* LOCATIONS: Launched in 2016 with a single store in East Ridge, Snapdragon Hemp now boasts eight locations around the Chattanooga area.
* PRODUCTS: Snapdragon Hemp is a cannabis business that, according to its website, prides itself on high-quality hemp for maximum relief and relaxation.
* HISTORY: Josh Manning says he started Snapdragon Hemp with a pretty specific focus -- trying to get some sort of pain relief after a 2014 motorcycle accident that cost him his right leg.
"For me, cannabis was a big factor in getting through depression so that I could literally start my life over," he says. "It was a real helper for me when pharmaceutical meds were the opposite of what I needed."
He says his background in chemistry and math was key in helping him develop his own custom derivatives of products that weren't doing for him what he needed.
"The CBD industry is getting blown up by cheap-quality products," he says. "Some places just don't care as much."
Manning says he went from online sales to flea markets before opening Snapdragon Hemp's first permanent location in East Ridge in 2018. He now has eight Chattanooga-area stores, and his business has gone from $42,000 in gross sales in 2018 to $8.5 million in 2022.
"It's not about getting people high," Manning says. "It's about helping folks out who don't want to get high -- they just want to feel better and be functional."
* Facebook: facebook.com/420snapdragon
* Instagram: instagram.com/snapdragonhempchatt