Cannabis Consulting for Applicants and Licensed Operators
Catalyst BC is a cannabis consulting firm led by operators who built, licensed and sold their own vertically integrated cannabis company. We take new applicants from application to first harvest, and we fix yield, compliance and margin for businesses that already hold a license.
A Decade of Harvesting Success - Trusted by Cannabis Operators Worldwide
Where Are You in the License Process?
Cannabis consulting is specialist advice for businesses that grow, process or sell cannabis under a license: which market to enter, how to win the license, how to build a compliant facility and how to run it at a profit. A good cannabis consultant has done that work as an operator.
Catalyst BC’s partners co-founded, ran and sold Kind Love, a vertically integrated Denver company spanning indoor cultivation, extraction and medical and adult-use retail. Since 2015 the team has helped secure more than 58 licenses in multiple states.
Meet Catalyst BC's Founders
-
Leif Olsen
Chief Executive Officer
-
Michael Williamson
Chief Operating Officer
-
Ian Miller
Executive Chair
Leif Olsen brings more than 18 years of owner-operator-advisor experience and leads our license application work. Michael Williamson co-founded and operated Kind Love and has more than 3,000 compliant harvests behind him. Ian Miller holds an MS in Building Construction from the University of Florida and founded The Solace Companies in Las Vegas. They work alongside specialists such as Senior Crop Advisor Dr. Matthew Indest, PhD, and Director of Genetics & Breeding Eric Forington.
As Featured In:
Cannabis Consulting Services, Grouped by Where You Are
Most clients reach our cannabis consultants at one of two points: before the license, when the questions are whether, where and how much; or after it, when the facility is built and the numbers are not working. The ten services below are grouped that way. Each links to a full page with its scope and deliverables, and all the types of cannabis consulting services we offer are compared on one page.
Starting a cannabis business
- Cannabis Business Strategy ConsultingMarket entry, site and acquisition decisions
- Cannabis Financial Planning & ModelingPro formas, capex and cost per gram
- Cannabis Licensing & Application SupportMerit-scored applications and RFP responses
- Cannabis Facility Design & HVAC / HVACD EngineeringDesign assist, value engineering and code
- Cannabis Startup SupportHiring, SOPs, commissioning and first harvest
Already licensed
- Cannabis Operational OptimizationGrams per square foot, cycles and labor
- Cannabis Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA)Setpoints, HVACD, fertigation and contamination control
- Cannabis Vertical Farming ConsultingMulti-tier rooms inside the same footprint
- Cannabis Genetics & Cultivar StrategyPhenohunting and cultivar portfolios
- Cannabis Business Turnaround & Operational RecoveryA 30-day diagnostic on yield, cost and compliance
Compliant Harvests
Square Feet of Cultivation, Production, and Retail Facilities Designed
Licenses Secured
Not Licensed Yet: From Application to Opening Day
If you have capital and a target market but no license, the first questions are not about writing. They are whether a licensing window is open or coming, whether your ownership structure will pass the regulator’s review, what the facility will cost before it earns anything, and how long the money has to last. We answer those before you spend on an application.
Most new-applicant engagements run through five phases. You can hire us for one of them or for all five:
- Feasibility and market entry. We screen markets for open or expected licensing rounds, zoning, local limits and the competition you would face, then test whether the project pays back, through our cannabis business strategy work.
- Capital plan and pro forma. Capex, operating costs, cost per gram and the cash needed to reach first revenue, built for investors and lenders through cannabis financial planning.
- The application. Merit-scored applications and RFP responses, written section by section against the scoring criteria. Our cannabis license application support is led by CEO Leif Olsen, who in Catalyst BC’s first year helped Grow West obtain one of Maryland’s first fifteen cultivation and dispensary licenses.
- Design and build. Design assist alongside your architect and engineers, review of the HVACD (heating, ventilation, air conditioning and dehumidification) design and value engineering, so the building matches the plan you submitted, through cannabis facility design.
