Operators Turned Advisors
Joint Venture Advisors is a cannabis management company run by operators with more than eight years running successful dispensaries in multiple markets.
Our story
We learned this business by running it
We started in Massachusetts, helping other companies win cannabis licenses when the adult-use market was new. Then we did it for ourselves: we founded a licensed cultivation facility, won retail licenses, and opened and ran stores. One of those projects took sustained work with a town and the state regulator to bring drive-thru cannabis retail to Massachusetts.
When New York opened, we brought the same playbook to one of the hardest retail markets in the country: searching block by block for sites that clear the proximity rules, negotiating leases, building stores and running them day to day. Today we hold licenses and operate stores in both states, with more on the way.
Along the way, other licensees kept asking for help. Many had won a license and did not know how to turn it into an open, compliant, profitable store. Joint Venture Advisors brings our operating team, systems and experience to those licensees, under agreements that leave them in control.
- More than eight years operatingRunning successful dispensaries in multiple markets.
- Licenses won in two statesAdult-use licenses in New York and Massachusetts, with more applications pending.
- Stores opened and operatingRetail stores built, opened and run by our own team.
- A licensed cultivation facilityFounded and built, so we know the supply side too.
- A first-of-its-kind approvalThe local and state work that brought drive-thru cannabis retail to Massachusetts.
Our approach
How we work with every client
You keep control
You own the license and make final decisions. We work under flat, fixed fees, in agreements built to meet each state's rules on control and true parties of interest.
Compliance first
Every plan starts with what the regulator and the town require. We write the SOPs, run mock inspections and audit monthly, so an inspection is never the first test.
Experience that pays for itself
A wrong site, a lease with no approval protection or a failed inspection costs more than good advice. We help you avoid the mistakes we have already made and seen.
Values
What we hold ourselves to
Operators first
We only advise on what we have done or would do in our own stores.
Compliance always
We never describe a way around a rule. When a rule limits a plan, we say so and find the compliant path.
Plain talk
Straight answers on cost, time and risk, including when the honest answer is that we are not the right fit.
No promises we cannot keep
No one controls a regulator, an inspector or a market. We promise the work, not the outcome.
Respect for equity owners
Social equity licensees keep their ownership and control. We do not take equity or control rights in their businesses.
Earn the next month
Transparent monthly reporting with targets, red flags and a fix for each one.
Where we work
Home markets in New York and Massachusetts, active across the Northeast
We also work in New Jersey, Virginia, Delaware, Maryland, Connecticut and Rhode Island, and we track Pennsylvania for clients preparing for legalization.
Team
The people behind the work
Founder
Brian Carney
Brian Carney founded Joint Venture Advisors to give other licensees the operating team and playbook he built for his own stores. He has spent more than eight years building and running cannabis businesses in Massachusetts and New York.
Brian began by helping other companies win Massachusetts licenses, then founded a licensed cultivation facility, won adult-use retail licenses in both states, and opened and operated stores. In Massachusetts he led the local zoning and state approval work that brought drive-thru cannabis retail to the state. In New York he has run site searches, proximity requests and lease negotiations in one of the hardest retail markets in the country.
His work spans site selection, licensing and compliance, financial modeling, real estate deal structuring and regulatory strategy. He is based in New York City.
Tell us where you are. We will tell you what comes next.
Whether you are applying, licensed but not open, or already operating, a 30-minute call will give you a clear next step for your license.