Marijuana Business Magazine - February 2018

review business.They researched online review sites and found the existing crop came up woefully short. “There wasn’t much in terms of searching for strains, or at least nothing consistent.There were a lot of review sites or blogs and old (chat) forums,” Vickers said. The three spotted a market oppor- tunity – and Leafly was conceived in Orange County, California.The com- pany later relocated to Seattle. From the start, Scott, Wansolich and Vickers reckoned that rival entrepre- neurs who had similar ideas probably lacked their software engineering skills. The upshot: Those firms would have to shell out considerable bucks to hire engineers.That gave the Leafly founders an immediate cost advantage over rivals. “On the consumer side, we knew we wanted to make it super fast and search-engine friendly, which at the time was an area we capitalized on,” Vickers said. To get Leafly up and running, the three worked nights and weekends while they continued to earn their paychecks at Kelley Blue Book. Critical Design Decision While developing Leafly, the three paid close attention to the website’s design, deciding against using images of cannabis leaves and other dated clichés. Instead, they created the now recogniz- able periodic table-like symbols and color coding scheme that set Leafly apart from competing review sites. “Paying attention to nice design at a time when cannabis sites with nice design were hard to find was key,” Wansolich said. “Design can make or break a site. If Leafly was black and green with pot leaves, it wouldn’t have the same appeal.” The design move wasn’t just a personal decision. It was a strategic gamble that droves of MJ consumers would prefer a design that normalized cannabis consumption and didn’t use EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Cy Scott, Scott Vickers and Brian Wansolich are aficionados of coding and cannabis. The trio harnessed their passions to create two notable Seattle-based ancillary businesses: Leafly, a cannabis-focused review and information website for consumers, and Headset, a B2B data-analytics firm serving cannabis retailers and product manufacturers. How did the three do it? • They thoroughly researched the cannabis space and discovered untapped market opportunities they could capitalize on. • They applied mainstream design ideas to an industry where branding and marketing were dominated by stoner culture clichés. • They did their due diligence on investors interested in putting money into their companies to understand which ones would make a good match. • They leveraged their Leafly legacy and the relationships they developed with retailers and product manufacturers to build a customer base for Headset. • They listened to customer feedback and used that intelligence to offer new products to Headset clients. February 2018 • Marijuana Business Magazine • 51