3 Stoner Startups Worth Checking Out
3 Stoner Startups Worth Checking Out. It’s been about four months since Colorado legalized the recreational use, and “gifting”, of marijuana and besides the increase in retail and tax revenue, the new freedom has given birth to an infant industry we’re dubbing “Stoner Startups”.
It was only a matter of time before people began operating within the confines of marijuana regulations and finding ways to monetize the product, so Fueled gathered a few early-subscribers to assess what exactly is on the market.
ZaZZZ Vending Machines
Remember when we thought that by the year 2014 we’d be in flying cars and eating full meals in pill form? Well this has to be close, right? American Green, the Tranzbyte company behind ZaZZZ1, has unveiled the first of what they hope to be many of their vending machines at a dispensary in Eagle Vail, Colorado. To use, patrons must present their ID to gain entry to the dispensary then swipe their ID again at the vending machine. If the ID checks out, then all systems are go and the patron is free to make their selections. Similar machines2 exist in Canada as well, one resembling a gumball machine dispensing smaller quantities for less money, and the other more like a traditional vending machine with larger quantities of designer strains for higher prices.
“Leafly” Yelp for Weed
As it stands, marijuana has come in many different flavors and effects for quite some time now. With the recent loosening of the legal reigns, the natural progression is to want the best possible quality, or particular strain, for distinguished tastes. That’s where Leafly3 comes in. Presenting similar functionality of Yelp reviews, Leafly has already catalogued over 50,000 strain reviews and 20,000 dispensary reviews.
Because of its clean and mature site design (gone are the pot symbols, psychedelic colors and scantily clad Cali girls), as well as the subject matter, Leafly reaches around 2.6M visitors each month. Because it caters to newbies as well as veterans, there’s even an editorial companion worthy of any eReader designed by the sites creators, former Kelly Blue Book employees.
WeedMaps
And what would the marketplace be without a little competition? WeedMaps5 considers itself the “Amazon of weed,” and like Leafly, also reviews strains and dispensaries. The privately owned WeedMaps currently has around 400K users, owns the wildly popular veteran site Marijuana.com, and has a web show and app under its belt.
Clearly the cannabis industry is not without its own innovations and entrepreneurs, a cunning bunch they have to be because buying, selling and possession laws are still very strict and vary from region to region. That hasn’t stopped them from creating some truly sound business models, however, and we are sure that as the stigma of smoking dissipates, as it already has so much, we’ll begin to see more and more stoner startups worthy of mentioning. Far be it to say the new blue chip stocks could actually be green?
About the Author:
This guest article has provided by Anna Gale, she is working with internet marketing company Fueled.
