Cannabis Packaging Innovation: How a College Dropout Built Half a Billion Units in His Own Factory

From MJ Biz Con Week: A conversation with Simon Knoebel on dropping out to redesign cannabis containers, manufacturing in Utah, and why hearing "no" gets him excited

In 2014, while attending business school in Boston, Simon Knoebel looked at the iconic push-down-and-turn bottles dominating cannabis packaging and asked a simple question: what product has been the same for 70 years? That design dated back to 1964, borrowed from pharma, and made dispensary purchases feel like picking up prescription pills. Your weed dried out instantly, and the experience didn't match the emerging legal cannabis culture.

Simon saw an opportunity. He dropped out of college to pursue cannabis packaging innovation full-time, creating what would become the Calyx container—most recognizable as the Wana container, but now supporting hundreds of brands across half a billion units produced.

Now, eight MJ Biz Cons later, Simon operates one of the only cannabis packaging companies manufacturing the majority of products in their own facility—a 24-hour operation in Salt Lake City, Utah, of all places.

From Entrepreneur Student to Manufacturing at Scale

Simon attended Babson College, a small business school on the East Coast known for entrepreneurship programs. As a self-described "C student who was barely gonna get it," he knew traditional career paths weren't his calling. He was an engineer and inventor at heart who loved taking things apart and solving problems.

Growing up in Colorado during the heart of legalization, Simon was both a cannabis consumer and an observer of emerging market needs. The packaging gap was obvious—everything came from pharma, nothing was designed specifically for cannabis flower preservation or brand differentiation.

"I thought there has to be a better way. When I looked into that design that everyone knows, that's been iconic, is actually made in 1964. And so I saw that and I'm like, what product has been the same for 70 years? I've never seen something like this. Let me dig deeper and see if there's a better mousetrap."

That better mousetrap became the Calyx container, featuring integrated gasket technology in a sleek bottle design that preserved moisture content while elevating brand presentation. But that was just the beginning of Calyx's cannabis packaging innovation journey.

Why Build Your Own Factory? Control and Speed

Four years ago, Calyx made a bold decision: stop relying on sourced manufacturers and build their own production facility. Simon admits he had "no idea what I was getting myself into" when taking on that challenge, but the payoff has been transformative.

Operating their own factory in Salt Lake City gives Calyx capabilities that most cannabis packaging companies can't match:

• Rapid innovation cycles—new products and formulas developed weekly instead of taking months

• Quality control throughout the entire production process

• Ability to manufacture across multiple packaging verticals: rigid containers, glass, flexibles, and labels

• 24-hour production shifts to meet demand spikes

• Direct customer feedback loops informing design iterations

The transition from being 25-year-old startup founders in Boston to running full-scale manufacturing operations was dramatic. But that challenge is what drives Simon—he thrives on solving problems that have never been solved before.

Manufacturing Cannabis Packaging in Utah: An Unconventional Choice

Operating a cannabis packaging company in Utah raises eyebrows. The state has a small medical program with 11 dispensary chains, mostly vertically integrated, and significant cultural stigma around cannabis consumption.

So why Utah? Manufacturing advantages outweigh cultural challenges. The workforce is hardworking, the business environment supports manufacturing, and crucially, Calyx is ancillary—not plant-touching. This gives them latitude to operate that direct cannabis operators wouldn't have.

The location does create amusing moments. Calyx's facility sits next to a school, and occasionally labels blow into the playground. Teachers knock on the door asking, "What's going on over there?" Simon handles it with humor—though he notes those teachers might appreciate sampling products given the stress of modern education.

Relocating the entire company and team from Boston to Utah was "quite the transition period," but it positioned Calyx for the manufacturing scale and cannabis packaging innovation speed they needed to compete.

The Philosophy: When People Say "No," Get Excited

Simon's approach to cannabis packaging innovation is refreshingly contrarian. When industry veterans say "that's not how it's done" or "no one makes square net containers" or "no one makes square glass—why don't you just make it round?"—that's when he gets fired up.

"That gets me really excited because I know that when we do eventually figure it out, then we're just that much further ahead of the competition and it's hard for people to replicate."

This mindset traces back to his childhood. His parents built him a workshop when he was three years old where he could take things apart and experiment. That early encouragement to be creative and question assumptions shaped him into a builder and inventor who designs all of Calyx's products and develops their patents and intellectual property.