- Startup and first harvest. Hiring, training, SOPs, commissioning and the inspection that lets you open, through cannabis startup support.
What new applicants get at each phase
| Phase | What we deliver | The decision it supports |
|---|---|---|
| Feasibility and market entry | Market and municipality screen, competitive read, site criteria, payback test | Whether to pursue this market at all, and where |
| Capital plan and pro forma | Capex budget, operating model, cost per gram, cash runway | How much to raise, and on what terms |
| Application | Written application or RFP response, operating plans, SOP and security sections, submission strategy | Whether the window is winnable, and how to score in it |
| Design and build | Design assist, HVACD review, value engineering, owner’s representation | What to build, and what not to pay for |
| Startup and first harvest | Org chart, hiring and training, SOPs, commissioning, inspection readiness | When you can open, and with whom |
Swipe the table sideways on a phone.
What this means for you: you can start with a feasibility answer before committing to the full path, and the same team stays with you from the application to the first compliant harvest. Tell us where you stand in the pre-license cannabis business questionnaire, or download our free guide (sent by email) to starting a legal cannabis business.
Already Licensed: Fixing Yield, Compliance and Margin
Holding a license is where the expensive problems start: yields that will not hold from room to room, failed tests and mold, an inspection or renewal you are not ready for, prices that fell faster than costs, or an expansion that has to happen inside the footprint you already have. Our partners have faced each of these in facilities they owned and ran.
We usually start with a diagnostic: data from your rooms, SOPs, labor and P&L, then a written findings report and a ranked list of fixes with the cost of each. From there:
- Yield and consistency: cannabis operational optimization and controlled environment agriculture work on setpoints, airflow, fertigation and crop steering.
- More output in the same footprint: multi-tier vertical farming design, planned around your rooms’ clear height, heat load and licensed canopy before any racks are bought.
- Cash and compliance under pressure: a 30-day cannabis business turnaround diagnostic, or a seed-to-sale compliance self-audit scorecard you can run yourself.
Problems licensed operators bring us, and the first deliverable
| The problem | First deliverable | Where it sits |
|---|---|---|
| Yields vary from room to room or harvest to harvest | Environmental and workflow baseline, ranked fix list | Operational optimization, CEA |
| Failed tests, mold or pest pressure | Contamination-control and IPM review of rooms and SOPs | CEA, operational optimization |
| Inspection or renewal coming and records are behind | Compliance gap review against your SOPs and tracking records | Operational optimization |
| Need more output without a bigger building | Multi-tier layout and load study for the existing rooms | Vertical farming, facility design |
| Margin squeezed by price and cost per gram | Cost-per-gram model and 30-day turnaround diagnostic | Financial planning, turnaround |
| Weak or inconsistent cultivars | Phenohunt plan and cultivar portfolio review | Genetics |
| Buying or selling a licensed business | On-site operational due diligence report | Business strategy |
Swipe the table sideways on a phone.
What this means for you: you get a ranked list of fixes with their costs before committing to equipment or headcount, from people who have run licensed rooms themselves.
Buying or Selling a Licensed Business
Before an acquisition closes, Michael Williamson and Ian Miller run on-site operational due diligence: health and safety, compliance gaps, equipment and the yield the facility can realistically produce. One prospective buyer’s Google review describes both partners on site within days for a time-sensitive audit, with a findings report and a mitigation plan for each issue. On the sell side, Cultivate Holdings met the earn-out goals tied to its acquisition after working with us; the Cultivate MA project page records it as acquired by Cresco Labs in 2021.
If you are buying: you see the problems, and what each one costs to fix, before you sign.
Cannabis Consulting Results You Can Check
Client results
- 109
grams per square foot, peak average flower yield
Cultivate Holdings, Massachusetts: within eight months, average flower yield nearly doubled, peaking at 109 grams per square foot, and the company met the earn-out goals tied to its acquisition. Read the Cultivate Holdings case study.
