Jason Reposa ’02 Feels Good About Cannabis Beverages

Throughout his life, Jason Reposa’s personal mantra “Say yes to everything” has proven to be both a blessing and a curse. This willingness to try anything has opened doors to exciting opportunities for the computer science major, but also contributed to such high levels of stress that his body sometimes rebelled, forcing him to seek out creative solutions for pain relief.

Which is how, after years of working 100-plus hours a week at software development and marketing firms in New York City, hustling side jobs, and co-founding and then selling his own business, he now finds himself—somewhat unexpectedly—knee deep in the relatively new cannabis beverage industry, saying “yes” to what he calls a life-changing solution for pain and stress relief.

“I was experimenting with cannabis for my own purposes. I had no intention of starting a company—I just wanted more pain relief,” says Reposa, who founded Good Feels, a cannabis-infused seltzer and beverage enhancer manufacturer, in early 2022. “It’s a common refrain you hear from people trying cannabis beverages for the first time. They want pain relief but they don’t want to be using Advil all their life. They’ve heard about the benefits of cannabis but they don’t want to smoke it and they don’t feel in control when they use edibles.”

What began as an experiment in his basement has turned into a growing business in a 1,900 sq. ft. facility in Medway, Mass., that bottles up to 40,000 units per month for distribution at nearly 50 of the state’s 230 cannabis dispensaries. Plans are in the works for a new 11,000 sq. ft. facility in Holliston, Mass., with capacity to produce more than 500,000 units per month.

“I go super deep into whatever I’m doing. I bought some equipment and learned everything I could by reverse engineering these water compatible formulas,” he says. “I wanted to know, ‘How does it all work?’”

Reposa took a nontraditional route to WPI, transferring from Middlesex Community College in his sophomore year. After graduating from Tewksbury High School without firm college plans, he signed up for classes at MCC on a whim and immediately discovered he had a talent for computer programming.

“I realized programming was something that just gelled with my brain. I didn’t have to struggle at all; I just inherently got it,” he says. After two years of succeeding in every programming class possible at MCC, he earned a full ride to any state school to continue his education. Instead, he chose WPI.

“I thought, if I’m going to go for it, I’m going to go big. Engineering and hard sciences attracted me and technology is in my blood, so I took a big swing,” he says, adding that the brilliant minds he discovered at WPI made him work even harder. “I took all these advanced courses, and they expanded my world as to what was possible.”

He went to London for his Interactive Qualifying Project, where his team worked on transportation projects for the town of Merton, just outside of Wimbledon. But in his senior year, before he completed his Major Qualifying Project, he was recruited for a high-paying consulting job and he left school before graduating.

“Those were the dot-com days. Companies were handing out six-figure salaries to programmers, especially those with a WPI pedigree behind them,” he says. But then the bubble burst, the high-paying jobs disappeared, and he returned to WPI to finish his MQP with fellow dot-com refugee Tim Garthwaite. Their project on mesh decimation allowed easier rendering of 3D models, an idea that was novel at the time but is now built into major 3D modeling programs.

After completing all necessary requirements for his degree, Reposa spent the next few years saying yes to every job opportunity—teaching programming courses at MCC, building websites, and even founding a moving company. In 2004, when the tech job market started to improve, he moved to New York City as the director of technology at a software development company, while also working on freelance projects on the side, with the ultimate goal of owning his own business.

He eventually rose to CTO at an exciting marketing agency “where we were practically sleeping under our desks” due to all the work. Even getting married and surviving testicular cancer couldn’t slow him down—until he developed TMJ, a locked-jaw disorder brought on by stress. He endured months of painful traditional medical treatment while surviving on liquid diets until his jaw finally loosened up.

He and two colleagues left the marketing agency to co-found My Bank Tracker, an online source of banking information. A year later they were also running a full-service ad agency, which they eventually spun off into its own business while Reposa remained CEO of My Bank Tracker.

He moved his family back to Massachusetts in 2017, and two years later he was in the middle of selling My Bank Tracker when overwhelming stress again caused his jaw to lock up. He also hyperextended his knee on an “epic hike” with a friend, and he discovered unexpected relief from both issues when he tried water-compatible CBD.

“When you prepare CBD with this new technology, it becomes much more bioavailable to your system,” says Reposa. When consumed through edibles, cannabis is processed in the liver, while water-compatible CBD enters the system through the intestines, allowing the user to feel the effects within 10 minutes with a duration of about an hour. This gives the user more control over the intensity and duration of the effect, an experience he likens to having an alcoholic drink. Alternatively, the beverage enhancer can be discreetly added to any drinkable liquid—such as a soda, juice, or even milk in a cereal bowl—and comes in lemon-lime and non-flavored.

“Cannabis technology just made a very large leap, and we are one of the few companies that recognize it,” he says. “It’s extremely undervalued.”

Reposa is currently in the process of raising $1.5 million for the Holliston expansion and sees the potential market as an untapped goldmine. “Ninety-five percent of our market doesn’t know we exist as an industry. Beverages have so many benefits,” he says. “It’s an entry-level product, especially the low-dose version, for people who want pain relief or just want to enjoy their night without having to smoke anything.”