Marijuana Business Magazine - February 2018

Before launching both companies, Scott, Wansolich and Vickers diligently researched the cannabis industry.Their mission: Spot opportunities ripe for commercialization. Once they identified a promising niche, the three relied on a variety of strategies to build Leafly and Headset into respected brands.Those strategies included: • Applying mainstream design ideas to an industry where branding and marketing were dominated by stoner culture clichés (think of the pot leaves many companies use for their brands). • Doing their homework to under- stand what kind of investors would Dreaming Up Leafly Scott, Wansolich and Vickers got their inspiration for Leafly while work- ing in the automobile industry. Scott and Vickers met about 20 years ago as computer science majors at California State University, Fullerton. They ended up working together at Kelley Blue Book, the California com- pany that provides a popular automo- tive pricing guide and vehicle reviews. There, the pair met Wansolich in 2006. Riffing off their engineering talents and a mutual interest in cannabis, the three discussed how to parlay their software skills and affinity for mari- juana into an online strain search and A t their core, Cy Scott, Scott Vick- ers and Brian Wansolich are techies who like to code software. But the three friends have managed to capitalize on that talent to break into the marijuana industry and build two notable Seattle- based ancillary businesses: • Leafly, the popular online strain and dis- pensary guide for consumers that was launched in 2010 • Headset, a data-analytics software firm created in 2015 that now serves hundreds of cannabis retailers and manufacturers How did the trio succeed? be best for their companies – and having the patience to wait for the right ones to come along. • Understanding that the cannabis industry had matured enough for a B2B data-analytics company like Headset. • Leveraging their Leafly legacy and the relationships they developed with product manufacturers and retailers to build a customer base for Headset. • Listening to customer feedback and using that intelligence to offer new services to Headset clients. Cy Scott, Scott Vickers, center, and Brian Wansolich huddle in Headset's Seattle headquarters. (Photo by Steve Dykes) 50 • Marijuana Business Magazine • February 2018