Jane West Partners: CommCan
I wish there were more cannabis company Presidents like Ellen. She is irreverent and wicked smart - the kind of entrepreneur from which I love to learn. Back in 2017, I headed to the East Coast as I sought an exclusive partner in Massachusetts to represent the Jane West brand. She and her team at CommCan stood out from the rest.
Her recent Dig Boston interview got right to the heart of what I love about CommCan. “We’re not a multistate operator,” Rosenfeld said. “We don’t run a chain of dispensaries in other states. We’re unique in Massachusetts. We’re the only family-owned, family-run, self-financed group there is. We have no outside money from anyone. We answer only to ourselves … If that means we’re not maximizing revenue the way an investor would demand us to, that’s okay, because we’re not building an acquisitions department. We’re building a family business that we run together.”
A pioneer in breaking through the diversity challenges in the Massachusetts cannabis industry, The Commonwealth Cannabis Company, well known as CommCan, is now the first woman-owned business under the description of “cultivation, processing, and sales of medical and adult-use cannabis” formally recognized by the state.
“I’m proud to be the first woman to receive this designation from the state, and am equally proud to have recently been named the fourth largest gay-owned business in the entire state,” Rosenfeld said. “Our business is 100 percent local and family-run, with no venture capital money from investors, and yet here we are breaking all kinds of barriers in this male-dominated industry.”
The Rosenfeld family has been in Millis for more than a century, and Ellen runs CommCan with her two brothers, Marc and Jon. With a commitment to improving local jobs and the Massachusetts economy as a whole, CommCan now employs 88 people. She says that despite the endless work, the thing that keeps her going is her fabulous employees.
Support CommCan on their channels: Website / Instagram / Facebook / Twitter
