JETSETTER | Sarah Spillman probably saw more of the United States than the average presidential candidate in 2024, traveling to dozens of events throughout the country to network with operators and represent the packaging and design firm DIZPOT.
When Sarah Spillman joined DIZPOT as the company’s head of business development, one of the first things she noticed was how the relatively small company could serve so many clients in a rapidly evolving industry without ever missing a beat.
“It’s the first kind of startup environment that I’ve ever worked in,” she says. “And it’s just absolutely insane what our team is able to accomplish. People have said this before: DIZPOT moves mountains in a day. We go, go, go, and we get shit done.”
DIZPOT provides packaging and design services to cannabis companies through North America. Founded in 2017 by John Hartsell and Jeff Scrabeck, it’s become one of the leading packaging suppliers in the industry, as well as an innovator in brand design and creative solutions to meet requirements for child resistant containers.
“It was founded with the goal of solving a need emerging operators were struggling with, which was, of course, how to create bad-ass packaging that was compliant and cost-effective,” Spillman explains. “We have created thousands of brands and produced hundreds of millions of child-resistant packaging and also have a patented, sustainable paper jar.”
DIZPOT is based in Arizona, but the company participates in numerous cannabis events throughout the country — 48 in 2024, to be exact — ranging from state trade association meetings to the largest conferences in the industry, with Spillman taking the lead on most events and regularly acting as the public face of the company.
“Doing this, I get to build relationships and connect with operators and focus on uncovering opportunities that align with DIZPOT’s goals,” she says. “My favorite part of my job is really building these relationships with customers and building these partnerships we have.”
Before getting involved in cannabis, Spillman worked in Colorado’s craft beer industry.
“I totally loved that experience,” she says.
Shifting her career from the dull world of corporate sales to a more creative, nontraditional role set her up perfectly to take the leap into cannabis. Upon returning to Arizona, where she’d graduated from college, she joined DIZPOT in 2023, drawn in by the company’s commitment to its core values and a similar vibe with the community and culture as she saw in the craft beer space — though cannabis has also forced her to embrace a certain amount of chaos, with no two days ever being the same, she says.
As someone who spends so much time traveling, Spillman is already starting to look ahead to the 2026 event schedule.
“We’re already past that halfway point (of 2025), so we want to not only meet our goals, but exceed them,” she says. “All gas, no brakes.”