Explore the innovative journey of Toby Ripsom, co-founder of GALYNA, as he merges cannabis and skincare science to offer sustainable, pharmaceutical-grade products designed to enhance lives and bodies with proven efficacy.
Tobias “Toby” Ripsom is an entrepreneur and Colorado cannabis industry pioneer who co-founded Veritas Fine Cannabis and helped develop America’s first legal cannabis marketplace. He is dedicated to advancing the industry through professional trust and best-in-class craftsmanship. Like most, Toby has suffered from skin trouble and injuries from time to time, and his ailment and understanding of the medical potential of cannabinoids prompted him to partner with skincare industry formulation experts to develop cannabis-infused prototypes. Those products evolved into the plant-powered skincare solutions that GALYNA offers today to improve lives and bodies.
Prior to entering the cannabis industry in 2014, Toby spent close to a decade in real estate development honing the operational, financial and management prowess that informs his business leadership. A former Nordic ski racer for both the Sun Valley Ski Education Foundation and University of New Hampshire Wildcats, Toby can still be found testing GALYNA formulations before, during and after endless high-altitude kilometers. A husband and father of two sons, he and his family reside in Denver, Colorado.
Read on below to learn more about Toby and GALYNA.
Ganjly: Can you share the journey that led you to co-found GALYNA and how your background in real estate and cannabis influenced your approach to creating a skincare brand?
Toby Ripsom: I moved to Denver in 2012 and a search for real estate development opportunities led me to industrial cannabis properties as Colorado ramped up for adult-use cannabis sales in 2014. Prior to formally entering the industry, using my operational and marketing knowledge from my investment days, I pivoted from being a landlord to becoming a co-owner and tenant, which led me to finding my own landlord to house our own start-up commercial grow.
I entered the industry thinking I could make quick money (and a living for myself) without much knowledge of—or long-term belief in—the plant, or its powers. I soon found myself wrong on both fronts. I’m not a smoker, but I saw the change we were making in others’ lives and medical journeys. I wasn’t seeing it in the marketplace at the time, but I knew the plant could help many others in a more palatable form than the raw flower we were packaging at Veritas Fine Cannabis.
In the years since Colorado’s legal cannabis launch, I saw other nascent topical brands with cannabinoids start to pop up on shelves, but didn’t feel that they spoke to what I knew would be a true crossover from the gardens I worked in, doctors I saw and the aisles I shopped in (still three very different places back then) in topical products’ design, efficacy and overall promise of better skin or relief. I not only felt I could do better, but soon knew I needed to be the one to do better for our plants to shine.
Ganjly: GALYNA’s products are described as science-backed and formulated at the cellular level. Can you elaborate on the research and development process behind your skincare line?
Toby Ripsom: The lab work of Dr. Marnie Peterson, GALYNA’s Chief Scientific Officer, leads the charge into the truth of the plant’s powers.
She tests our formulations on skin tissues collected for scientific research ex vivo (off the body) from plastic surgery procedures and is able to discover what our cannabinoids and entourage ingredients do against specific wounds, diseases and all sorts of bad actors, and the effects on true human skin. We empirically track the changes over 24-, 48- and 72-hours to see what, why and where certain formulations are so effective and build products around those findings.
Ganjly: What unique benefits do pharmaceutical-grade CBD and THC offer in skincare, and how do they differentiate GALYNA’s products from other clean skin care brands?
Toby Ripsom: A lot of CBD companies used a full spectrum oil that’s extracted from whole hemp flower—it’s earthy and raw and lovely in its artisanal imperfection, but results cannot be universally replicated across national or international offerings. While it makes for a great farm-to-table story, only a pure isolate can deliver the replicable science we seek in providing real results to universal skin types and maladies.
What we lose in the bucolic wildflower love story, we gain in pioneering medical purpose. Our only non-plant ingredient, lanolin from sheep’s wool, is still all-natural. At GALYNA, we feel that bringing the precision of science to a largely plant-based product separates us for the better but still preserves a holistic remedy.
Ganjly: Sustainability is a key aspect of GALYNA. Can you discuss the specific sustainable practices you implement in sourcing ingredients and packaging your products?
Toby Ripsom: We live in a world of finite resources for future generations. There are a lot of small changes, at first conscientious and then, hopefully subconsciously, that can make a difference and aggregate to a better world for all.
At GALYNA, we too prescribe to that ethos and make mindful decisions with our planet at the forefront. While still bringing a product of change, we strive for leadership in creating proof that cheap and easy is ultimately harmful to you and your community. We study and promote alternative ingredients and take further care in minimizing packaging or choosing recyclable materials both in the formulation and design components.
The resources we have here can be plenty to solve the problems on the skin and beyond—landfills, clean water and air, and society on the whole. Not all waste is avoidable, but we can choose to build and make conscious choices to improve what we have for the next generation.
Ganjly: With THC products available in select markets, how do you navigate the regulatory landscape to ensure compliance and safety for your customers?
Toby Ripsom: In select THC markets, GALYNA is an intellectual property licensor. We do not seek to own cannabis- or hemp-centric licenses nor warehouses, stores, labs, etc. across America. Instead, we operate over a framework of partner-owned infrastructure. With every state having such rigorous mandates, the in-state partner becomes the compliance expert.
Most of the intellectual heavy lifting of our science, formulation, and discovery has been done over the prior years, and bringing it to market in 2024 is rather plug-and-play. We provide in-state manufacturers with quality-controlled, patented base materials and packaging.
The base materials must then be infused with cannabinoids our manufacturing partners source and/or produce locally, and then distributed by our strict guidelines. Routine testing at multiple levels assures a premium and audited product, which is not only important to us as a parent company but also to our many partners that demand continuity from state to state to their own level of universal service and fulfillment.
