Today we’d like to introduce you to Mohamed Dia.
Hi Mohamed, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
My journey begins in Senegal West Africa, at the age of 3 my family migrated to the United States and ultimately we ended up in Kansas City, Missouri, where we would start our new lives. As the oldest child, I learned to adapt quickly to responsibility and change after going to 9 different schools around the city and the occasional move.
I still enjoyed learning and solving problems throughout my childhood since they always seemed to arrive at our doorstep. I learned fr my parents to keep my mind open to trying new things out from sports to robotics, starting my own hustles, and understanding how to execute my ideas.
I graduated from Lincoln High School in KC and went to college at Wichita State University where I earned an engineering degree in Computer science. Entrepreneurship was something I was drawn to from a young age with my interest in solving problems, so while I was in school I decided to use the resources I had available to attempt a few business concepts and ideas.
I noticed that there were no products on the market that allowed for adults to remain discrete, have storage, and be able to travel with and prepare their products in a safe and convenient way with the use of cannabis rising across the nation.
This is how my brand Gopack was started by solving this problem, especially for people who look like me and creating the first all-in-one odor deterrent rolling station.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
I’ve learned a lot throughout this process and the road has had a good amount of potholes. I believe there’s a stigma that comes with the Cannabis industry since it’s a still grey area in how confusing, and outdated the systems in place are, but also how it’s heavily regulated and taxed state by state.
This comes with a lot of barriers to entry for not only those who want to be in this cannabis industry on the plant side, especially African Americans who represent less than 4% of the ownership but also those who want to create products that help serve the consumers of the cannabis industry.
Some restrictions include who you can bank with, the type of capital you have access to, compliance and licensing and on the e-commerce side, the payment processors you can use, the type of products you can sell, and more which I’ve had to deal with myself as well. No one said it would be easy but it’s still worth pursuing.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know?
Aside from working as an electrical engineer in the Kansas City area, my brand Gopack, the best way to roll, is where I can help adults safely and conveniently travel, prepare, and keep their cannabis products safe anywhere they are.