Leafly

Last updated
Leafly
Company type Public
Nasdaq:  LFLY
IndustryMedical & Adult Use Cannabis
FoundedJune 13, 2010 (2010-06-13) in Irvine, California, U.S.
FoundersCy Scott
Scott Vickers
Brian Wansolich
Headquarters Seattle, Washington, U.S.
Key people
Website www.leafly.com

Leafly is a website focused on cannabis use and education. [3] The company says it has more than 120 million annual visitors and over 10 million monthly active users. [4] Leafly provides a wide range of information on cannabis including 1.5 million consumer product reviews, more than 9,000 cannabis articles and resources, and over 5,000 verified strains in its database. [4] Leafly additionally provides 4,500+ retailers and 8,000+ cannabis brands with e-commerce tools such as digital storefronts, embedded menus, point-of-sale integrations, targeted advertising, and more. [4] The company is headquartered in Seattle, Washington and from 2012 to 2019 was owned by Privateer Holdings, a private equity firm focused on the emerging legal cannabis industry. [5] [6] [7] Leafly is now a publicly traded company with 160 employees. [4]

Contents

History

Leafly was founded in June 2010 by Scott Vickers, Brian Wansolich, and Cy Scott. [8] The three Orange County engineers recognized the need for a legitimate strain resource and began to build Leafly as a side project to their jobs as web developers. [8] [9] [10] Privateer Holdings acquired the company in 2011, at which time Brendan Kennedy became the company's CEO. [11] [12] [13] Meanwhile, the original founders left to launch a new company named Headset. [14] By July 2011 the website had received about 180,000 unique visitors and was growing at 30 percent per month. [10] In April 2012, Leafly reported about 2.3 million monthly visits and approximately 50,000 mobile app downloads per month. [9] [15] In June 2016, the company announced that it received more than 6 million monthly visitors and 31 million page views across its website and mobile applications. [16] On August 2, 2014, Leafly became the first cannabis company to place an advertisement in The New York Times. [17]

Leadership

On November 6, 2017, Privateer Holdings announced the appointment of Chris Jeffery as CEO; he was formerly co-founder of food delivery service OrderUp, [18] He was replaced in 2018. [19]

On March 4, 2019, the firm appointed former vice president of Amazon Prime Video International Tim Leslie as its CEO. [20] [21] He was replaced on August 18, 2020 by Yoko Miyashita, formerly the firm's General Counsel. [22]

Business model

Leafly generates revenue by selling online display advertising and priority dispensary listing packages to companies in the cannabis industry. [9] [23] Display advertising campaigns are sold on a Cost Per Impression model. [8] [9] More than 4.5 million orders are placed with businesses on Leafly each year, generating $460 million in gross merchandise value (GMV) annually for Leafly partnered retailers. [4]

Use

Leafly has three primary functions:

Strain explorer

Patients and consumers use Leafly to search for cannabis strains according to medical use, such as anxiety or nausea, and desired effects, like euphoria or creativity. [9] [24] Relevant strains are then presented in a format similar to the periodic table. The table is color coded to identify whether the strain is sativa, indica, or a hybrid of both. The problem is that almost every piece of strain data is incorrect and unverified. [10] [25]

Dispensary locator

Patients can use their zip codes or city and state names to search for dispensaries, which are then displayed on a map of the area. The dispensary profiles include menus, reviews, photos, and store locations. [25] [26] [13]

Reviews

Leafly users can write reviews of strains and products they have tried or dispensaries they have visited. For dispensaries and products, reviews consist of a brief comment section and a star rating system that is based on medication, service, and atmosphere. Strain reviews include desirable effects, attributes, and summary information. [26] [15] [12]

Mobile access

Leafly has mobile applications for iOS and Android devices. [25] [27] [28] [8] [10] In 2021, the company launched a new iOS app that enables iPhone and iPad users to place pickup orders for cannabis in legal state markets. [29]

