How It Started: Manufacturing Tech with Nohtal Partansky, Co-Founder & CEO of Sorting Robotics

As part of our “How It Started” interview series, we had the pleasure of chatting with Nohtal Partansky, Co-Founder and CEO of Sorting Robotics, an industrial automation technology company for the cannabis industry. Specializing in robotics, computer vision, and AI technologies, they help break through the toughest bottlenecks of cannabis brands and processors utilizing a combination of real-time production data analytics and modern IoT hardware.
What was it about cannabis that first piqued your interest, and when did that happen?

I first got interested in cannabis back in college. I was never really a drinker because I saw the negative effect it had on the people around me. Back then, everything was still medical and I started learning about the endocannabinoid system around the same time.

How did Sorting Robotics come to life? What is its origin story?

My co-founders and I started the company back in 2018 while I was in NASA-JPL working on the Mars rover. Initially, we built robotics for e-commerce companies; mostly focusing on the trading card market. Eventually, we outgrew that market and wanted to focus on a larger market that could be impactful to the whole world. In 2019, we turned all of our focus onto the cannabis market to build robots for cannabis manufacturers.

What is it about the company that makes it stand out?

The most important aspect of the company, in my opinion, is that we actually have experience working in the cannabis plant-touching space. Back in 2020, we helped build a cannabis co-packing company in Oakland, CA servicing bay area clients with their manufacturing and packaging needs. This gives us a huge advantage in understanding our customers’ pain points. I believe this is why our approach to products and customer service resonates well with the market. We know how difficult it can be running a plant-touching entity. In turn, we’re deeply empathetic and build our technology with that in mind.

What does your typical day look like and what do you enjoy most about your work?

As the CEO, my days are highly variable so it’s hard to say anything is typical. I would say my weeks usually consist of project managing the different product lines and providing high level technical support to my engineering staff. Then, I usually balance it with sales initiatives and business development with our current/prospective customers. Every 18 months we kick off a new R&D project, and it’s during those deep R&D phases that I find the most joy. I really like inventing things that never existed before and solving problems for my customers. The feedback loop of customer satisfaction is probably the most rewarding part of building anything of value.

What has been the highlight of your cannabis career to date?

When we sold the Jiko Robot to the first few customers, I watched those customers go from zero knowledge of infusion to scaling their business to impressive volume numbers. It’s really cool to be a part of the process and seeing other people build their companies with our help.

Can you give us one cannabis trend that excites you?

Rosin-infused joints. I’m a huge fan of solventless and have been dabbing rosin for several years. With wholesale flower prices coming down in California, we’re finally at a point where new products can be made with rosin and it isn’t cost prohibitive for the consumer.

Is there a product or service you hope someone creates to serve the cannabis community?

I would say most of the basic building blocks are there for the cannabis infrastructure on the consumer-facing side. Where I see the biggest pain point is getting a proper financial infrastructure put in place to serve the needs of businesses. It’s extremely frustrating that customers in some states have no access to traditional financial services. We live in such a weird period for the cannabis economy where there is over-regulation, extreme market growth, major market compression, and huge voids for affordable professional services.

What is the biggest change you want to see in the sector?

Improved financial infrastructure stemming from the federal government.

Any advice you would give to someone looking to enter the cannabis industry?

Be extremely careful about who you work with. One bad deal can kill your whole company and wipe out your investors. I’ve seen it with several plant touching companies in multiple states. It’s something I warn my customers about.

What’s next for you? What should we be on the lookout for?

I am focused on my robotics company and looking to build out industry 4.0 for the cannabis sector. That means a high focus on variable manufacturing and using AI to improve reliability across the supply chain. This year we are going to be fully automating the pre-roll and vape manufacturing value chain, stay tuned.