Rocco Del Priore, Co-Founder of Sweed – Interview Series

Given that the American cannabis industry has become more than a $30 billion industry, the need for a vast and organized retail management software system is more necessary than ever.  Simultaneously, the collection of data regarding purchasing trends and customer demands alongside the creation of memorable marketing strategies are also crucial in their own right. For a better understanding of these multi-faceted retail management systems and interfaces, mycannabis.com had the pleasure of speaking with Rocco Del Priore, Co-Founder of Sweed.

What initially interested you in being a software engineer and eventually building multi-useful cannabis interfaces?

I’ve always had a deep interest in software. At age 13, I became part of the iPhone jailbreak development team, where I was constantly building and exploring new possibilities in software. When I started at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI), I initially pursued electrical and mechanical engineering. However, I quickly realized that building physical things took much longer compared to software, where I could iterate and innovate much more rapidly. That realization pushed me toward software development as my primary focus.

What subjects did you study while attending Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and how did they prepare you for your career in app and software development?

During my time in college, I studied advanced physics, multivariable calculus for engineering, and core computer science classes. While the coursework was standard, I can’t recall a single class at college that was deeply meaningful to my career. My real learning came from hands-on experience and building software outside the classroom.

What were your first few jobs in the fields of technology and software, and what crucial lessons did you learn in those first roles?

My first job was at an Apple Authorized Reseller and Service Provider, which functioned similarly to an Apple Store before Apple (AAPL ) had its own retail locations. I started working there as soon as I was legally able to, around 13 years old. Unlike most employees who stayed for a short period, I took every certification they offered and stayed for several years. Eventually, I transitioned into independent IT support and small business technology consulting in Washington, D.C. That early exposure to troubleshooting, customer service, and Apple’s ecosystem gave me a strong foundation before I officially entered software development.

Before creating Sweed, what apps did you directly develop or assist in developing? How did those apps help the users and their various business operations?

Throughout my career, I’ve worked on many different projects. While in college, I ran a contracting agency, which was a team of developers for hire. Before joining Apple, I co-founded a company called Rollio, which was essentially Siri for Salesforce (CRM ) before Siri existed. Users could verbally log interactions about client meetings and automatically generate opportunities within Salesforce.

At Apple, I worked on iOS system stability, contributing directly to the software that runs on iPhones today, which was pretty cool. After that, I entered the cannabis space and built an eCommerce platform called Cultivate, similar to iHeartJane but before its existence. At Cultivate, we had clients in Maryland, Colorado, and California. These experiences gave me a broad perspective on software solutions across different industries.

When did you realize that cannabis businesses needed a platform similar to Salesforce but one catered specifically to their needs?

My entry into cannabis wasn’t driven by identifying a specific software need initially, I just knew it was a brand-new industry with significant technological gaps. When Colorado first legalized recreational cannabis, the industry was still in its infancy. I spent time visiting dispensaries, speaking to owners, and understanding their operational challenges. It was only after becoming directly involved with licensed cannabis operators that their specific software needs became apparent. Existing platforms weren’t designed to support cannabis businesses, especially given the regulatory and compliance complexities. That realization led to the vision for Sweed.

What were the defining moments that led to the creation of Sweed and how did you conceive the idea for such an extensive platform?

Several key factors influenced Sweed’s creation. First, while developing Cultivate, the e-commerce platform, I experienced challenges integrating with cannabis point-of-sale (POS) systems like Flowhub and Greenbits since many lacked APIs and weren’t prioritizing vendor collaborations.

Second, we recognized that enterprise-level businesses would enter the cannabis space much sooner than most predicted, creating demand for enterprise-grade software solutions, not just solutions for small businesses. Finally, we observed that existing cannabis software tools weren’t effectively communicating with each other, creating an opportunity for a comprehensive, unified platform, leading to a clear opportunity for Sweed.

How does Sweed’s interface directly assist cannabis businesses with their duties, organization, and hopeful success in ways that other platforms are unable to?

Sweed stands out primarily in three ways. First, we are a comprehensive integrated platform that unifies point-of-sale, marketing and e-commerce all under one roof. This enables dispensaries to maintain a single customer record to personalize sales experience, drive efficient discount strategies and send targeted marketing messages instead of blasting content.

Second, we have the largest development team in the cannabis industry with a strong product focus. Our customer experience is fundamentally different, with a support response time under two and a half minutes. We actively collaborate with clients to refine and implement solutions tailored to their needs and deliver on our development promises. Lastly, while many cannabis software solutions cater to small businesses, Sweed provides advanced tools that scale with growing operations.

From your experience as both a career software engineer and the creator of this platform, what are the most useful and/or necessary features of Sweed for cannabis businesses?

Beyond essential inventory management capabilities, which we execute better than competitors, Sweed’s differentiating features include advanced customer segmentation, which allows businesses to build a personalized shopping experience based on customer behavior, demographics, and purchasing trends, enabling targeted promotion.

Another key feature is our universal management system, which ensures actions like discounts, banners, and reports only need to be performed once before applying them across multiple stores, markets, customers, or employees, ultimately eliminating redundant tasks.

Finally, our personalization shopping features leverage AI recommendations to customize the entire customer journey across all shopping channels. Our AI features recommend the right products to customers and show different carousels and banners when they log into e-commerce. The entire journey is customized whether they’re shopping at a kiosk, a point-of-sale station, or online. Beyond being attractive, this drives revenue.

When it comes to the analytical/data collection features of Sweed, what factors and information does the app gather, and what possible retail/shopping trends could the app detail and forecast?

Sweed’s comprehensive platform allows for uniquely valuable data collection, which tracks customer behavior from online browsing through in-store purchases. Unlike competitors who offer pre-built reports, our advanced reporting system provides flexible tools to build, save, and schedule custom reports across e-commerce, delivery, sales transactions, and inventory datasets. Additionally, our marketing automation tools analyze data trends and trigger marketing campaigns, enabling businesses to react to consumer behaviors in real time. This feature is particularly beneficial for smaller teams with limited resources for manual data analysis.

If federal rescheduling of cannabis from Schedule I to Schedule III occurs, how do you see the Sweed interface changing along with it?

While the specifics of rescheduling remain uncertain, the most significant immediate impact would likely involve payment processing. In medical markets, cannabis could potentially be treated like other prescription medications, enabling credit card payments (subject to processor participation). This would represent a fundamental industry shift that would eliminate challenges with handling cash, while enabling credit purchases, which would significantly drive the average transaction value. While additional regulatory changes would follow regarding insurance and issuing medical cards, improvements with payment processing would deliver the most immediate impactful change.

Thank you for joining us, Rocco! For more information on Sweed and its technology, please visit its website.