This year’s CommBank Young Hero Awards shines the spotlight on 10 outstanding business leaders from across Australia. These young entrepreneurs, aged 35 and under, are making a positive impact on Australia’s business market while pushing the boundaries of their respective industries. Let’s take a closer look at these trailblazing businesses and the remarkable founders that run them. Lisa Nguyen, founder of Astrid Dispensary shares insights into their business’s success and why they were awarded CommBank Young Hero Awards 2023: Rising Star Award.
What motivated you to start your business?
What truly inspired me to start Astrid was the desire to improve patient access to medicinal cannabis and raise awareness and remove the stigma associated with cannabis.
In 2019, I joined Canopy Growth which gave me multiple opportunities to travel to Canada where I met and worked alongside amazing global cannabis leaders. It was truly life-changing. I remember walking into a dispensary in Ottawa and thinking “Wow, this looks like an Apple store, why don’t we have anything that looks like this in Australia?” That was the moment Astrid was born.
So I thought, I could combine my cannabis experience with my pharmacy degree to open a boutique dispensary that was not just beautiful, but thoughtfully designed and dared to be different. In 2020 I founded Astrid, with the vision to be Australia’s first female-led dispensary focusing on medicinal cannabis dispensing, education and support. And here we are! Three years later… I have an incredible team that is only growing, two dispensaries, with more in the works, and a brand that I am wholeheartedly proud of and obsessed with.
Biggest challenge you faced when establishing your business?
Establishing Astrid presented numerous challenges, such as securing funding, navigating the obstacles posed by the pandemic, and combating the prevailing stereotype surrounding cannabis in Australia.
In the early days, cannabis was put into the same category as narcotics, and every day on the road talking to doctors was an uphill battle – add being a woman to the mix in a predominantly male-dominated industry, and yes, it was challenging.
What did you do for funding when the banks turned you down?
Another challenge was funding. I decided to try and get a loan from the banks…but after many attempts, they said no. So, I sold everything. I decided to bootstrap the business. I sold my apartment; I took out my super, took out personal loans, my husband Hansen sold all his nice things…we put everything on the line. But it wasn’t enough.
Then in March 2020 Covid-19 arrived in Australia. Everyone was freaking out about the global pandemic, but I saw an opportunity. My parents owned a textile factory in Rowville, so I drove there and I drew my mum a sketch of a face mask and asked: “Can you sew this?”
To which my mum said she hadn’t sewed in over ten years. I told her if she could sew me ten masks and I can sell them all today, “then we’re doing this”. I launched a website overnight and we sold out within 24 hours. Over the span of two months, we sold over $80,000 AUD worth of face masks. My mum sewed day and night. The face masks ended up being part of the seed funding for Astrid Dispensary.
Where do you see your business in the next 10 years?
I’d love to build more dispensaries in Australia, with Brisbane on the horizon shortly. For me, holistic health and particularly natural medicine is something I am passionate about. I think that if we can create a really beautiful space for cannabis, maybe one day we can include mushrooms and other living plant medicines into the mix too.
But ultimately, for me, my passion in life is inspiring people. I hope that by doing what I love, others can realise there’s always another way, and an opportunity to be better and happier.
By Alyssa Herr, Editor