- 25 to 35%
higher average output across key zones
HEXO Corp, Canada: on a 1.3 million square foot greenhouse campus, average output improved 25 to 35% across key zones and harvest-to-harvest variance fell 20%. Read the HEXO Corp case study.
Our partners’ own operating record
- Built, integrated and sold
Kind Love, Denver: our partners’ own company, built into a vertically integrated medical and adult-use cannabis company, then sold. See the Kind Love project.
- Founded by Ian Miller
The Solace Companies, Las Vegas: founded by Executive Chair Ian Miller. His biography on our About Us page records the only flawless license-activation inspections in Nevada and Best Operator and Best Concentrate awards seven months after operations began. This is his operating record, not a client engagement.
What this means for you: each client result names the client, so you can check it before you call. More are on our case studies page and our project list.
How a Catalyst BC Engagement Works
- Tell us where you are. Book a free consultation, or start with one of our discovery questionnaires for pre-license businesses, capital raising or facility design and construction.
- Get a straight answer on fit. We tell you before you spend money whether a license window is winnable, and whether the problem in your facility is one we should be fixing.
- Scope the work. An engagement can be a single deliverable, such as a pro forma or a 30-day turnaround diagnostic, or the full path from application to first harvest.
- Work on site and remotely. Catalyst BC has one office, in Denver, Colorado, and delivers every service remotely and on site, depending on what the project needs.
- Partners lead. Leif Olsen leads licensing and operations; Michael Williamson leads cultivation and facility design, with more than 7 million square feet of cultivation designed or consulted on in the United States, Canada, Colombia, Australia and Switzerland; and Executive Chair Ian Miller brings an MS in Building Construction from the University of Florida and his own build-out of The Solace Companies. Their full backgrounds are on our team page.
A word against our own interest: no consultant can guarantee a license, and anyone who promises one is selling something. For legal opinions and tax filings you also need a cannabis attorney and a CPA; we work alongside them and do not replace them.
Where Our Cannabis Consultants Work
United States
- Alabama
- Alaska
- Arizona
- Arkansas
- California
- Colorado
- Connecticut
- Delaware
- Florida
- Georgia
- Illinois
- Kentucky
- Louisiana
- Maine
- Maryland
- Massachusetts
- Michigan
- Minnesota
- Mississippi
- Missouri
- Montana
- Nebraska
- Nevada
- New Jersey
- New Mexico
- New York
- Ohio
- Oklahoma
- Oregon
- Pennsylvania
- Rhode Island
- Texas
- Vermont
- Virginia
- Washington
- West Virginia
U.S. territory and international
How to Choose a Cannabis Consulting Firm
Search for cannabis consultants and you will find medical-card clinics, job boards and directories alongside consulting firms. For a business decision, six questions separate a firm worth hiring from the rest:
- Who will do the work? Ask for names, backgrounds and LinkedIn profiles, not a team photo.
- Have they operated? Owning and running a licensed facility teaches what writing applications or reviewing designs cannot.
- Can you check the record? License counts, win rates and yield gains should come with client names you can look up.
- Do they cover the whole path? When licensing, design, startup and operations go to separate vendors, plans get lost at every hand-off.
- Will they tell you no? A firm that calls every licensing window winnable is not reading the scoring criteria.
- Are they independent of equipment sales? Ask whether a recommendation comes with a vendor relationship.
When to hire someone else: for cannabis branding, websites and marketing, use a marketing agency; for legal opinions, an attorney; for tax returns and 280E filings, a CPA. Catalyst BC’s work is the operating business: licensing, facilities, cultivation, finance and operations.
Cannabis consultant, attorney or CPA: who leads what
| What you need | Who usually leads | Catalyst BC’s role |
|---|---|---|
| Market, site and feasibility | Cannabis consultant | Leads |
| License application and operating plans | Cannabis consultant | Leads, with your attorney reviewing legal sections |
| Entity, ownership and contracts | Cannabis attorney | Supplies the operating facts the documents rely on |
| Facility design and buildout | Architect and engineers | Design assist and owner’s representation |
| SOPs, training and inspection readiness | Cannabis consultant | Leads |
| Yield, cost per gram and turnaround | Cannabis consultant | Leads |
| Tax returns, audits and 280E filings | CPA | Builds the operating model those returns rest on; does not file |
| Branding, websites and marketing | Marketing agency | Not our work |
Swipe the table sideways on a phone.
