Isaac Dietrich, who founded the marijuana-focused social media platform MassRoots, will meet with Virgin Group Chairman Richard Branson as part of the Extreme Tech Challenge, a high-profile contest for startups.
The meeting will take place in early February on Branson’s private island. Branson – a prominent business tycoon – is a noted marijuana legalization supporter.
The contest is part of the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, one of the biggest technology trade shows in the country. Dietrich was one of 10 semi-finalists to present at the competition last week.
“Despite some controversy, we believe our presence at CES and XTC paved serious in-roads with mainstream technology enthusiasts, investors, and media that will continue to benefit our company over the course of 2016,” Dietrich said in a statement
Controversy indeed. Dell, the giant computer maker, dumped on MassRoots and the rest of the cannabis industry when it declined an invitation to judge the contest after learning that a marijuana company was competing, according to Bloomberg Business.
“We declined to participate because one of the companies in the contest did not meet our criteria,” a Dell spokesman told Bloomberg Business.