GCNC World View: The Global Cannabis Business Podcast · GCNC

People Powered Meets Marianne Cursetjee, CEO, Alibi Cannabis

·31 min·2 clips

If it's not good enough for me to put in my body, there's no way I'm going to sell it.

The conversation starts with leadership. Jill Reddish sets this up as part of a people power leadership series, with Stephanie Powell joining to talk with Marianne about Alibi Cannabis. Oregon is the backdrop, and it matters. Marianne says Alibi has been licensed there since 2017, in a market Jill describes as tough but respected for cannabis quality. The episode stays fairly grounded. It does not turn Alibi into a neat success story with all the hard parts shaved off. The pressure is still there: grow flower the team can stand behind, keep the business alive, and avoid losing the craft piece that made the work worth doing in the first place. The award story gives that pressure a payoff. Guests smoked Alibi strains, rated them on their phones, and Alibi won both the people's choice and OG judges awards. Marianne treats that as a real moment because it came from the product, not just the pitch. Jill then steers the conversation toward authenticity. She brings up pay-to-play visibility and the awkward problem of who gets held up as someone worth following in cannabis. Marianne comes across as the other kind of example: someone who moved from tech into cannabis, has been a patient, built the company, and is getting noticed for work already done. The ending turns more personal. Marianne wants cannabis to be something people can share with parents, relatives, and friends without the side-eye. Jill calls that holistic plant medicine. The business thread is still clear: credibility here comes from product, operating work, and leadership people can believe.

As heard by us

Craft and credibility under pressure.

People Powered follows Marianne Kersage's path through Oregon cannabis to examine what authentic leadership looks like when craft and business goals do not always align. The episode is strongest in that tension.

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Why you'd press play

For a candid look at cannabis leadership when craft has to compete with the demands of building a business.

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