The 90-day pilot playbook
How to design a pilot that proves the number before you scale a dollar.
Field Notes
Field notes from the operating team.
Playbooks and analysis from the team that ran 15,000+ in-store demos and collected 1.6M field observations. Not agency theory — what actually moves the number.
Published
What we’ve learned in-market.
Each piece is drawn from real retail operations — not agency theory. Start with sell-through if you’re new here; it’s the number everything else moves.
System
Sell-through isn’t luck. It’s a system.
Your product can be the best in the category and still die on the shelf. Sell-through is won in three places — the budtender conversation, the retail shelf, and search — and Rishi runs all three as one system.
Read →FieldWin the counter. The budtender is the last voice before the purchase.
The budtender is the highest-trust source in the dispensary. A real advocacy program trains the last voice your customer hears — and keeps a network of vetted ambassadors on the floor.
Read →RetailWin the shelf. Menu position is where velocity is won or lost.
A decade of dispensary relationships across three states, put to work: the right doors, better menu position, retail-media placement that pays back, and sell-through tracked door by door.
Read →ProofIf it isn’t measured, it didn’t happen.
1.6 million field observations of how cannabis and hemp actually sell. Door-level velocity data is the moat no agency can fake — and the difference between a pitch deck and an operating record.
Read →Search & DTCWin the intent. Be there when the buyer searches.
Local SEO, authority content, and reviews for cannabis retail; full e-commerce, lifecycle email, and SMS for hemp brands that sell direct. The always-on engine the ad platforms can’t take away.
Read →CostThe hidden cost of enterprise field activation software.
A 15% annual auto-renewal escalator buried in the terms. Custom pricing you cannot audit. A live training session before login. What enterprise field activation actually costs — and the free, cannabis-native alternative.
Read →FitCannabis field ops don’t need a CPG platform.
Horizontal platforms were built for CPG and alcohol. Cannabis was bolted on as a reporting template — and four daily workflows (dispensary scheduling, multi-state compliance, kit logistics, budtender education) fall through the gap.
Read →OnboardingFrom spreadsheets to software: the 5-minute field activation setup.
No sales call, no training session, no download. A PWA that runs in the browser. Five steps, five minutes, from spreadsheets to a working cannabis field operation — with how long each step actually takes.
Read →ChecklistWhat cannabis brands actually need in field activation software.
A seven-point checklist — dispensary scheduling, multi-state compliance, kit management, budtender education, real-time proof of work, in-app expenses, free onramp — with what Rishi Lite does vs. what horizontal CPG platforms miss.
Read →InternalizationThe agency-internalization playbook for cannabis brands.
Brands are bringing field ops in-house. Five phases to internalize without inheriting the enterprise traps — 15% escalators, training gates, CPG templates — and why Rishi Lite is the internalization tool.
Read →ComparisonEnterprise field activation vs. Rishi Lite.
A direct, category-by-category comparison: custom opaque pricing vs. free and transparent, 15% escalator vs. none, training required vs. 5-minute self-serve, CPG template vs. cannabis-native. Take it to finance.
Read →ComparisonCannabis CRM software, and the gap at the door.
Cannabis CRMs own accounts, pipeline and orders. They do not own the proof that an activation happened. What Outfield, Hoodie CRM, Sparrowhawk and Knockwell cover, where a CRM wins, and the $99/mo activation layer beside it.
Read →Coming soon
In the queue.
Notes we’re writing from the field right now. Want early access?Tell us what you’re working on.
Budtender incentive structures that work
What actually motivates retail staff to recommend your product — from the team that ran 15,000+ demos.
Reading a dispensary menu like a P&L
Where your SKU sits is where your velocity lives. How to audit menu position and fix it.
The field operations stack
Scheduling, GPS check-in, proof-of-work, and reporting — the infrastructure that makes scale possible.
Get your growth audit
Reading is good. Doing is better. We baseline your business door by door — and you get the findings whether you hire us or not.