Long-time Chicago entrepreneurs Josh and Tara Joseph made history in 2020 when the company they founded in 2014, Grassroots Cannabis, was sold to Curaleaf for a reported $850 million. Then they moved to Nashville and created Big Plan Holdings as an umbrella for the family’s business ventures, but especially to focus on helping others, in particular minorities and women, successfully enter the cannabis business.

The Josephs, whose enterprises included commercial real estate development, music and entertainment, branding and licensing, and philanthropy, added cannabis shortly after Illinois legalized medical marijuana in 2014. Then in 2019 Illinois legalized recreational uses of the popular herb. By that time, "Grassroots" had expanded well beyond the state’s boundaries, and the Josephs were ready for a new mission.

Moving to Nashville, they entered a state with much more antiquated marijuana laws; even medical cannabis is disallowed. Big Plan Holdings’ CEO, Josh Joseph says their mission is now to provide and deploy capital into encouraging social equity, diversity, and inclusion in various industries, including cannabis, and even within that of music and entertainment, at a very high level and throughout their philanthropic activities.

The article continues on the International Business Times here.