We Built an $8 Million+ Business. And We Were Still the Little Guys.

The story of a high school dropout, two part-time employees, and eight years building an independent Pittsburgh business.

I dropped out of high school in the 10th grade.

I didn’t have a business degree. I didn’t have corporate investors or pharmaceutical backing.

But I had an idea, a willingness to work, and a belief that I could build something of my own.

In 2018, I founded Hippie & French.

In 2023, our little Pittsburgh storefront generated $1.4 million in annual revenue.

Our entire team? Me and two part-time employees in their early twenties.

Over eight years, we built a business that I estimate generated more than $8 million in cumulative sales—a figure I’m working to confirm against our records.

A 10th-grade dropout. Two part-time twenty-somethings. One independent business.

I don’t share that because I think leaving school is something to celebrate. I share it because your education, your background, and where you start in life shouldn’t determine what you’re capable of building.

Where I started didn’t determine how far I could go.

And that’s why watching this industry disappear around us has been so devastating.

We Believed There Was a Future

People have criticized me for getting into an industry without knowing where it was headed.

And they’re right about one thing: I didn’t know.

I believed there was a legitimate path from the hemp industry into Pennsylvania’s eventual recreational cannabis market.

After nearly eight years of legal medical marijuana in Pennsylvania, I never imagined we’d still be waiting for adult-use legalization while independent hemp businesses faced being regulated out of existence.

I believed entrepreneurs like me would have a seat at the table.

Instead, we’ve watched ordinary people and independent business owners face the complete dismantling of the businesses they spent years building.

We’ve watched entrepreneurs forced into fire sales, liquidating years of hard work for pennies on the dollar.

And the damage doesn’t stop when the storefront closes.

The employees who depended on those paychecks. The manufacturers who made our products. The vendors who supplied our shelves. The small businesses that depended on our spending.

They’re going down with us.

When you dismantle a small business, you don’t just eliminate a storefront. You unravel an entire network of people who depended on its existence.

And Now We Have a Date

December 11, 2026.

That’s when major changes to the federal definition of hemp are scheduled to take effect under legislation passed by Congress.

The new restrictions target many of the hemp-derived cannabinoid products that helped independent businesses like ours grow.

This isn’t simply a change in product selection.

It’s the complete dismantling of our businesses, our livelihoods, and everything we’ve spent years building.

Every single entrepreneur I came into this industry with has already closed their doors.

Think about that.

An entire generation of independent business owners who believed in this industry, invested their money, created jobs, and helped build a market that now has no place for them.

These aren’t hypothetical losses.

These are real businesses, real families, and real livelihoods being destroyed.

We’re not waiting to find out what happens when small businesses are pushed out of an industry. We’re living through it.

Who Benefits When the Little Guys Disappear?

I understand the need for consumer protection, responsible regulation, and meaningful standards.

What I struggle to understand is why the future of this industry has to come at the expense of the independent entrepreneurs who helped build it.

Who actually benefits when the little guys disappear?

Because $1.4 million in annual revenue didn’t make us a corporation.

It meant we created jobs, paid taxes, supported other businesses, and built something our community believed in.

We weren’t asking for special treatment.

We were asking for a fair opportunity to participate in an industry we helped establish.

The American Dream Was Real. Until It Wasn’t.

I’m not embarrassed that I believed in this industry.

I’m proud of what we built.

I’m proud that a woman who left high school in the 10th grade, with a little storefront and two young employees, built a seven-figure annual business in Pittsburgh.

But I’m heartbroken that nearly everyone I started this journey alongside has already lost theirs.

We didn’t fail as entrepreneurs. The future we built our businesses around never arrived.

We weren’t trying to become Big Pharma.

We were trying to build the American dream.

And for a little while, we did.

With love,

Lindsay
Founder, Hippie & French
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Legislative reference: Section 781, Public Law 119-37, as affected by Section 2019 of Public Law 119-103. Most of the new federal hemp-definition restrictions are scheduled to take effect December 11, 2026.