Introduction · Venture Map

Introduction

Hey Everyone!

My name is Dan Huerter and I have been a giant fan and ambassador of Venture Map for over a year now. I am a graduate of the University of Kansas with a degree in Information Systems and a concentration in Supply Chain Management. I started my career as a software consultant for a large company out of Kansas City.

In 2014, I made the journey into entrepreneurship and journeyed into the hemp/cannabis space. I helped start a company called Pure Spectrum that sold THC-free CBD products and focused on quality. We hit our early successes with ambassadors and influencers and quickly became the go-to-brand for celebrities and athletes. At one point, we had 50% of the active UFC roster repping our brand. From there we went on to become the first cannabis company to partner with a major sporting organization when we were a headline sponsor of The Crossfit Games in 2018.

Unfortunately, I learned a very hard rule of entrepreneurship by 2019 in being very careful who you choose to partner with. I had a CEO I could no longer be associated with and I stepped down as COO and sold my equity over the course of that year.

I then started a hemp/cbd distribution company (American Hemp Distributor/DirectHemp) where I was working with brands like Charlotte's Web, Bluebird Botanicals, CBDMD and many many more. We were very successful with this business model and had a lot of fun building out the company.

In 2021, I received a call that my former partner of Pure Spectrum had lost equity in a court case and the shareholders had lost faith in him and wanted him out. They needed a replacement named and all unanimously selected that they wanted me to return the company as CEO and perform a hostile takeover. I reluctantly agreed.

The next 2.5 years were the most challenging of my life. The company was in shambles when I returned and I had many stakeholders and parties angry with the company and the former leadership and that anger was now directed at me. I had to perform a few sets of layoffs and try my hardest at righting the ship. I learned a lot in this years and we accomplished some amazing things. These things were made easier by my decision to go through the Venture Map process with Logan and Jack. The clarity I achieved in the plan was invaluable.

At the end of 2023 we decided to sell the assets of that company and move on.

I am now working as a business consultant and coach while working on my next venture which will hopefully be launching in Q1 of 2025.

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Introduction