Potbox

California-Based Premium Cannabis Subscription Service


(

Private Fundraise

This company may be interested in raising funds from accredited investors. You must Request Access to see more information about this company.

Request Access 9

At Potbox, we’re on a mission to revolutionize America’s fastest-growing industry: medical marijuana.

Potbox is the world’s first subscription service for premium medical cannabis.

It starts with California, the state that’s setting the standard for marijuana legalization that the rest of the United States will follow.

It ends with building one of the first truly world-class brands in the legal cannabis industry, and changing the way people everywhere think about marijuana.


 

Cultural attitudes toward cannabis have shifted. A Pew Research study from March 2015 found that 53% of Americans believe that marijuana should be legalized — a dramatic increase from 16% that held the same belief in 1990.

And support for marijuana legalization is far from abstract — it’s starting to take shape in state legislation as well. As of 2015, 23 states and Washington D.C. have legalized the sale of cannabis for medical use, while four states and Washington D.C. have legalized cannabis for recreational use. And it doesn't stop there: 10 additional states are expected to legalize marijuana use in the next two years.

The rapid growth of cannabis acceptance and legalization has turned legal cannabis into the fastest-growing industry in America. Legal cannabis accounted for $2.7 billion in revenue in 2014 alone, with more than 1.5 million people purchasing marijuana legally from dispensaries.

By 2020, legal cannabis could bring in as much as $11 billion in revenue — numbers that are on par with drone technology, home automation, and a handful of other hot industries that the startup world is buzzing about.

As acceptance for legal cannabis continues to grow, the industry needs to grow with it. But the first generation of cannabis companies — independent dispensaries that can’t scale and on-demand local delivery services that cater to the lowest common denominator — lack the vision, the product, the relationships and the infrastructure to truly grow and meet the needs of a more sophisticated, affluent, discerning cannabis user. These customers are going to look for brands they can trust to deliver the best product, the best information, and the best overall experience.

Potbox is that brand. We’re building one of the first marijuana brands that’s looking beyond where marijuana is today to the future of what marijuana could and will be -- and helping to make that future possible in the process.

The Potbox mission is simple: take all of the confusion, frustration and anxiety out of buying medical cannabis.

Potbox is the first cannabis company that marries the convenience of direct delivery with the appeal and freshness of farm-to-table and the delight of subscription box services — attributes that have turned grocery delivery companies like Blue Apron and Home Chef into household names and profitable businesses.

Combine that with a relentless commitment to quality, transparency, ethics and sustainability, and what do you get?

Potbox is much more than a high-end cannabis delivery service with premium packaging, and more than just a tech intermediary that connects growers to customers. Rather, Potbox is fully invested in every facet of the growth, development and distribution of the product.

From a customer’s perspective, joining Potbox couldn’t be easier: they simply provide their physician’s recommendation and input your payment information. Then they select from likes and dislikes, and each month like clockwork, a new Potbox will arrive at your door, with exciting new strains to try.

Each Potbox is hand-delivered by a trusted Potbox associate to ensure maximum security and reliability.

We're launching the Potbox service in California because, in addition to being the #1 market for legal marijuana in the United States, it's also on the cutting edge of developing sustainable processes that will support marijuana in the long term.

Our model allows for plenty of flexibility, so that as legalization continues to expand into new states, we'll be able to take what we've learned in California and apply it to other states, while ensuring that we are in line with all the regulations of that state as well.

At Potbox, we take a relentless — some might say obsessive — approach to our brand and our product. From strain selection to cultivation to harvesting to packaging to delivery, every element of Potbox is engineered to to provide our clients with the best experience possible.


Like a sommelier choosing a wine to go with your dinner, our team of experts puts their extensive knowledge of cannabis to work selecting strains that are perfectly calibrated to the needs of our customers and the ever-evolving cannabis market.


Just like all fine produce, cannabis is best when it comes direct from the farm to your table. We work closely with our growers to ensure that our customers receive only the freshest, most ethically grown, chemical-free medical cannabis possible.


