- The cannabis-tech startup Green Bits is bringing in Barry Saik, a tech-industry veteran, as its new CEO. He’ll be taking over from cofounder and longtime CEO Ben Curren.
- Green Bits is a Silicon Valley-based software platform that provides point-of-sale and retail-management services to cannabis dispensaries in California and other states where cannabis is legal.
- The company is backed by Tiger Global Management — the firm led Green Bits’ $17 million Series A funding round in April 2018.
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The cannabis-tech startup Green Bits is bringing in a new CEO, Business Insider has learned.
Barry Saik, a tech-industry veteran and former chief operating officer at HealthTap, has replaced Ben Curren, Green Bits’ cofounder and longtime CEO. Curren will stay on as executive chairman.
Saik has held a number of senior roles at tech companies, including a stint as a senior vice president and general manager at GoDaddy and various senior roles at Intuit.
“I wasn’t specifically seeking out the cannabis industry,” Saik told Business Insider in a Wednesday afternoon phone interview. “Once I learned about the business and the industry, it was a good fit” with his career history, he said.
“When you add in the cannabis industry, which is this exciting, burgeoning, nascent industry with all kinds of things going on and huge growth coming, it’s a really exciting opportunity,” Saik said.
‘The right time to hand over the reins’
Curren said he would remain involved in the company and focus on engineering and innovation.
“I’m a serial entrepreneur,” Curren told Business Insider. “I’m a very good starter. So as the company continued to grow, it was always my plan as we got to a certain scale to take us from an established business to something even larger.”
“It really felt like the right time to hand over the reins to someone that’s much better at taking us from hundreds to thousands of employees,” Curren said.
Green Bits is based in Silicon Valley. The startup provides retail-management software and point-of-sale services to dispensaries in states with legal cannabis.
The company most recently raised a $17 million Series A funding round in April 2018 led by Tiger Global Management.
As for future plans, Saik said a startup at Green Bits’ stage was always looking to hire new people and for new investors.
“It’s interesting right now that in this marketplace, we’re actually seeing a lot more interest from the investment community,” Saik said.
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