On the TechTO stage ×3
John Prentice of Ample Organics presents My Adventure into the Cannabis Industry
Watch on YouTube ↗
John Prentice of Ample Organics presents Cannabis: Lessons Learned
Watch on YouTube ↗John Prentice of Ample Organics presents Medical Cannabis: How did we get here?
Watch on YouTube ↗First seen on a TechTO stage in 2018. Every TechTO talk is searchable — ask the archive about John ↗
In their words
The only winner in a knife fight is the guy selling knives. So we decided to sell some tools for the trade.
Biggest lesson I've learned along the way: don't compete with your customers, just make software.
Remember that cannabis is not a cure for anything. If you have a broken arm, smoking a joint isn't going to fix your arm. When we talk about cannabis as medicine, it's not a cure — it's a treatment.
Around the web ×2
Quick answers
What is John Prentice known for?
Founding Ample Organics in 2014 and building it into the seed-to-sale software behind most of Canada's licensed cannabis producers. Nasdaq-listed Akerna bought it for $46M CAD in July 2020; he departed that September.
How did John Prentice get into the cannabis industry?
By accident. He was working at a medical devices company in Lindsay, Ontario when, as he told TechTO in 2018, he moved to Toronto for a girl, ended up working with her brother, and helped write the record-keeping section of what became the first licensed-producer application in Canada — the Peace Naturals project, in 2012.
What is JointCraft?
A cannabis contract manufacturer in Vaughan, Ontario that Prentice founded in 2021 with Amy Prentice and Adam Verk. It hand-crafts pre-rolls and also does gummies, vape filling and packaging for other brands, out of the former CannTrust facility.
How many times has John Prentice spoken at TechTO?
Three times, all in 2018, in the run-up to and immediate aftermath of Canadian legalization — on building Ample Organics, on the cannabis industry's medical roots, and on lessons learned.