FWM: You have a 25+ year career of successful startups and scaling businesses such as Netspend, Walmart.com, and Netscape. What led you to launch Dama?

After spending years in the payments industry creating solutions for consumers that are underserved, it was a natural fit to help with a massive public safety issue by creating solutions for the cannabis industry. When hardworking business owners don’t have access to banking and are forced to operate entirely in cash, it puts not only their employees and customers at risk of falling victim to crime, but their surrounding communities as well.

FWM: Tell us about the challenge of building credit in the cannabis industry.

In order to build credit—for any business—you have to be able to get a lender (bank or otherwise) to extend credit. Lenders are reluctant to extend credit to businesses that operate in cash. In other words, operators get no cashflow credit while operating in cash. Businesses that are interested in building a credit history should start by getting funds into a bank account.