In 2018, Ben Larson was ahead of the curve when he co-founded Vertosa, a company that creates cannabis infusions for sodas, cold-brew coffees and other water-based beverages. Larson, a former venture capitalist skilled at venture capitalist skilled at growing startups, believed the market for THC-infused beverages was about to take off.
But there was a problem. “Vertical integration was a big trend in the cannabis space,” Larson recalls. That is, due to a lack of trust in the burgeoning industry, many beverage companies were opting to create their own infusions in-house instead of partnering with a company like Vertosa. “But that’s not how mainstream markets are made.”
To push against that trend, Larson set out to make Vertosa the industry’s most trusted partner for high-quality infusions. He started from within, building a culture of trust and high performance among his employees.
That meant hiring top talent. “A-players like to work with A-players,” he explains. He also invested in training and assessments that encouraged employees to be honest about their strengths and weaknesses, thereby building trust and encouraging personal and professional growth.
Many of these tools came from Vistage, of which Larson and two of his senior leaders are members. For instance, Larson applied Patrick Lencioni’s The 6 Types of Working Genius, a framework he learned from his Vistage Chair, Darrell Jackson, to help employees identify the types of work that bring them joy and energy. He also had employees complete the Positive Intelligence Self-Sabotage Assessment by Shirzad Chamine, another tool used in his Vistage group, to identify and reflect on their workplace saboteurs.
More recently, he shared a framework for resolving conflict that he picked up from a Vistage speaker: Instead of responding to a crisis or problem with ABC (Avoid, Blame or Complain), respond with ACE (Assess, Create a Solution and Execute a Solution), the framework suggests. In keeping with this idea, Larson encourages his employees to talk openly about workplace challenges and use “radical candor” with one another, “but from a place of love and care.” The goal is to “create psychological safety because that’s how you create trust,” he says.
Because of its top-notch employees and culture, Vertosa has experienced bursts of productivity. For example, when a facility manager started questioning one of the company’s manufacturing processes, he was entrusted to experiment with other approaches. “He ended up taking a formula with a potency of 50 milligrams per gram and, overnight, proved that it could be manufactured at 200 milligrams per gram and with a more stable end result,” says Larson. “And that didn’t come out of R&D. It didn’t even come from the manufacturing team. It came from the person running the facilities.”
The company is now on a trajectory of significant growth. “We doubled the business last year, and we’ll probably double it again this year,” Larson says, adding, “At some point, this will be a billion-dollar company.”
Larson notes that the cannabis beverage category is projected to gain 10-20% of alcoholic beverage sales over the next several years, reflecting a growing trend in alternative adult beverages and putting Vertosa in the right place at the right time. However, he credits the company’s success to its people and culture. “Trust is why we are so successful.,” he says. “We are relentlessly driving forward, everyone trusts each other internally and we’re building trust with our customers and partners. That is more powerful than any technology or service we can offer.”
