Justin Hartfield
Justin Hartfield is a Entrepreneur and venture capitalist from Orange County, California. He is a co-founder and general partner at the Ghost Group venture capital firm and is the CEO at WeedMaps. He is an advocate for the legalization of marijuana and has been characterized by Business Insider as “The First Venture Capitalist of The Pot Industry.” Hartfield is on the board of directors for NORML and the Marijuana Policy Project.
Background in business
Justin Hartfield founded WeedMaps in 2008 while working at an SEO consultation business. WeedMaps allows medical marijuana users to rate and find marijuana dispensaries. Under Hartfield’s leadership, WeedMaps grew to nearly two million monthly visitors with a monthly revenue of $1.5 million. Hartfield serves as CEO of the company.
Hartfield founded the privately held Ghost Group in 2012 and serves as the company’s CEO. Through Ghost Group, Hartfield and his business partner Doug Francis launched Emerald Ocean Capital, a venture capital firm in the legal marijuana industry.
In addition to Hartfield’s work in the legal cannabis industry, he has also filled roles as a marketing and search engine optimization expert. From 2010 to 2012 he was the Chief web officer at the publicly traded SearchCore, Inc.
Board positions and contributions to the industry
Justin Hartfield resides on the boards of NORML and the Marijuana Policy Project. He contributed over $100,000 to the Measure F campaign, which advocates for an open market system for marijuana sales.
During a June 2013 interview in Business Insider, the business and technology news site, Hartfield was referred to as “The First Venture Capitalist of The Pot Industry.”
