difficult for patients not residing near Shands.

            I believe there’s an opportunity in Gainesville for a medical marijuana dispensary that can allow patients to download our app and schedule what product they’d like, when they’d like it, and if they’d like it delivered to them. Any of the 100,000+ medical marijuana patients in Florida would have a need for this, but especially patients who have chronic illnesses and are not physically able to pick up their prescription in stores. The most common medical marijuana patients suffer from either cancer, glaucoma, or HIV/AIDS, and some days those patients wake up and feel weak, unable to move or even think. There needs to be a way for Shands patients to plan their prescriptions, pre-pay for them, and have them delivered over having to drive to a dispensary (which is the only way they’re currently satisfying this need). This opportunity has come about thanks to political and social change in the community, with the law allowing medical marijuana to be bought and sold and people becoming more informed about the real, natural medicinal properties of weed. This market isn’t defined demographically at all – cancer, glaucoma, AIDS, epileptic patients are of all ages and races.

            My service, which would be called Mary Jane’s, will operate through an app where patients can set up their profile, browse through our inventory, select the products they wish to purchase, use Apple Pay or a CanCard to complete to purchase, then schedule the desired delivery time – all with a few taps on a screen. Each patient’s profile will consist of their medical marijuana license for verification, health history, preferred prescriptions and a profile photo so drivers know who to give the delivery. After setting up their profile, they can peruse through a plethora of CBD and THC products with different concentrations, strains and flavors. Whatever they add to their cart, they’ll be able to buy immediately either through their own credit card/Apple Pay, or they can have a Mary Jane’s CanCard which is a credit system created by the store that will give rewards to patients for being reoccurring customers. The CanCard will be Mary Jane’s main source of income from interest and purchases. In order to hire drivers that can legally deliver medical marijuana, they must have their own car and go through a training course (which is no cost). Drivers can also accept tips which can increase profit.

            No one knows better than patients how drastically a sickness can alter your mental and physical state. When patients experience that, they want nothing more than to make it stop. Marijuana is one drug that can alleviate pain, lack of hunger, cramps, anxiety… the list goes on. Those who use medical marijuana will use my service because it makes getting their prescription more convenient and efficient than it already is. The one dispensary near Shands doesn’t deliver and only takes cash, so they aren’t catering to those with crippling and/or physical illnesses. I don’t believe it will be hard to convince customers to switch to my service, because now they can get their prescriptions ahead of time, all through an app.

2. The feedback I received on my first venture concept was all positive. My peers complimented my passion for the subject and thought the CanCard and reward system will be very appealing to customers. While fellow students didn’t elaborate much on what I should change, one comment said that I should expand the service to all prescriptions. While this is a great idea and would expand my market greatly, my store would just become a pharmacy and I’d have to hire a certified pharmacist and team (and doctors of any sort are very expensive to hire and employ). I do want to keep my vision focused on the medical marijuana business and the patients that benefit greatly from the drug.

3. Other than making some grammar and wording changes, I didn’t change the concept of my venture. I think my idea is solid and has a detailed foundation for what the business will look like. Because I’ve sorted out the logistics of Mary Jane’s, I believe my next step would be to find a lawyer and begin the legal process to obtain a sell and distribute license for medical marijuana. I also believe I’ll have to find someone to code and build the app, as I don’t know how to do that myself.