Physical Address
304 North Cardinal St.
Dorchester Center, MA 02124
A lot can change in 16 years.
In 2009, a drug conviction landed Coss Marte a sentence of seven years in prison. This year, Mars expects to bring in as much as $12 million selling legal cannabis.
Marte, 39, is the founder and CEO of Conbud, one of the first fully licensed businesses to sell recreational cannabis in Manhattan, and the first on the city’s Lower East Side. After opening their doors first October 2023Conbud has added a second location in the Bronx last April.
Mars’ business currently brings in about $800,000 in sales per month, including nearly $100,000 in profit, according to documents reviewed by CNBC Make It. Mars projects a final bill of about $7 million by 2024, he says.
Don’t miss: The ultimate guide to earning passive income online
After getting an early release from prison in 2013, Marte launched a fitness business called Conbody, based on his workout regimen from behind bars. Then, in 2021, New York legalized the sale of recreational cannabis and expunging all past convictions for marijuana-related offenses.
A year later, the state announced that entrepreneurs with past marijuana convictions would be eligible to receive the first licenses for the sale of recreational weed. Given his experience running Conbody and the requirements set by the state for sales licensees, Marte saw a golden business opportunity, he says.
“I followed this law, and what they needed was two years of a net profitable business and a conviction on your record,” says Marte. “Now, how many people have that to qualify for a cannabis license? Not many.”
From prison workouts to many businesses
Marte grew up on the Lower East Side, surrounded by an illicit drug trade that trapped him at the age of 13, after seeing other teenagers making money that way, he says.
“When I was a child, people would ask me: ‘What do you want to be when you grow up?’ And I would say: ‘I want to be rich,'” says Marte. “The first opportunity was through the world of drugs. So I started dealing with weed.”
In prison, doctors told Mars he was overweight with dangerously high cholesterol. He began working out intensely, using bodyweight exercises he could do in his cell. After his release from prison, Marte connected with Defy Ventures, a non-profit program that offers entrepreneurial training and business mentoring to formerly incarcerated people.
Coss Marte, founder and majority owner of Conbud, one of the first legal recreational cannabis dispensaries in New York City.
Source: CNBC Make It
With a $10,000 grant from Defy, Marte launched Conbody — which now brings in about $1 million in annual revenue, he says — in 2014.
Eight years later, Marte paid $2,000 to apply for a retail cannabis license. He put about $50,000 of his own savings into Conbud, mostly from Conbody and paid speaking engagements, he says — and raised nearly $1.2 million in additional seed funding from friends and family, who are now co-owners of business.
Mars owns 51%, as New York requires that the licensee “justifiably affected” retain majority ownership.
Conbud’s startup funds paid for a $400,000 security deposit on the Lower East Side retail location, construction costs, payroll and inventory, Marte says. The business opened its doors in October 2023, and brought in about $250,000 in revenue per month – until the authorities. shut down hundreds of unlicensed operators selling illegal cannabis last year.
Growth in sight in a highly competitive market
New York’s recovery was a helpful development for licensed retailers like Mars, who face an uphill battle establishing a long-term industry foundation.
The state Office of Cannabis Management has caught his commitment to prioritize “social and economic equity” while growing the legal cannabis market, but critics worry that smaller shops will eventually be squeezed out by large corporations with a national reach.
Curaleaffor example, is one of the largest owners of dispensaries in the United States with annual revenue over $1.3 billion. The company began adult sales in Queens, New York in 2023.
This chart breaks down the monthly expenses for Mars business.
CNBC Make It
Even the simple cost of doing business — especially the cost of rent and labor — is high, leaving Mars with a relatively slim profit margin of 13%, he says. If cannabis were to become legal at the federal level, Mars would be able to access federal tax deductions for payroll and other business expenses, and expanded banking options with lower fees.
“So, that 13% will be [eventually] grow to 25% of profit margins,” he says.
Both Conbud and Conbody almost exclusively employ workers who have been “justice affected,” meaning they or a family member has been incarcerated for a past drug conviction, Marte says. Collectively, it employs 72 people who fit these criteria.
Marte himself left prison with $40 and a bus ticket, only to “end up on my mom’s couch” while trying to figure out how he could make a living with a drug conviction on his record, he says. Without his own second chance, he would never have found himself in this position, he notes.
“It’s a great, great community that’s growing with us,” says Marte. “I feel blessed, man.”
Want to make extra money outside of your day job? Sign up for CNBC’s online course How To Earn Passive Income Online to learn about common passive income streams, tips for getting started and real-life success stories.
In addition, sign up for the CNBC Make It newsletter to get tips and tricks for success at work, with money and in life.