More from our consultants: what a cannabis consultant does, the signs it is time to hire one and ten areas where a consultant adds value.
Talk to a Cannabis Consultant About Your Project
Send us your market, your stage and your numbers. New applicants get a straight read on whether a window is winnable and what it will take; licensed operators get a first view of where yield, compliance or margin is being lost. If we are not the right firm for it, we will say so.
Cannabis Consulting Questions From Applicants and Operators
What does a cannabis consultant do?
A cannabis consultant advises businesses that grow, process, test or sell cannabis under a license: choosing a market, winning the license, designing and building the facility, setting up compliant operations and improving yield and margin once open. At Catalyst BC that covers ten cannabis consulting services, from business strategy and licensing to genetics and turnaround.
Is a cannabis business consultant the same as a medical cannabis consultant?
No. In Washington, for example, a medical cannabis consultant holds a state certificate issued under RCW 69.51A.290 after a 20-hour approved training program, and may only provide consultant services while employed in a retail store with a medical endorsement. A cannabis business consultant such as Catalyst BC advises companies that hold or are applying for licenses, not patients.
How much does cannabis consulting cost?
It depends on scope, and we quote after a free first consultation. As a guide to scale: a cost-per-gram model built from your operating data takes about three to four weeks, and a full capex plan with mechanical and electrical pricing runs six to eight weeks. The 30-day turnaround diagnostic is a fixed fee scoped to facility size and complexity, and implementation after it is retainer-based.
When should you hire a cannabis consultant?
Before you sign a lease or buy property, when a licensing round is announced, before you commit to a facility design, and as soon as yields, test results or margins slip. The earlier we see a project, the more of its cost can still be changed.
Can a cannabis consultant guarantee a license?
No. Regulators score applications, run lotteries or cap license numbers, and no consultant controls that. What we can show is our record, which is company-reported: more than 58 licenses secured for clients in 10 states and a 96% success rate on competitive applications. We tell you before you spend money whether a window is winnable.
Do you work with licensed operators, or only new applicants?
Both. Half of our ten services are built for businesses that already hold a license: operational optimization, controlled environment agriculture, vertical farming, genetics and turnaround. We also run due diligence when you are buying an operating business.
Do your cannabis consultants work on site?
Yes. We work on site and remotely from our Denver office, depending on what the project needs. Facility audits, commissioning and due diligence are usually on site; financial models and application writing are mostly remote.
Where does Catalyst BC work?
Across the United States and internationally. We have a dedicated consulting page for each of 36 U.S. states, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Germany and Portugal, and our project list includes Canada and Greece. If your market is not listed, ask us.
Can you help if we want to buy or sell a licensed cannabis business?
Yes. For buyers we run operational due diligence on the facility, its compliance and its realistic yield before closing. For sellers we improve the yield, cost and compliance numbers a buyer will pay for.
What happens in a free consultation?
You talk with our team about your market, your stage and your goals. You leave with a first view of the path, the main risks and whether we are the right fit, with nothing to sign.
Selected Catalyst BC Projects
Behind the results above sit facility design, licensing, optimization and turnaround projects for clients in the United States, Canada and Greece. Three are shown below; the rest are on our project list.
Leafline Labs
Cottage Grove, MN
United States
Kind Love
Denver, CO
United States
Cultivate MA
Uxbridge, MA
United States
View All Projects
View all Catalyst BC Projects
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Contact Us
Enough about us. We want to hear more about you, your project, and your vision! Get in touch with a real live person today. Don’t worry, we don’t have a long, confusing phone menu, and your email isn’t going to the abyss, we promise. At Catalyst, we provide the service and support we’d want to experience ourselves!