Millis marijuana company CommCan Inc., one of 11 Massachusetts cannabis businesses run by women, has been certified by the state as a woman business enterprise.
The designation, by the Massachusetts Operational Services Division of the Supplier Diversity Office, makes the company, registered as Commonwealth Cannabis Co., the first woman-owned designee cultivating and selling medical and recreational marijuana, said Co-owner Ellen Rosenfeld.
Rosenfeld said the three-year certification puts CommCan on the map as a pioneer in breaking through the diversity challenges in the Bay State’s cannabis industry.
There are other women in the pot trade, including Caroline Frankel, who owns Caroline’s Cannabis in Uxbridge. Frankel was the first to open a woman-owned dispensary in Massachusetts.
But Rosenfeld said it’s tough for women to gain entry into the male-dominated industry because the startup costs are so high.
“When I got started, I thought I needed $3 million,” she said. “You need three times that. The HVAC system alone for a cultivation center is $4 million. Women don’t have access to that kind of cash, and the hedge fund and venture capital markets are all male-dominated.”
Rosenfeld, 65, said she and her brothers, who have spent their careers as developers, did not need loans to launch.
“We are 100% self-funded,” she said. “We didn’t borrow a dime.”
Rosenfeld operates CommCan with her two brothers, Marc and Jon. The family has been in Millis for more than a century, since Rosenfeld’s grandfather settled there in 1910.
CommCan has a 60,000-square-foot cultivation facility in Medway, a medical-only dispensary in Southborough, and a recreational and health center in Millis.
The commonwealth’s Supplier Diversity Office of the Operational Services Division certifies diverse businesses and works to enhance the marketability of small and diverse businesses when they bid on public contracts.
