Today we’d like to introduce you to Brett Harris.
Hi Brett, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
LUVBUDS started in 2015, but the story really began long before cannabis. I have been an entrepreneur for most of my adult life. My background includes product development, importing, distribution, e-commerce, sales management and consulting. I grew up around a family business and learned early that selling a product is only the beginning. You still have to source it, finance it, deliver it, collect the money and earn the next order.
When Colorado launched adult-use cannabis, I began consulting with newly licensed companies. It was an unusual moment because an entire industry was being built in real time. Everyone was learning—retailers, regulators, vendors, banks and consumers.
Dispensaries were becoming very sophisticated about the regulated products they sold, but many of the legal, non-THC products surrounding the purchase were still being treated as an afterthought. Retailers needed a professional and dependable source for those products, and I believed that need would grow as the industry matured.
I founded LUVBUDS from a guest bedroom. In the beginning, I was doing nearly everything—selling, sourcing products, packing orders and solving whatever problem appeared that day. There was no elaborate master plan. We listened to customers, kept adjusting and tried to do what we said we would do.
LUVBUDS was initially a consignment business. I wanted to create a value proposition that was nearly impossible to reject—one that no retailer could honestly look at and say no to. We no longer operate on consignment, but the underlying principle has not changed: Create enough genuine value that doing business with us becomes an easy decision.
Over time, the company grew beyond Colorado. We built a team, developed relationships throughout the industry and expanded into a national business serving dispensaries across the country.
The company is far more sophisticated today, but the basic principle remains the same: Understand what the customer needs, be dependable and earn the relationship every day.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Not remotely—but I do not know many worthwhile entrepreneurial stories that are.
Nothing in business goes exactly as expected, and my crystal ball shattered years ago. In this particular industry, everything seems to take a little longer and requires more patience. Even ordinary testing and implementation can become more complicated than they should be.
I have had to learn patience, and we have faced circumstances no one could prepare you for in business school: a global pandemic, tariff wars, legislation that can damage entire categories of business, banking restrictions, freight disruptions and product shortages.
Even though LUVBUDS does not sell cannabis or touch the plant, banks, insurance companies, payment processors and other institutions have not always understood—or cared about—the distinction. We operate a legal, non-THC business but still encounter many of the obstacles associated with the cannabis industry.
We have seen a great deal, and every time something new happens, I find myself saying, “Now I have seen it all.” Time continues to show me how naive that statement is.
Every stage of growth has exposed something else that needed to improve. The people, systems and habits that get a company through its first few years are not necessarily enough to carry it through the next phase.
That has been one of my most important lessons: Growth does not hide weak execution. It exposes it.
There were plenty of moments when the easier decision would have been to stop. What kept us moving was the belief that we were building a real company in an industry that would eventually demand greater professionalism and discipline.
We made mistakes, learned from them and kept showing up. That resilience has become part of the company’s character.
Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about LUVBUDS?
LUVBUDS is a national cannabis accessories and dispensary-supplies company. We do not sell cannabis. We provide the legal, non-THC products used alongside it, including papers, cones, grinders, glass, storage products, batteries, vaporizers, lighters, cleaning products and general retail supplies.
We work with independent dispensaries as well as larger retail organizations across the United States. We carry many recognizable national brands and also develop products of our own.
What sets us apart is not one secret product or marketing campaign. It is the consistency of the company we have built.
Cannabis has attracted plenty of businesses that arrived with big promises and disappeared when the market became difficult. LUVBUDS has been here since 2015. Our customers know that we will answer the telephone, take responsibility and work to solve the problem when something goes wrong.
I am most proud of the LUVBUDS brand itself. Over time, the name has come to represent a company that is straightforward, dependable and serious about its customers.
I am also proud that we have created careers and supported families. As an entrepreneur, the business may begin as your own idea, but it eventually becomes much larger than you. Your decisions affect employees, customers, vendors and all the people who depend on them.
Products will change and industries will evolve. The reputation you earn and the people you build the company with are what endure.
What were you like growing up?
I was curious, competitive, independent and probably a little impatient. I was never especially good at accepting, “That is just how it has always been done.”
I was also the class clown. I would not describe myself as a great student, but I had a strong memory, which came in handy when it was time to take a test. I was always comfortable speaking in front of people, although at that age I mostly used the platform to make them laugh. That comfort in front of a room stayed with me and became far more useful later in life.
I was an athlete, although not an especially naturally gifted one. That was both bad and good. It was bad because I had to work much harder than many of the people around me—and good for exactly the same reason.
I learned early that effort, preparation and mental discipline could close a gap in natural ability. Using my mind to overcome what my body wanted to do became something I worked on deliberately, and that mind-over-body lesson has stayed with me throughout my life.
I grew up around a family business, so business conversations were simply part of life. I saw that businesses were not abstract things. They were customers, inventory, employees, cash flow and promises that had to be kept.
By the time I was at the University of Arizona, I was running a student tour company organizing spring-break trips and ski weekends. I did not necessarily think of myself as an entrepreneur at the time. I simply saw an opportunity and wanted to figure out whether I could make it work.
Those trips taught me more than I realized. I had to sell seats, collect money, coordinate transportation, manage expenses and deliver the experience people had been promised. If something went wrong, I could not form a committee—I had to fix it.
I have always enjoyed building things and competing, but age has changed how I define winning. When you are young, winning can be very personal. Today, I think much more about the people around me and whether the business we are building creates opportunities for them as well.
The impatience is still there. I have learned to use it more productively, but I have no intention of getting rid of it. Stay impatient. Continue expecting great things.
I also keep one slightly irreverent thought in the back of my mind: “Far lesser men have accomplished greater things.” It makes me smile, but it also reminds me that there is no excuse to think small
Contact Info:
- Website: https://shopluvbuds.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/luvbudsco/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/harrisbrett/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwrM1rofwbVYH6jg41B4jLA
