About RCAG

I was the proof of concept. Then I found out what it cost.

Roland Conner opened the second legal cannabis dispensary in New York State and the first owned by someone the state had convicted of a cannabis offense. Within two years the financing behind it had put the business in default. Roland Conner Advisory Group exists because the opportunity was real and the capacity to govern it was not.

I grew up in public housing in Far Rockaway. I sold cannabis because it was the economy I had access to. In the early nineties the police raided us and I went to jail for it.

Then I spent about fifteen years building legitimate businesses in this city, mostly property management. In 2009 I started Project First Step, a transitional housing program in the Bronx for men coming home. That work is the reason I understand what a second chance actually requires, which is almost never what people assume it requires.

In January 2023 I opened Smacked at 144 Bleecker Street. CAURD license number 23-000002. The second legal dispensary in New York State and the first owned by someone the state had convicted of a cannabis offense. The governor came. Forbes put me on a list. I said that day that I was proof of the state's commitment, and I meant it.

Here is the part that does not make the press release.

The state needed stores open to hit a public target, so I was pushed to open as a pop-up in a matter of weeks rather than wait for the build to finish. That single decision carried costs nobody put in front of me first. The financing that was supposed to arrive on one set of terms arrived on a materially harder set, over a longer period, and obligated me to reimburse expenses I had not negotiated and largely could not see.

When I asked for a short period of relief, I was told no. The adjustment I was offered instead raised my monthly obligation. One of the firms working on the opening sued me for its fees. I ended up in default to the fund that had been created to help people like me, and it reserved the right to foreclose.

I want to be precise about the lesson, because the easy version of this story is wrong.

The opportunity was real. The license was real. The location was real. The demand was real. What did not exist was the capacity to govern any of it. Nobody modeled what a rushed opening would cost against the debt that would have to service it. Nobody negotiated the major contracts before they were signed. Nobody read the financing against the profit and loss statement it would be repaid from. Nobody sequenced the decisions, and there was no one in the room whose job was to say wait.

None of those are exotic failures. They are the ordinary ones. They are also survivable, every time, when somebody is watching for them.

I did not need one more advisor who knew one thing. I needed someone to figure out what was actually about to break, and then put the right specialists on it in the right order, fast enough to matter.

That is what Roland Conner Advisory Group does. It is the thing I did not have.

Everything I know about this, I learned by paying for it.

The lesson

The opportunity was real. The capacity to govern it was not.

Roland Conner, Founder & Principal

The operator-led difference

Advice from someone who carried the consequence

Operator-led is not a marketing word here. It describes where the judgment comes from. RCAG's principal has signed the financing, made payroll under pressure, negotiated with vendors who held the leverage, sat across from a regulator, and lived with decisions that could not be undone. That produces a specific kind of usefulness: an instinct for which problems are actually urgent, and a low tolerance for advice that sounds correct but cannot be executed by the people who have to execute it.

It also produces a particular discipline about limits. RCAG does not perform regulated professional work. It is not a law firm, an accounting firm, or an investment adviser. What it does is determine what capability an objective requires, and then organize that capability, which frequently means saying that the next call belongs to an attorney rather than to RCAG.

That is why the professional network exists. No single advisor would have caught the opening cost, the contract terms, the financing structure, and the operating discipline at once, because those are four different disciplines. A firm that claims otherwise is selling the same fiction that produced the problem in the first place.

Mission

RCAG helps entrepreneurs and business owners identify what stands between opportunity and sustainable success, and organizes the capability necessary to address it.

The firm is being built as a general advisory organization rather than a cannabis consultancy. The method applies wherever an owner is carrying more opportunity than structure: a first location, a rapid expansion, a business that grew past its systems, a regulated industry with rules that change faster than the operator can track them.

Cannabis retail is RCAG's initial specialized practice because that is where the principal's most recent and most expensive experience sits, and because the sector produces this exact failure at unusual scale. It is one practice within the firm, not the identity of the firm.

Background

Roland Conner

Founder & Principal, RCAG
Leads all client engagements and the qualification of the professional network.
Founder, Smacked
144 Bleecker Street, Manhattan. Opened January 2023 under CAURD license 23-000002. The second legal cannabis dispensary in New York State and the first owned by a justice-impacted individual. A family operation.
Founder, Project First Step
Founded 2009. A transitional housing program in the Bronx supporting men returning from incarceration and working toward stability and independence.
Interim Government Affairs Officer, C.A.U.R.D. Inc.
Board role at the member organization founded by New York's first conditional adult-use retail licensees, representing more than 280 dispensaries across the state. RCAG does not speak for the association, and the role is not a client channel.
Prior operating experience
Roughly fifteen years running property management and related businesses in New York City.
Recognition
Named to the Forbes Cannabis 42.0 list in 2023.
Common questions about RCAG

What people ask before they get in touch

No. RCAG is a general business advisory organization serving entrepreneurs and business owners across industries. Cannabis Retail Advisory is one named specialized practice within the firm, offered because that is where the principal's most recent operating experience sits. The diagnostic method, the service areas, and the professional network are not cannabis-specific and are not limited to cannabis clients.
Because it is the most useful thing the principal knows. Advisory firms ordinarily sell from their wins, which tells an owner nothing about what happens when the plan meets reality. Roland held the flagship license in a state program, did everything he was asked to do, and still watched the structure behind the opportunity nearly take the business. Knowing precisely where that goes wrong is worth more to a client than a list of successes.
No. RCAG provides business advisory and consulting services only. It does not practice law or public accountancy and is not an investment adviser. Where an engagement requires regulated professional work, RCAG identifies the capability required and, where appropriate, introduces an independent professional. That professional is engaged directly by the client and is solely responsible for their own services.
Roland leads client engagements directly. Where the objective requires capability outside RCAG's competence, RCAG maps what is needed and organizes it, which may involve independent professionals from its network. The engagement letter and statement of work name what RCAG is responsible for and what it is not, before any substantial work begins.
RCAG works with owner-operated and closely held businesses where the person carrying the decision is reachable and accountable. The firm screens every inquiry for whether there is a real problem, whether RCAG has a legitimate role, and whether the matter is serious enough to justify the engagement. Where the answer is no, RCAG says so and refers or declines rather than taking the work.

Start with what is actually happening

The client process opens with a questionnaire, not a pitch. Twelve questions about your business, your situation, and what would count as a win.

Become a client See how RCAG works
Roland Conner Advisory Group LLC provides business advisory and consulting services. RCAG does not provide legal, tax, accounting, or investment advice. Submitting information through this website does not create a consulting or advisory relationship.