Our commitment to sustainability goes beyond the freshness of our product. We’re committed to building a business that’s as healthy as possible for our customers, our growers and the environment. From cannabis cultivation and production, to using recycled box materials, we’re committed to making choices that reduce environmental impact and support the communities that grow our product.


Each Potbox delivery comes with official lab results outlining the THC, CBD and other chemical levels present, as well as information about the product’s origins, species and genetics, so you always know exactly what’s going into your body.

Potbox was formed in January 2015, and celebrated its official launch that July. Since then, we’ve already made incredible progress toward our goal of building Potbox into a world-class legal cannabis brand.

In April 2015, we manufactured the first 100 Potbox boxes to get us through launch. Today, we’ve completed our 2nd production run of 1,000 boxes, which we're well into. Now we are preparing our 3rd production run of 15,000 units in order to continue to bring down costs.

Customers aren’t the only ones who are discovering Potbox: the media is onto us, too. Since July 2015, Potbox has been featured in more than 130 news outlets in 17 countries on 4 continents, including the New York Times, Financial Times, CNN Money, Rolling Stone, Cosmopolitan, Playboy, Men’s Journal, Fast Company and Buzzfeed, just to name a few.

Potbox has also attracted attention from some of the leading names in the cannabis industry. Members of our founding team and advisory board include some of the foremost authorities on cannabis legalization and cultivation, and we have exciting partnerships in the works with some of the top brands working in the legal cannabis industry today.

Up next: continuing to build our brand, exploring expansion opportunities and preparing for when legalization of recreational cannabis goes into effect in California in 2017.

For more information about that, and where we go from there, request access to the business plan tab of this profile, and let’s talk!

Potbox is helmed by a team of experienced executives, cannabis industry pioneers, technologists and regulatory experts with a proven track record of success in building companies into well established, scalable brands.

Austin Heap

Co-founder/CEO


Austin is a serial entrepreneur, technologist, activist and now the CEO of Potbox, where he oversees the strategic direction and growth of the company. Prior to co-founding Potbox, Austin held engineering leadership roles at several start-ups and established companies across a variety of industries. Most recently, he was Director of Engineering for Recurly, a leading subscription billing platform. Prior to that, Austin was co-founder and CTO of TinySpark, a digital marketing and sweepstakes platform for iOS and Android app developers that was accepted into the Studio 9+ Accelerator. Earlier in his career, Austin was Technical/Architect Lead at Rosetta Stone,where his work on Lingo Letter Sounds helped it win a 2014 Webby Nomination for “Best Mobile Education App” and the “Best Preschool Learning App” award from iKids. Austin began his tech career at mobile game developer Metamoki, as Lead Engineer on FruitPop!, which amassed more than 10 million players.Austin received a Bachelor of Science degree in Marketing from Bentley University in 2006.

Ian Buczkowski

Co-founder


Ian helped co-found Potbox in 2014 with his lifelong friend, Austin Heap, thus beginning his official entry into the cannabis industry. Ian focuses on the consumer-focused elements of Potbox, including the website and packaging design, as well as business functions such as operations and logistics. Prior to co-founding Potbox, Ian spent seven years in the gaming and entertainment industry, working as a composer and sound designer for Kixeye and several indie game studios, and composing and licensing original music for projects with ESPN and HBO. He also did some IT project work for gaming giant Zynga. An accomplished pianist, Ian graduated from Berklee College of Music in 2008 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Music Synthesis.

Evrett Kramer

Co-founder


Evrett has been involved in the medical cannabis industry for the past 15 years. His career began as a humble volunteer with one of northern California's first legal medical patients collectives, where he learned the cannabis business – first as a trimmer, then a crop minder -- under the tutelage of several master growers. In 2009, he became an apprentice grower, and in 2010 he purchased a 42-acre piece of land in the Santa Cruz Mountains. There, he and a small band of volunteers honed their bio-dynamic farming techniques in order to craft very small crops of extremely high-quality, ethically-grown cannabis. In 2014, Evrett was elected to the board of Foggy Daze Delivery Service, a not-for-profit collective established in 2010 that delivers medical cannabis to patients in San Francisco. Soon after, he was named CEO, where he oversaw the opening of a Los Angeles branch and drove annual growth in excess of 1,000%. In 2015, Evrett helped co-found Potbox with Austin Heap, who was a Foggy Daze patient at the time. Together with Austin and fellow co-founder Ian Buczkowski, Evrett is working to bring the fruits of the ethical cannabis movement into the homes of patients with discerning tastes. Prior to his cannabis career, Evrett worked in marketing and special events for Indiana Repertory Theatre, and as community events coordinator for the San Jose Repertory Theatre. He received a Bachelors of Arts in Theatre Arts from University of California at Santa Cruz in 1994.

