LeafWorks

LeafWorks Inc. is a botanical identification company generating novel genomic and horticultural IP in the emerging Cannabis and medicinal plant industries. This IP is translated into robust verification tools and services to standardize regulatory testing and mitigate fraud across supply chains.

At our core, we want to make the emerging Cannabis and herbal product markets more reliable so that customers know what you are buying, selling, and consuming. As such, our scientific efforts are focused on cutting-edge R&D to develop novel genomic tools and services with high scientific fidelity. Our sales and marketing combines robust science with our founder’s history in Cannabis and herbal markets to authentically honor herbal culture and promote sustainable stewardship of these wonderful botanicals.

Product Offerings

LeafWorks offers a variety of products and services, some of which are pictured below. These are divided into one-off services and certifications. On the one-off service side, LeafWorks offers a Cannabis and hemp sex test as well as pathogen testing. Each service comes with in-house designed packaging and supplies to make tracking customer samples more reliable in the lab. On the certification side, the sex test was turned into a batch lot feminization seed certification, which comes with a CoA for those who pass and the ability to put the LeafWorks Certified Seal on packaging (see images from Humboldt Seed Company, the largest Cannabis seed provider in California, below). We expanded these offers to include supply chain verification certificates to show customers that your material is consistent sale to sale and season to season.

Additionally, LeafWorks offers a one of a kind service – the LeafWorks Cultivar Registration, which provides a comprehensive genetic and physical profile of any cultivar. The registration product generates timestamped certified reference material (vouchers) that are housed in the Canndor Herbarium and generate a report that functions as supplemental material for Plant Varietal Patent applications. This product is at the heart of Cannabis appellation work and a multidisciplinary coalition study across the California industry to research the genetics of legacy Cannabis strains.

My Leadership Role:

I was recruited as LeafWorks’ lead data analyst and communication specialist, helping the founders launch the company in April 2019. After 3 years I left the company to build Running Tide’s biotechnology division, but retain an equity stake in LeafWorks.

As a member of the core leadership team, I helped prioritize which products were developed and how we would market them. It was here I refined by skills of speaking with individual customers (B2C) and large-scale clients (B2B), honing communication plans, and understanding financial modeling. As Director of Data Science I ran cross-functional team meetings and managed by influence (as opposed to hierarchy) to ensure that data management, quality, and scientific standards were being met. At the independent contributor level I was developing machine learning and bioinformatic pipelines for all genomic and phenomic IP pursuits, as well as organizing database structures and report automation to optimize the service side of the company.

On the communication side, I crafted and maintained LeafWorks external image and brand managing all public relations, social media, marketing, and web development teams. Helping land panels and press in Yahoo Finance, Playboy, and SxSW). Additionally, I also oversaw LeafWorks’ academic collaborations with professional societies and universities, helping to recruit the best talent and those with a passion for revolutionizing the herbal markets with high-quality science services.

During my tenure, I was on the core leadership team while the following products (LeafWorks Cannabis and hemp DNA sex test, LeafWorks Feminized Seed Certification, LeafWorks Supply Chain Certification, and LeafWorks Cultivar Registration) were developed, lending my talents to their conception, research, development, and marketing. All report layouts, templates, and marketing language were designed and/or initialized by me (some of which are show below).