Jeremy BerkeWhen Jeremy Berke left Business Insider at the end of 2022, he didn’t necessarily intend on launching his own media company.
But with a handful of unpublished story ideas on his mind, he started a Substack newsletter to keep himself busy before starting graduate school. Eventually, with some persuasion from business partner Jay Rosenthal, Cultivated Media became a full-scale media business in November 2023.
Now, the company’s daily newsletter — akin to the Morning Brew for cannabis — goes out to about 7,000 subscribers, while Berke and Rosenthal also keep the industry informed through live streams, webinars and podcasts.
“When I get asked what a normal day in the life is like, it’s like I’m drinking from a fire hose and just doing my best to prioritize everything,” Berke says.
Between running a business and finishing his MBA program at Columbia University, “I definitely have my hands full 15 hours a day every single day,” he says.
But the business is gaining traction, both in building an audience and in bringing in revenue, despite being split between two industries — cannabis and journalism — that have fallen on tough times. And Berke believes more than ever that the work of journalists is crucial in this nascent industry.
“Despite all the doom and gloom, we are in a fortunate position where we can operate really lean and mean,” Berke says. “It doesn’t mean we can do everything we want reporting-wise. It doesn’t mean we can do everything we want business-wise. But in the long-term future, cannabis is a product that millions and millions of consumers love and purchase and there’s a lot of dynamism and a lot of entrepreneurial energy around it, so we’re in it for the long haul.”