The First 30 Days: A Conversation with Emerald Intel CEO John Stanfill
What happens when two of the cannabis industry’s data powerhouses join forces? A lot—and all of it points to a smarter, more connected future for sales, marketing, and compliance teams across the cannabis ecosystem.
In the 30 days since Emerald Intel acquired Cannabiz Media, the combined team has been heads-down merging datasets, aligning product roadmaps, and accelerating what clients can expect next. We sat down with Emerald Intel CEO John Stanfill to talk about what’s changing, what’s staying the same, and—most importantly—what this acquisition means for the companies who rely on cannabis intelligence to grow revenue.
Q1: Let’s cut to it—what does this acquisition actually mean for the industry?
John: “The biggest win is pretty simple: the industry now has one trusted source of truth. Cannabis has always been a fast-moving, fragmented market. Compliance data over here, go-to-market data over there, contact intelligence somewhere else—and teams constantly stitching it all together.
By bringing Emerald Intel and Cannabiz Media under one roof, you’re getting the most comprehensive, accurate, and actionable cannabis dataset available today—from license intelligence to verified decision makers to product-level brand insights.”
Q2: How does this make life easier for sales and marketing teams today—not someday?
John: “Right away, users get massive data expansion. And I don’t mean ‘slightly bigger list’ expansion—I mean industry-changing scale:
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200,000+ decision makers
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180,000 smoke & vape shops
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83,000 licensed locations
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7,600 brand houses and ancillary CRBs
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4,200 international companies
For revenue teams, that means fewer blind spots, faster targeting, and more accurate prioritization. We’re taking the guessing game out of go-to-market.”
Q3: What does this acquisition mean for Cannabiz Media customers in terms of the data and intelligence they’ll now have access to?
John: “What’s changing is the type of data they now get access to. Cannabiz Media customers are moving beyond a compliance-focused view of the market and stepping into a more complete go-to-market intelligence ecosystem.
Emerald Intel has always been the industry’s leader in GTM-focused datasets—decision-maker coverage, contact verification, extensive parent-child hierarchy visualizations, technographics, ancillary CRBs and related contacts, and more. Now, Cannabiz Media users get all of that layered on top of the compliance data they’ve relied on for years.
It means navigating the industry beyond a name on a license—with a level of commercial visibility they’ve never had before—spotting opportunities earlier, understanding buying groups more clearly, and aligning their pipeline to what’s happening in the market.”
Q4: Emerald Intel customers want to know—how does this acquisition benefit them?
John: “Emerald clients immediately gain depth and breadth they’ve never had before: CBD retailers, smoke shops, international markets, and Cannabiz Media’s long-standing compliance intelligence are all being integrated directly into Emerald Intel.
We’re also accelerating data refresh cycles, expanding product brand datasets, and doubling engineering velocity. That means features like natural-language search, enhanced filtering, alerts, and advanced reporting will be delivered much faster.”
Q5: What about the team behind the combined datasets? How does team growth impact the roadmap?
John: “This is one of the biggest advantages of the acquisition—and honestly one that clients will feel every week. With more engineers, more researchers, and more data specialists working as one team, we can now:
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Capture and verify data faster
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Increase the frequency and accuracy of updates across every dataset
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Ship features at a pace neither company could achieve alone
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Put more insights into customers’ hands, sooner
The cannabis industry moves fast. Our expanded team gives us the ability to move faster. Faster innovation. Faster product delivery. Faster identification of emerging opportunities.
This acquisition didn’t just combine data—it multiplied our ability to build, improve, and evolve. It means customers get a platform that’s always pushing forward, always getting smarter, and always putting more actionable intelligence into their workflow so they can do what they do best: grow revenue.”
Q6: How does combining the datasets improve day-to-day workflows?
John: “Everything becomes more connected.
Whether you’re using our Chrome Extension, syncing data into Salesforce, HubSpot, or Zoho CRM, or visualizing trends through dashboards and reporting, you now have a richer, more accurate dataset powering every workflow.”
“With unified data fueling automations, alerts, and market mapping, teams finally get the cannabis intelligence layer they’ve always needed but never had in one place.”
Q7: What early signals have you seen from clients and the market so far?
John: “The overwhelming reaction is excitement. This market has needed a single, stable, future-focused data provider. This acquisition means: Better data, better contacts, better software, better insights—and faster innovation than either platform could deliver alone.”
Q8: What’s coming next? What should customers be paying attention to?
John: “I’ll share a few:
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Natural-language search across the entire dataset,
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More advanced filtering and reporting,
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Stronger violation monitoring and compliance insights,
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Deeper brand intelligence,
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More frequent, higher-accuracy data updates, powered by our combined research team,
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And a personal favorite—Weekly Nuggets, our bite-sized insights on under-the-radar opportunities.”
“All of this is part of a long-term plan to give revenue teams a clearer, more actionable picture of the cannabis economy than they’ve ever had.”
Q9: If you had one message for the industry right now, what would it be?
John: “Simple: You deserve one, comprehensive cannabis database—and now you finally have it.
Companies have been building in a fragmented, high-friction environment for too long. Our job is to give them the clarity they need to grow with confidence. The first 30 days have proven something important: with more researchers, more engineers, and more unified datasets, we’re able to deliver innovation faster than ever.
And this is only the start.”
Conclusion: A More Connected Future for Cannabis Data
The first month of Emerald Intel + Cannabiz Media is more than an integration milestone—it’s a turning point for the cannabis industry’s data infrastructure. For sales teams, marketers, compliance professionals, and operators across the ecosystem, this acquisition brings:
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Better intelligence
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Better workflows
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Better targeting
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Better decision-making
The industry finally has a single, scalable, deeply integrated data foundation built for the next decade of growth.