Statistics

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References

  1. ↑ "Tim Leslie Out as CEO of Leafly After 18 Months".
  2. ↑ "General Counsel Miyashita supplants Leslie as CEO at marijuana firm Leafly". 18 August 2020.
  3. ↑ "Leafly: the web's ultimate cannabis resource". Engadget. Retrieved 2021-07-14.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 "About". Leafly. Retrieved 2021-07-14.
  5. ↑ Eric Mortenson (January 25, 2013). "Investors and entrepreneurs have high expectations - sorry - for cannabis related businesses". Oregon Live. Retrieved March 26, 2013.
  6. ↑ "Privateer Holdings Team". Privateer Holdings. Archived from the original on March 16, 2013. Retrieved March 26, 2013.
  7. ↑ Wagreich, Samuel (2013-02-25). "Meet the Man Funding the Cannabis Industry". Inc.com. Retrieved 2021-07-14.
  8. 1 2 3 4 Dorbian, Iris. "Just In Time For Canada Day, Leafly Expands Order And Delivery System To Country". Forbes. Retrieved 2021-07-14.
  9. 1 2 3 4 5 Taylor Soper (October 31, 2012). "Leafly: Like Yelp and Consumer Reports... for medical marijuana". GeekWire. Retrieved March 26, 2013.
  10. 1 2 3 4 Downs, David (July 6, 2011). "Leafly.com Classes Up The Joint". East Bay Express .
  11. ↑ Carole Bass (December 7, 2012). "Joint venture: these Yale MBAs want to put pot in every pot". Yale Alumni Magazine. Retrieved March 26, 2013.
  12. 1 2 "Groups waiting to cash in on pot sales in Washington". Fox 12 KPTV. February 14, 2013. Retrieved March 26, 2013.
  13. 1 2 Kim Murphy (December 9, 2012). "Plenty of smoke clouds the future of legalized pot in Washington". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved March 26, 2013.
  14. ↑ "Leafly founders depart, raise cash for new marijuana business intelligence startup". GeekWire. 2015-08-10. Retrieved 2018-07-09.
  15. 1 2 "The Audacity of Dope". The Economist. February 16, 2013. Retrieved March 26, 2013.
  16. ↑ "Leafly: the web's ultimate cannabis resource". Engadget. AOL.
  17. ↑ Tom Huddleston Jr. (2 August 2014). "Marijuana advertiser finds a friend in The New York Times". Fortune.
  18. ↑ "Leafly Hires New CEO Chris Jeffery" . Retrieved 2018-07-09.
  19. ↑ Schaneman, Bart (September 26, 2018). "Cannabis company Leafly removes CEO over company management 'concerns'". Marijuana Business Daily. Marijuana Business Daily. Retrieved January 3, 2020.
  20. ↑ "Former Amazon Exec Tim Leslie Takes Over Leafly's C-Suite". finance.yahoo.com. Retrieved 2019-03-07.
  21. ↑ Phartiyal, Sankalp (2018-03-12). "Amazon video service looking to expand Indian regional content". Reuters. Retrieved 2021-07-14.
  22. ↑ "Meet Yoko Miyashita, CEO of Leafly". Leafly newsroom. 2019-10-01. Retrieved 2021-07-14.
  23. ↑ "The business of selling pot...legally". Marketplace. 2012-12-27. Retrieved 2021-07-14.
  24. ↑ "Investors see profit potential in new pot law". The Seattle Times. 2012-12-01. Retrieved 2021-07-14.
  25. 1 2 3 Crook, Jordan (April 20, 2012). "Got Pot? Leafly Can Help". TechCrunch .
  26. 1 2 Deborah L. Jacobs (December 9, 2012). "Postcard from Seattle: New Clouds Hand Over The City As Pot Becomes Legal". Forbes. Retrieved March 26, 2013.
  27. ↑ Downs, David (February 23, 2012). "Medical marijuana apps on the rise". Sacramento News & Review .
  28. ↑ Kirsten Johnson (December 14, 2012). "Obama's hands-off stance may move marijuana businesses forward". Puget Sound Business Journal. Retrieved March 26, 2013.
  29. ↑ "Leafly Launches iPhone App to Purchase From Cannabis Dispensaries Online". Benzinga. 2021-08-31. Retrieved 2021-10-22.
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