I do not believe any other skincare brand has ever utilized our model, and it is rather fun to not only be breaking barriers with our products but also the business model to ensure that our formulations will be accessible to more consumers, but still held to our standards for quality and replicability.
Ganjly: Your team has a collective 45 years of experience in skin care formulations. Can you tell us more about the expertise your team brings to GALYNA and how it contributes to your product development?
Toby Ripsom: When I first endeavored to break into cannabinoid skin care, I knew going it alone would be a fool’s errand. I am a generalist and while I love to put an idea/product/company all together, to be truly successful you need experts in the specific fields you’re targeting to then work together and craft the biggest difference-makers in your offerings while building the business.
I started speaking with those in the industry (I had a family friend who owned a high-end beauty retailer who offered to make introductions). I was connected with a kindred spirit, a founder / CEO of one of my friend’s top-selling brands and we started working on prototypes. In a past life, this executive was also an ingredient and formulation provider out of Chicago and alone had over 40 years of experience in the skin hydration industry. His experience and expertise working with lanolin and meadowfoam seed oil led us to use both ingredients in our formulations. Although he’s since retired, he’s still a trusted adviser to us.
We’re using this initial foundation as a launchpad to bring the next round of ingredient and solution invention via our growing network of industry veterans around the world. GALYNA’s Chief Scientific Officer Dr. Marnie Peterson holds a double doctorate and is a specialist in the prevention of infectious disease spread through wounds. Parallel to her work with GALYNA, she has done diagnostic drug testing for the U.S. Department of Defense, the National Institutes of Health, and 3M.
Ganjly: How do you envision the future of cannabis-infused skincare, and what role do you see GALYNA playing in shaping that future?
Toby Ripsom: With more research, both in-house and anecdotal results, we are seeing limitless functionality. The anticipated rescheduling of cannabis from Schedule I to Schedule III of the Controlled Substances Act will open up further university-led research. A potential SAFER Banking Act passage in Congress would assist in funding that research by unlocking a larger pool of investors.
As of this writing, we have more hypotheses than resources—and I know we’re not alone. Our team has scientific initiatives queued up to clinically prove working hypotheses that will shake up our research. The future of cannabinoids and other plant-based ingredients in skin care is on the cusp of a spectacular frontier.
Ganjly: As a former Nordic ski racer, how do your athletic experiences influence the testing and efficacy of GALYNA products, especially for active individuals?
Toby Ripsom: I’ve been an athlete my whole life and have always stayed on the right side of performance-enhancing aids, although I remain cognizant that a lot of competitors are still very wary of tiptoeing near that line. The lifting of bans in recent years by national and global sports organizations like WADA, USADA, and just now the NCAA reinforces to me that what we are doing isn’t harmful and perhaps quite the opposite: Embracing certain cannabinoids can be a very safe step forward in injury treatment and prevention.
When it comes to weekend warriors (like myself, these days), our bodies aren’t what they used to be and recovery takes a much larger role. I have lived most of my life in harsh, frigid, high-altitude climates, which bring with it damaging sun and wind, and dry, dehydrated skin that needs all the help it can get… enter GALYNA.
The lipophilic molecule we have developed, especially in the REPAIR line, makes for an amazing universal resource for before, during, and after exposure to the elements, and in daily life on hands, feet, lips, etc. Our SOOTHE Cream massaged into those nagging pain points can bring you a day of relief, which can make or break a vacation, workout, or long day hiking and skiing. When it comes to ski-related injury, it isn’t all about exertion: Pro Nordic skiers all have had a sharp ski edge or putty knife cut us, a wax iron or a Klister blow torch burn a hand, and REPAIR is again a perfect balm to get on with your goals and put the pain behind you. (This will undoubtedly be the first time klister has ever been mentioned in a marijuana publication, and that in itself is a snapshot into my journey.)
Ganjly: Can you discuss any challenges you’ve faced in merging the craft cannabis and skin care science sectors and how you’ve overcome them?
Toby Ripsom: Do you have a few years? Just last week, I was sitting on the floor with my 3-year-old son and he asked, “Dadda, do you want to do a Paw Patrol puzzle with me?” And I replied, “You bet I do. Dadda solves puzzles all day for work.”
The issue that’s top of mind, as of late, has been regarding our DTC website—from payment processing, keyword SEO and ad barriers, and conflicting personal views of corporate gatekeepers blocking public health progress out of some best-in-class service providers. Overall, though, the regulatory environment has been the largest hurdle for us. We patch the processes around the barriers while siding with those who are willing to take intelligent risks alongside us. Although not true dangers, we’re battling entrenched profits from other industries.
I have spent the last 10 years of my career manicuring and controlling the optics of a business I know to be safe, helpful, and groundbreaking in several form factors. Now, it’s just in the form of skincare.
Ganjly: What advice would you give to aspiring entrepreneurs looking to enter the cannabis or skin care industries, based on your experiences with GALYNA and Veritas Fine Cannabis?
Toby Ripsom: My advice is to identify a situation where you can apply your specific knowledge, personal network, and your unique background or outlook to be the difference in finding a practical and hopefully profitable solution. When the timing is right, apply an overwhelming amount of risk to the point where your life can barely handle it, keeping in mind the opportunity ahead is unignorable. Go out and source a strong team of niche rockstars that overlap where you want to dominate and build a business that fixes the problem.
Then do those same steps over and over and over as the enterprise expands.
Thank you, Toby, for taking the time to do the interview! To learn more about Toby and GALYNA, head on over to GALYNA.co.