Gabe Sanchez

Senior Creative Developer


Gabe is an award-winning software engineer and UX designer who focuses on user experience at Potbox. Prior to joining Potbox, Gabe held engineering and human interface designerer (HID) roles at various start-ups in the Bay Area. Most recently, Gabe led product design as part of the founding team at HandUp, a direct donation platform benefitting homeless individuals and others in need. While at HandUp, Gabe's work helped the company win a 2015 Webby Award in the 'Charitable Organizations/Non-Profit' category. Earlier in his career, Gabe worked as the experience designer at Uversity (acquired by TargetX), a student engagement platform that helps colleges and universities improve student enrollment and retention, which served more than 3 million students. Gabe received a Bachelor of Science degree in Marketing and Management Information Systems from Marquette University in 2011.

Donna Burke

Advisor


Donna Burke co-founded Sparkpr LLC in 1999 and serves as its Senior Managing Partner. Ms. Burke has deeply rooted connections within the influencer communities and is a trusted peer and counselor to some of the most powerful executives, venture capitalists and journalists in the country. Ms. Burke has directed hundreds of company and product launches and led major branding campaigns for a variety of large and small companies worldwide. She is responsible for creating innovative new service offerings, provides strategic counsel and strategic media relations to Sparkpr’s clients, and directs new business development.

Renato Mascardo

Advisor


Renato Mascardo is the CTO of Recurly, one of the largest subscription billing platforms. Prior to joining Recurly, Mascardo was the VP of Engineering at Rosetta Stone where he was responsible for their engineering, QA and PMO organizations—building and sustaining all revenue generating products for the business including new centers of excellence around mobile, platform and tools development. Prior to that, he spent a number of years in gaming,most notably as the SVP of Engineering & CTO at iconic game maker pioneer Atari where he was responsible for all technical aspects of the business including game technologies, central services, and IT infrastructure. Prior to Renato’s time in gaming, he spent a number of years at Digital Glove, Hewlett-Packard, Mercury Interactive, Borland Software and Scient. Renato holds a B.A. in Computer Science from the University of Richmond.

Kyndra Miller, ESQ

Advisor


Kyndra Miller, Esq. serves on the Board of Directors for the National Organization for Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML). Ms. Miller received a Bachelor of Arts degree from UC San Diego in June 1994. Ms. Miller graduated from Lincoln School of Law in Silicon Valley, California in 2002,passed the California Bar and, thereafter worked as a volunteer attorney for Americorps for one year. Upon completing her work with Americorps, Ms.Miller went into private practice and opened an Entertainment law firm in Los Angeles, California. Currently, Ms. Miller is President and CEO of CannaBusiness Law, Inc. ("Firm"), a professional law corporation that provides Business Law services to medical marijuana patients in California,and the west coast representative for the NORML Women's Alliance.

The Business Plan area is locked. You must Request Access to this company to see more information including the Business Plan.


Request Access

N

No updates yet.




%

No backers yet.




Quick Signup TBD

You must have an account to do this!


the startups.com platform

Copyright © 2019 Startups.com. All rights reserved.

Fundable is a software as a service funding platform. Fundable is not a registered broker-dealer and does not offer investment advice or advise on the raising of capital through securities offerings. Fundable does not recommend or otherwise suggest that any investor make an investment in a particular company, or that any company offer securities to a particular investor. Fundable takes no part in the negotiation or execution of transactions for the purchase or sale of securities, and at no time has possession of funds or securities. No securities transactions are executed or negotiated on or through the Fundable platform. Fundable receives no compensation in connection with the purchase or sale of securities.