Bill Lupo Tapped as Chief Operating Officer of Ghost Group and Weedmaps.com
Industry Vet to Increase Revenue By Servicing Small Businesses in Marijuana Market
NEWPORT BEACH, Calif., Dec. 17, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Ghost Group, a leading operating company focused on the emerging marijuana sector, announced today that it has hired Bill Lupo as Chief Operating Officer (COO). Lupo will also serve as COO of Ghost Group's Weedmaps.com, the world's largest online medical marijuana resource.
Lupo, who will report directly to Ghost Group's Co- Founder and President, Doug Francis, will be responsible for developing and implementing growth strategies, as well as managing sales, marketing, service fulfillment, operations and HR.
"As a result of increased awareness and pending legislation, the marijuana industry is on the precipice of tremendous growth," said Francis. "At Ghost Group, we see huge opportunity with SMB [small- to medium-sized businesses]. This is why we've brought on Bill, who over the past 15 years has amassed an impressive track record of rapidly growing revenue for start-ups through SMB. We're excited about tapping Bill's unique skill set, and look forward to his, and the company's continued success."
Previously, Lupo served as the Vice President of Sales at WebVisible, a local interactive advertising firm, where he -- in two and a half years -- grew the team from seven people to 200, and increased revenues by 800 percent. He also served as Vice President of Retail at Deluxe Interactive, a creative agency with digital and interactive communication experience, where he helped increase revenue from $62 million to $100 million in less than two years. Lupo was also an early employee of Yodel, where he grew sales by over 700 percent.
"In terms of market potential for Weedmaps, I like to compare it to companies like Yelp or Intuit, both of which target SMB and have seen explosive growth," said Lupo. "As awareness of marijuana increases and legislation is adopted, there will be an enormous amount of under serviced small- and medium-sized businesses that will need solutions that are geared towards their businesses. It's this market opportunity and the truly entrepreneurial executive team that drew to me Ghost Group. I look forward to being a part of Ghost Group's very talented team and helping to radically increase the company's revenue."
Bill received a bachelor's degree in Political Science with an emphasis on law from Chapman University in Orange, Calif., and is involved in mentor programs, entrepreneur forums, and growth consulting. He lives in South Orange County with his wife Vanessa and their two kids.
About Ghost Group
Ghost Group is a Southern California-based operating firm primarily focused on building consumer, technology and enterprise businesses in the fast-emerging medical marijuana industry. The company manages Emerald Ocean, which invests in market-defining companies and technology in the medical marijuana sector such as WeedMaps.com. For more information, visit www.ghostgroup.com.
About Weedmaps.com
Weedmaps caters to millions of medical marijuana patients in every state with medical cannabis and provides relative online resources and information to site visitors from all over the world. For more information, visit www.weedmaps.com.
SOURCE Ghost Group
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