Simon doesn't accept "no" or "that's impossible" as final answers. He hears those responses as "not with you" or "not that way"—an invitation to find the right partner or approach to make the impossible work.

The Bitcoin Backstory: Funding Cannabis Packaging Innovation

Simon's ability to self-fund Calyx's early growth came from an unconventional source: he invested his life savings into Bitcoin while in college. As the cannabis industry took off, his cryptocurrency investment provided capital to get started without traditional funding sources that were largely unavailable to cannabis businesses.

This combination of timing, risk tolerance, and entrepreneurial instinct exemplifies Simon's approach—he looks for gaps and opportunities, then drives "full steam ahead" into those areas. Being an entrepreneur requires grit, because "when you give up, it's all over."

He's experienced lowest lows thinking "it's all over, we're going out of business, there's no way to fix it." But reflection and persistence revealed that solutions always exist—it's up to entrepreneurs to find them. People can accomplish amazing things when they commit fully.

Lessons from the 2020 Growth Trap

The COVID-era cannabis boom taught Simon crucial lessons about sustainable growth versus rapid expansion. In 2020, when cannabis was deemed essential and sales exploded, everyone assumed 100% year-over-year growth would continue indefinitely.

"We all remember 2020 when everything was just blowing up and we all thought that trend was just gonna continue. And so how do you, as a leader, seize those growth opportunities, but be measured and be responsible and grow at a sustainable rate where you're not putting your organization or your people at risk?"

This balancing act is especially challenging for first-time entrepreneurs who lack reference points for market cycles. The discipline comes from taking calculated risks, building for sustainability rather than assuming perpetual growth, and not making the same mistakes twice.

Simon emphasizes the importance of reflection—understanding what went wrong and why, then ensuring those specific errors don't repeat. Mistakes are inevitable and valuable learning opportunities, but repeating them is inexcusable.

The Mentor Advantage: Richard Kimball's Decade of Guidance

Simon credits much of his success to mentorship, particularly his relationship with Richard Kimball, who has guided him since his Babson College days. Richard wrote a letter of recommendation for the "C student who was barely gonna get it" and has provided counsel for the past decade.

Having someone who has sold hundreds of companies and understands entrepreneurial challenges "helps cut out a lot of the mistakes," Simon explains. Strong mentor relationships accelerate learning and prevent costly errors that others have already navigated.

He sees mentorship as circular—receive guidance now, then give back later by mentoring younger entrepreneurs so they don't repeat your mistakes. This knowledge transfer strengthens the entire entrepreneurial ecosystem.

Building Culture in Cannabis Packaging

For Simon, one of the biggest ongoing challenges is the people side of building an organization. Calyx Containers is his first and only job—he has no reference point for how other employers manage teams or build culture.

"It's just working with your intuition and what works, trying to build an amazing culture and a team of people who really enjoy what they do, and setting new standards for manufacturing or how teams can work together," he reflects.

This first-time-everything approach means operating without templates or playbooks. Simon navigates by intuition, feedback, and willingness to experiment with team structures and cultural norms—applying the same cannabis packaging innovation mindset to organizational development.

The Cannabis Entrepreneurship Opportunity

What Simon loves most about cannabis is that "we all get to be entrepreneurs in our own right as we build this industry together." The lack of established standards and best practices means everyone is creating the playbook simultaneously.

This doesn't always work—maybe it works half the time, he estimates—but the learning and growth from that experimentation is invaluable. Setting standards rather than following them, creating solutions rather than implementing existing ones, building an entirely new industry from scratch—that's the opportunity cannabis offers.

Simon didn't dream as a kid about becoming a packaging engineer or inventor. He told teachers he wanted to be in real estate or a builder. Life worked mysteriously, and he ended up here—but he doesn't regret a single minute.

His advice for other cannabis entrepreneurs? Embrace the grit. Recognize that there are always solutions even in lowest moments. Remember that growth won't continue forever, so build sustainably. Find strong mentors. Reflect on mistakes to avoid repeating them. And when someone tells you something can't be done, get excited—because that's your opportunity to innovate.

Want to connect with Simon? Find him on Linkedin!

https://calyxcontainers.com/

This conversation was recorded at MJ Biz Con Week 2025.