Jeffrey Harris is the founder and CEO of springbig, a customer loyalty platform for the cannabis industry. springbig uses SMS, loyalty marketing, and other tools to encourage repeat business for cannabis dispensaries. And this isn’t Harris’s first stint in loyalty marketing. Prior to springbig, Harris founded Inte Q, which focused on developing and managing data-driven programs for large retail and financial services firms.
Between 2018 and today, springbig has grown from 1.8 million to 12 million clients, adding 35 to 40 new customers each month. With over 550 accounts, ranging from single retail locations to large dispensary chains, the company is used in over 1,400 dispensaries across the US and Canada. This number is only set to grow as more states legalize adult-use cannabis.
The user-friendly platform offers three segments; loyalty, campaign messaging, and automated messaging, all of which when used together make for an all-encompassing CRM. The company also has plans for a new feature that will allow a point-of-sale partner to display the customer’s rewards wallet, so consumers won’t need their phones to access it.
In February, springbig is gearing up to launch its new brand marketing platform, set to help brand work with retail partners to market products directly to customers. It will launch in California, Nevada, and Washington.
In December 2018, springbig completed a Series A funding round of $5 million, led by Altitude Investment Management which was used to fund growth. This is the company’s primary focus for the rest of 2020, as it hopes to double its business over the course of the year.
The company ended 2019 with over $11 million in annual recurring revenue, which is more than 600% year-over-year growth. springbig is targeting approximately $30 million for 2020, and it aims to be in 2,500 stores by the year’s end.
Competitors like Sprout, which is active in 13 states and launched into two international markets last year serves as a competitor to the springbig, as does TILT Holdings a foundational technology cannabis platform. Though as the cannabis industry grows, so too does the possibility that companies from outside the industry could make inroads into the field.
