In the beginning, there were robots.
The company, now known as the alt-cannabinoid powerhouse Arvida, started life as an engineering firm that designed state-of-the-art vape-filling machines. That might not seem like the ideal place for the poet, fashion model, and marketer Lindsey Goldstein to hang her hat. But it’s exactly the combination of art and science that drew her in.
Recruited directly from business school, Goldstein is the co-founder, Chief Marketing Officer, and Chief Administrative Officer at Arvida. While she now oversees humans—not robots—the company’s output continues to reflect its roots in technological innovation.
“It’s the science that separates our company from the others,” Goldstein says. “We have a pharmacist and a PhD chemist on staff who are creating our products. Where a lot of brands are just following trends, we’re creating real experiences that have science-backed data behind them.”
That’s clear from the company’s offerings. Brands like the Mellow Fellow line are highly awarded in the industry, showcasing how the advanced techniques the company employs, such as chromatography, lead to potent, highly effective products.
From Machines to Medicine
Goldstein never planned for a career in alt-cannabinoids. She was studying in New York when her brother-in-law asked her to help with his business.
“I was going to college at the time for business, and what better way to learn business than to start one?” she says. “I’ve been a longtime stoner my whole life. I’ve always had a passion for weed, so I sort of just fell into it. I thought I would do this for a bit, pay for college, then go do something else. Now, we have six facilities and 200 employees. I never thought it would become what it is today.”
Like many of the world’s greatest inventions, Arvida’s first cannabinoid product came about nearly by accident. A customer asked if the company could concoct a bespoke Delta 8 THC oil, so they put their science degrees to use and fired up the chemistry lab. The resulting sample prompted an immediate, irresistible offer—the kind that changes everything.
“It turned out we were very good at making oil, and we quickly got even better,” Goldstein says. “We realized we were better at making D8 than what we were doing, so we decided to change.”
As the folks at Arvida embraced their inner nerds, the market responded enthusiastically. Soon, they started a new company and integrated all their facilities, allowing them to manage every step of product production, from plant cultivation to product packaging.
For Goldstein, the shift was an opportunity to elevate the industry.
“We had been creating products for other brands, including some bigger brands at the time. We started making packages and things for them, and we saw that they were making crappy products, and some were even lying on their labels. We wanted to make a brand that consumers could trust that was just honest, no B.S., just science—with good customer service and creative packaging,” she says. “In this industry, a lot of brands just throw crap at the wall. To be honest, this industry isn’t very polished, and we have been trying to do our best to stay out of a lot of this stuff that goes on in the marketing; brands flip left and right on what they stand for and sell out all the time. I see false promises in advertisements, claiming a product has X amount of milligrams when the COA does not show that. We steer clear of getting anywhere near those waters or making claims that, for example, you can get high off THCA edibles. A lot of people do that.”
It’s not just that Arvida has the specialists to ensure their tinctures, oils, and isolates are top-grade. Goldstein believes in the efficacy of cannabis medicine and feels she owes it to consumers to deliver the best.
“Personally, I know a lot of people who have gotten off painkillers using our products,” she says. “We recently won an award for our tincture—we sell a 10,000 mg tincture at a fair price. CBD tinctures at medical dispensaries can be very expensive. Here in Florida, I know a lot of people who are getting very low-dose tinctures just that aren’t doing it for them. My best friend’s father has been on painkillers for 10 years and gotten off it completely using our Vigor tincture. That means a lot to us.”
Learning by Doing
While the days of working out of a Colorado living room feel long past, Arvida continues to operate at breakneck speed. They still embrace the startup mentality of changing their flow to accommodate market fluctuations. Recently, the company relocated from Colorado to Florida, taking just two weeks to complete the move.
“Unlike traditional markets, this market is changing constantly. You really need some creativity to navigate the restrictions while educating consumers and building trust,” Goldstein says.
Toward that end, many of her hardest efforts concern how marketing can bolster consumer education, address misconceptions, and rapidly adjust to shifting laws and trends. That’s where her creative side meets the left-brained work that’s common at Arvida.
“I have taught myself mostly everything that I know, mostly learning by doing,” Goldstein says. “But I’ve also learned a lot through mentors, self-education through courses, staying actively involved in emerging marketing and trends. Things change so quickly if you’re not keeping up with it, you’ll miss something… A lot of marketing itself comes from the gut—there are vibes, you know? But I’d say that I use the science of marketing, the data, with where I’m going to spend my marketing dollars.”
After all, she’s working for the people. Not the robots.
