In the Green Market Report At the Midwest Women's Cannabis Business Summit in Chicago on November 2nd, we recognized some of the top players in the industry with the GMR Midwest Women in Cannabis Awards.
The winner of the Woman-Founded Brand category was Weiwei Fellman, the founder of North Dakota Kota Botanicswhich was released just four years ago this December.
“I never imagined myself living in the cannabis industry,” said Fellman, a Chinese immigrant and trained fitness instructor. Green Market Report.
Before getting into the cannabis business, Fellman taught cycling lessons at her home in Fargo after moving to the US from Beijing in 2009. But in 2018, she discovered the benefits of CBD after the traumatic birth of her son two years earlier.
The difficult birth left her struggling with post-traumatic stress disorder and panic attacks, until she found the “amazing healing power” of CBD.
“I realized that this could have a huge impact for the people living in our community who suffer daily from stress, pain and insomnia,” Fellman said.
So she founded Kota Botanics, first as a boutique retailer and then with her own line of hemp-based CBD products after just five months. From there it exploded into a Midwest CBD giant with 20 brands and more than 170 products, while the Kota Botanics line is sold in 38 states across the country.
Managing that growth hasn't been easy, Fellman said, and she ticked off a list of regular challenges when asked her biggest obstacle.
“Just being in the cannabis industry is the biggest hurdle I've ever faced in my entire life,” Fellman said. “The lack of funding. The distinction. Marketing restrictions. The cost of running the business. Staff rotation. Every day is a difficult day.”
The upbeat entrepreneur remains focused on expanding Kota Botanics' footprint even further and said she is very much looking forward to the upcoming launch of the company's CBD pet care product line, called Chunk & Friends.
