Cristy Aranguiz is somewhat peerless in the cannabis industry. As CEO of Cannabis & Glass, she has helped build the company from a single store into a thriving multi-state operation with three retail locations in Washington, one in Oregon, another three in Iowa (under the brand Iowa Cannabis).
Companies that are owned and operated by minority women are exceedingly rare in cannabis, Aranguiz says, “And to do that without outsider money, there’s effectively no one.”
Aranguiz is the daughter of Cuban refugees who fled the communist regime to begin a new life in Florida. She initially began her career as a television journalist in Montana, before leaving the state to join Washington’s burgeoning cannabis industry with her partner Tate Kapple in 2013.
“I was 21 and he was 24, and we had absolutely no idea where we were going to get the money to do anything in the cannabis industry,” she says. “We just kind of had a dream. We started with $500 in inventory, and we had two strains on our shelves.”
Today, her company has 180 employees across three states and is still growing fast with new operations set to open in Minnesota and in her home state of Florida.
“I’m from Miami-Dade County, born and raised, and very proud of that,” Aranguiz says. “I’m so excited to be able to go back and then bring this female-minority-owned company to where I’m originally from. It’s just so awesome.”