In January 2024, I joined Rua Bioscience as a board observer.
We were down on our luck.
We only earned $356 K in revenue.
Fast forward to today.
We’re now sitting at $1.89 m in revenue and moving toward profitability next year.
We’re a publicly traded company, so I can’t divulge too many details, but I’ll get into the 80/20 that has driven these results:
I. Focusing on what makes you different: Steve Jobs said, “The most powerful person in the world is the storyteller.”
At Rua, we’ve dialled in on the story that makes us different to the 20,000+ other medicinal cannabis companies. – We’re the only cannabis company with our unique Ruatoria-based genetics – We’re a kaupapa Māori company that focuses on social justice, equality and giving back.
This story appears everywhere, from our advertising to our NZX listing announcements.
No other medicinal cannabis company can compete with us on being us. Too many companies are homogenised in what they sell, and as a result, they don’t stand out.
II. We connected the dots for our customers: Advertising illicit substances is strictly prohibited on most advertising platforms.
When I joined Rua, I found a way to address this issue that didn’t advertise medicinal cannabis while still connecting with Rua and its brand supporters.
Here was the process:
> We built ad creative that spoke to our story and who we are that didn’t make any mention of our company or product
> We sent people to forms that weren’t linked to our website so that it had no affiliation with any illicit substances
> We then connected supporters who filled in our forms with health practitioners who could support them to learn more about our company and its products
III. We’re cash-constrained: When companies have excess capital, it becomes easy to outsource or hire.
When you don’t have capital, you become resourceful.
> We introduced AI for menial tasks – the most common thing was to simply drop a screenshot or speak to ChatGPT and ask it to help us with the problem we were facing
> When we found something that worked, we left it and let it run for months until it stopped working
These pillars are a small snippet of what we’ve been doing, but you get the idea:
- Focus on being you – no one else can compete with you on that
- Make it easy for customers to get access to what you’re selling
- Don’t spend a lot and make your dollars go further
If you want to read our most recent FY and get some more insights on our growth, you can check it out here.
