Current Positions:

Co-founder & Principal - SZN Partners

Co-creator, Producer, Writer, Voice Actor - Durban’s World

Board Member - OCCats

Founder & Principal - SOHUM.agency, Intel Cann Co, Intel Hemp Co

Pre-college

Sohum was born just outside of downtown in Denver, Colorado. He grew up in the Denver Tech Center in the southeast suburbs of Denver.

He attended a number of different schools before graduating from Cherry Creek High School in Greenwood Village, Colo. in May 2007.

College

After receiving his high school diploma, Sohum enrolled at the Leed’s School of Business at the University of Colorado in Boulder, Colo. He pursued dual degrees in Finance and Economics for three years with varying degrees of success.

In 2010, Sohum decided to seek a change of scenery and transferred to The University of Arizona’s flagship campus in Tucson, Arizona.

Over the next three years, he was granted professional admissions to the Eller College of Management to pursue a degree in Finance and Management Information Systems. He also served as the Vice President (2010-2011) and President (2011-2013) of the Multicultural Business Student Association, co-founded and served as Vice President of Loans Across Borders (2012-2012), a student organization focused on microfinance in the developing world, and served on the Leadership Development Committee of the Eller College Student Council (2012-2013), the representative council for the undergraduate business student body.

Prior to earning his dual-BSBA in Finance and Management Information Systems and a minor in Spanish in May 2013, he was a recipient of the Zipperman Scholarship for MIS students, and inducted as a member of the Eller Centurion Honorary.

“The mission of the Eller Centurion Honorary is to recognize top graduates who are committed to supporting the college into the future and serving as alumni champions of their class. Eller Centurion students have excelled in academics, and also in the areas of leadership and service. Centurions are highly involved in Eller, the U of A, and the Tucson community. As an elite group of outstanding seniors, they are pioneers and innovators on campus who have made a difference at Eller.”

Post-Graduate

Professional

Early Career

Sohum began working at a young age, first building a book of business by becoming the trusted babysitter in his community as a teenager. At 16, he took his first service industry jobs, working in the golf bag room at a country club in the mornings and as a front desk agent at a hotel in the evenings for a summer during high school. He later worked in a retail clothing store as well before graduating high school.

While in college, Sohum incorporated his first small business in Waukesha, Wisconsin, as an authorized retailer of Southwestern Company’s educational products. He spent the summer of 2008 selling these products door-to-door 8:30 am-9:30 pm Monday thru Saturday. Over the course of the summer, he generated more than $10,000 in sales revenue.

Later, while attending The University of Arizona, Sohum assisted a friend with research, planning, and ultimately the launch of Bing’s Boba Tea, a small tea shop in the north part of Tucson.

As he was finishing his undergraduate education, Sohum decided to turn down a job offer from a major, publicly-traded tobacco conglomerate to work in the cannabis industry. He began his career as a budtender at a medical dispensary in CO and soon discovered the necessity for a trusted, reputable wholesale service for licensed cannabis dispensaries, cultivators and processors.

Cannabis Commodities Exchange

Shortly after graduating from The University of Arizona’s Eller College of Management, Sohum began exploring opportunities in the cannabis space. This led him to begin development on one of the first cannabis wholesale services in Colorado’s regulated market, the Cannabis Commodities Exchange (CCX).

On April 19, 2014, with a team of attorneys and a developer, he launched the Cannabis Commodities Exchange at the 2014 High Times US Cannabis Cup in Denver, CO. Sohum operated the company for several years, testing numerous different approaches and business models.

In late 2016, Sohum officially suspended operations of CCX after determining that the concept was early for the state of the cannabis industry.

The Cannabist (Denver Post)

In Spring 2015, Sohum met Ricardo Baca at a mutual friend’s birthday barbecue. Ricardo was most well known as the founder and editor of The Cannabist, a special outlet and vertical devoted to cannabis news and culture which was launched in late 2013. The vertical was launched and operated by The Denver Post in anticipation of the beginning of the sale of adult-use cannabis in Colorado on January 1, 2014, making them the first daily newspaper in the world to devote an entire section to the coverage of cannabis.*

Sohum had repeatedly contacted Ricardo in 2013 during the process that led to Jake Browne being hired as the first professional cannabis critic for a daily newspaper in the world. Ricardo was in the process of expanding The Cannabist and invited Sohum to submit a writing sample to fill a second cannabis critic position.

In August 2015, Sohum was introduced as the newest cannabis critic at The Cannabist via the video show and podcast, The Cannabist Show.

Over the next two years, Sohum wrote more than 20 articles for The Cannabist, primarily focused on cannabis reviews. During his time there, in December 2016, The Cannabist was named Most Influential Media Source in the cannabis industry at the Cannabis Business Awards.

He remained a freelance writer there until The Denver Post and their parent company, Digital First Media, decided to pull all remaining resources from The Cannabist in 2018.

*The story of The Cannabist was made popular by the 2015 documentary, Rolling Papers.

The Grow-Off

In early 2016, Jake Browne, the first cannabis critic at The Cannabist, San Sandt, and Sohum began conceptualizing a new type of cultivation competition. The general consensus that most existing competitions were paid for or did not accurately rank products created the need for a new type of competition.

This new competition would provide participants with cuttings (clones) from the same mother plant, ensuring a level starting point. Additionally, this would be the first competition that deviated from subjective ratings provided by secret “cannabis experts” in favor of laboratory testing results.

In April 2016, Sohum partnered with Jake Browne, his fellow cannabis critic at The Cannabist, and Sam Sandt to launch The Grow-Off, the first science and data-driven competition for cannabis cultivators. After providing the necessary standard operating procedures to ensure compliance with applicable regulations, he stepped away to pursue other opportunities.

After the completion of the first competition (Spring 2017), the Marijuana Enforcement Division contacted The Grow-Off and commended the team for creating the first cannabis competition that complied with state laws and regulations.

MassRoots

In late 2016, Sohum began consulting his friends at MassRoots, Inc. in investor relations and business development. After a few months as a consultant, he joined the MassRoots team full-time as the Director of Investor Relations. In January 2018, following a massive downsizing and attempted corporate takeover, Sohum also took over the company’s business development and oversight of its business-facing technology products.

During this time, Sohum did dozens of corporate presentations for institutional investors, retail investors, shareholders, and the press. He also handled investor inquiries and requests to deposit share certificates via Deposit/Withdrawal at Custodian, also known as a DWAC.

Additionally, he interfaced with the company’s offshore development team, both virtually and on-site, to manage the development of the MassRoots for Business suite of products. The first new product was launched in August 2018.

Sohum left his full-time position at MassRoots in December 2018.

Durban’s World

Sohum hosted a Super Bowl party in 2019 after moving to Los Angeles, CA the previous year. At this party, he met Ben Custodia, also known as BenOfficial, a DJ, illustrator, and aspiring animator. After Ben heard Sohum’s voice, he suggested some type of animation project and the two started brainstorming immediately. Ben sketched the first illustration for an animated character on the top of a pizza box, and Durban’s World was born.

After continuing to develop the concept into a full animated series, Sohum and Ben partnered to found Durban Creative Media, which is producing the project.

In addition to Durban’s World, DCM also provides freelance and contract media services, including illustration, animation, design, and voice over.

For more information on Durban’s World, visit:

Freelance Writing

Cannabis Technology Association