DADIRRI VIBE | With operations now in two states, Ashley Schriener is looking toward DADiRRi’s future, with plans to expand the successful brand into multiple new markets in the coming years
After working in Colorado cannabis for about eight years, Ashley Schriener set out to create a true lifestyle brand, a company built on a genuine care for quality products and a fresh, clean aesthetic that set itself apart from the rest of the industry.
The result was DADiRRi Extracts.
With Schriener as the CEO, DADiRRi is a family owned and operated producer that has grown rapidly since its 2018 launch.
The Colorado-based company doubled its annual revenue every year for its first four years in operation and has been holding steady the past few years despite the local industry’s post-COVID decline, with about 300 Colorado shops carrying DADiRRi’s solventless concentrates and infused pre-rolls.
As the company rose to become one of the hottest brands in its home state, Schriener and co-founders Jason Andrews and Devin Schriener kept their eyes on the future.
“I realized, ‘Wow, we really have something here,’” she says. “People love our brand. They love our logo. They love our products.”
For Schriener, it was crucial to be able to maintain the “DADiRRi vibe” that had attracted a loyal customer base as well dedicated employees.
“We really wanted to keep the culture and the product quality intact,” Schriener says. “And we felt the only way that we could do that was via a franchising model.”
In 2023, DADiRRi officially expanded into Nevada through a franchising agreement. The award-winning company invested a significant amount of capital to develop contracts, standard operating procedures, franchising manuals and other assets to ensure the Nevada expansion was set up for success.
But behind DADiRRi’s recent accomplishments is a company that was built from truly humble beginnings. Schriener took on a wide range of responsibilities in the early days, while managing a limited budget that would make or break the new venture. Schriener says she was on her feet 14 hours a day, rolling joints, designing the logo, creating the packaging, handling sales, doing the accounting — all while being pregnant with her first child.
“I was seven months pregnant, sleeping on a very thin mattress pad, waking up before the sun comes up, going to the facility, learning how to make bubble hash,” she recalls. “There was bubble hash all over the wall because we didn’t know what we were doing.”
As a woman in a male-dominated industry, she’s found the experience of starting a company from scratch both intimidating and exhilarating.
“I’ve found my power in being a CEO and business owner in this space,” she says. “I think that you get more respect as a woman in this space, but I’m sorry to say, you also have to work twice as hard. I think that got me a lot of clout in the Colorado cannabis industry.”
With operations now in two states, DADiRRi is actively looking for opportunities to expand into additional markets, either through franchising agreements, as it did with Nevada, or brand licensing deals.
“At this stage, we have dug our feet into both of these markets, and now we’re looking at what’s next,” Schriener says. “At the end of the day, I think the reason we’ve survived is our quality products no matter what, but also who we are as people and that culture that you can’t replicate.”