Cimone Casson just wanted Martin Luther King Jr. Day off. When she asked for it, at her high-powered beauty stylist job in Chicago, and was told no, she quit.
“Well, I gave them two weeks’ notice,” she says. But then she decided, “I’m going to work in a bank. They always get Martin Luther King Jr. Day off.” Her career as a banker helped her gain all sorts of useful knowledge – she became a licensed banker in nine months, moved up to financial advisor, managed $100 million in assets, and got into insurance, which the bank was testing the waters on at the time.
But, “I was not happy,” she says.
She came to Michigan to visit her mom over a long Memorial Day weekend (bankers get those), but the long weekend turned into a month, and now it’s been years. She was in Michigan during the lead-up to the 2018 election, when recreational marijuana was legalized in the state.
“Cannabis has a problem with banking,” she admits, “but it is mandatory they get insurance, general liability insurance.” She Googled “Commercial Cannabis Insurance Agency” and found four in the entire state. “I made it five.”
Then she commenced getting the required licenses and got to work. “I had never sold Property and Casualty insurance before. Ever. It was a year before I made a dime,” she says.
This was just before the pandemic, which got her busy organizing. She joined the Cannabis Regulatory Association as chair of the Social Equity workgroup’s Access to Capital Sub-committee. One of the first things she noticed was that all the professional development options centered on growing, without much attention paid to running a business.
“The average shelf life for a cannabis business is 24 months,” she says. “They’re not structured to be business owners and, when you’re an entrepreneur, your head is all over the place.”
Using her knowledge from the banking world, she helped create the Social Equity All-Star Program that encourages cannabis businesses to be proactive in their diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives. She also branched out in her own business, insuring craft beverages, professional athletes, and hospitality businesses, notoriously complicated industries to insure. “Cannabis could sustain the business, but branching out helps with attracting investors,” she says.
The business grew, as did the pandemic. One day, in the converted factory where she has an office, she spotted a flyer with a picture of a Muskegon barber on it, offering help with Paycheck Protection Program loans, a federal program that helped business owners pay their employees even if they weren’t working. The loans could be forgiven.
Casson got help from Northern Initiatives on a $20,000 PPP loan that was forgiven, one of 88 PPP loans Northern Initiatives made, all forgiven, mostly to people who previously had no ties to Northern Initiatives.
As Casson continued to grow her insurance business, she needed more working capital, but “banks didn’t even want my money.”
Because Northern Initiatives receives federal funds, it is not allowed to lend money to cannabis businesses. But Casson’s involvement in cannabis is tangential. “My company sells insurance and we are an ancillary company, which means we do not touch the plant. We are not federally illegal.”
Using funds from the Muskegon Community Foundation, Northern Initiatives loaned her the money she needed to get Cannas Capital up to its current $12.5 million valuation. She currently employs seven full-time insurance agents and four part-time agents with a goal to hire 10 more in the next six months. “My goal is to get everyone to work for me,” she laughs. Her current team spans continents and she makes good use of “AI Cimone” to explain the business to potential investors, customers and employees. Cannas Capital is licensed in 15 states.
