Some years build quietly.
Others test every reason you started.
2025 was the latter.
It was a year of belief, setbacks, unexpected friendships, hard lessons, and ultimately, validation. This is the story of how a small, independent seed-germination company pushed through one of its most difficult chapters and came out stronger.
From Customer to Teammate: Welcoming Mo
At the end of 2024 and the start of 2025, something special happened. It went from I to us.
Mo, based in Austria, entered my world the same way many people do: as a customer and genuine fan of the Cannakan® system. He believed in the product, used it, talked about it, and stayed engaged. Over time, conversations turned into collaboration. Collaboration turned into friendship.
By the time Mo officially joined the team, it felt natural. What began as admiration for a product evolved into trust, shared values, and a long-term vision that extended beyond borders.
2025 started with people believing. That mattered more than we realized at the time.
Eight Days. Sold Out.
Early in the year, we restocked.
Eight days later, everything was gone.
For a small business, selling out that fast is both exhilarating and terrifying. It validated the product, the process, and the community behind it. But it also exposed how fragile momentum can be when you are not backed by massive infrastructure or investor buffers.
And then came the hard stop.
The Tariff Shutdown No One Sees From the Outside
Almost immediately after selling out, everything changed.
There was no warning period. No safety net. No simple workaround.
From the outside, it may have looked like silence. On the inside, it was nonstop problem-solving. Customs classifications. Documentation. Trade law. Compliance strategy. Late nights and difficult decisions.
This is the part most people never see.
Small businesses do not have departments for customs, trade law, or compliance. When something breaks, the founder becomes all of them at once. While orders were paused, I was independently working through customs classifications, tariff structures, documentation, and long-term solutions so this business could survive without compromising its integrity.
A Partnership Built on Belief
This is where one relationship truly made a difference.
My relationship with Seedsman and, more importantly, Tom Raikes, became a turning point during one of the most difficult periods of 2025.
From the beginning, Tom did not just see Cannakan® as another product. He believed in it. He understood what it was trying to solve, why it mattered, and how much work went into building it the right way. More than that, he believed in me.
When things became uncertain, Tom never treated the situation as a problem to distance himself from. Instead, he showed patience, honesty, and genuine support. He wanted this product to succeed, and he wanted me to succeed, not just because it made business sense, but because he believed in the work and the person behind it.
That level of trust and encouragement matters more than most people realize, especially when you are building something independently and navigating challenges that no one prepared you for. The relationship with Tom and the Seedsman team gave me confidence to keep pushing forward when stopping would have been far easier.
This was not just a partnership on paper. It was belief in motion. And it played a crucial role in helping Cannakan® move through one of the most challenging chapters of its journey.
Expanding to the EU the Hard Way
Instead of waiting for conditions to improve, we pivoted.
Expansion into the EU was not a marketing play. It was a survival move.
With Mo on the ground in Austria and me independently working through compliance and customs, we navigated European logistics step by step. No shortcuts. No assumptions. Just doing it the right way, even when it was slow, frustrating, and exhausting.
That work laid a foundation that will support this company for years to come.
Carrying the Weight of Misunderstanding
2025 also revealed something else.
How often people assume intent without understanding scale.
Cannakan® is not a corporation. It is a small business built by hand, iteration by iteration. Yet during the toughest moments, there were voices that assumed otherwise. That assumed delays meant indifference. That challenges meant incompetence. That silence meant giving up.
The truth is simpler.
The work continued quietly, consistently, and relentlessly behind the scenes.
When Innovation Gets Copied
One of the harder realities of 2025 was seeing imitation arrive before stability.
As Cannakan® gained visibility, copycat products began to appear. Some borrowed heavily from the look. Others mimicked the concept without understanding the engineering, testing, or purpose behind it. While imitation is often framed as flattery, for a small business it can be damaging.
Copycats create confusion for customers. They dilute the message. They cut corners that compromise performance. And they make it harder for the original innovator to continue improving, refining, and supporting the product the right way.
What many people do not see is that innovation is not just an idea – it is years of iteration, testing, failure, documentation, and personal investment. Cannakan® was built through hands-on development, real-world use, and constant refinement. It was never rushed to market, and it was never designed to be disposable.
The rise of copycats in 2025 reinforced why doing things correctly matters. It strengthened our commitment to quality, transparency, and protecting the work behind the product. We are not interested in racing to the bottom. We are focused on building something that lasts.
Innovation is easy to imitate on the surface. It is much harder to replicate the discipline, persistence, and responsibility behind it.
The Moment That Made It All Worth It
At the end of the year, something extraordinary happened.
Cannakan® won Innovative Product of the Year 2025 at MJBizCon.
Not a paid placement.
Not a popularity vote.
A real industry recognition for innovation, function, and design.
It was recognition for real innovation, functionality, and design.
For a product that was questioned, delayed, and misunderstood throughout the year, this moment mattered deeply. It was confirmation that persistence beats noise, and that doing things correctly still counts.
Founder’s Note
There are wins that matter for the brand.
And there are wins that matter for the person behind it.
Winning at MJBizCon was both.
Outside of Cannakan®, this was the single biggest personal achievement of my life.
This product was built through trial, failure, iteration, doubt, and persistence. It was questioned. It was delayed. It was misunderstood. But it never stopped being improved, refined, and believed in.
That award was not just about a product on a table. It was about proving to myself that pushing through uncertainty, standing behind your work, and refusing to quit still matters.
2025 tested every part of me as a founder.
2026 starts with clarity, confidence, and momentum.
To everyone who supported us, waited, believed, partnered, and understood, thank you.
To those just discovering us now, welcome.
We are just getting started.
– Don
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