Karim Webb Fights To Bring Equality To The Cannabis Business

n the South Los Angeles community Karim Webb is well-known for his four Buffalo Wild Wings franchises. The Baldwin Hills location, which opened in 2011, brought new jobs to the Crenshaw District along with a fun and safe place for community, members to watch sports.

If you’d have asked him back then what he did for a living he’d say, “I sell chicken and beer.” And he’s done well building all four of his restaurants into profitable businesses – each outperforming other BWW locations nationally.

But through getting engaged philanthropically with non-profits like The Brotherhood Crusade and the California Community Foundation, he quickly realized that he wasn’t just “selling chicken and beer” he was using his restaurants as a training ground to develop people.

“I came to understand that young people saw possibility for themselves because they saw us behave in a way that is consistent with success and thought – I can do that too. They were changing because we were asking them to,” said Webb.

In 2018, when the city of Los Angeles began legislating recreational cannabis, Webb saw it as another opportunity to expand what he had done at BWW.

“One of the really beautiful things about being a BWW franchisee is – Wings. Beer. Sports. – it’s a fun place to be but we really are a platform for helping people discover what is possible for themselves and their lives,” said Webb.

That platform has now expanded to include 4thMVMT, a local firm helmed by Webb, that partners, trains and finances individuals who qualify for Social Equity to become entrepreneurs through owning retail cannabis businesses.