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On March 1, the actor Seth Rogen announced the US launch of his marijuana company, Houseplant, and said the brand's strains would soon be available in California.
In addition to its cannabis offerings, Houseplant also sells lighters, ashtrays, and ceramic goods. On Thursday, the brand launched.
Hi!! We are experiencing a tremendous amount of traffic right now. Thank you! We have a nice little waiting room set up on the website to manage this. If you are having trouble accessing the waiting room, please try refreshing your browser or clearing your cache. Thank you yay!!
— Seth Rogen (@Sethrogen) March 11, 2021
By midafternoon, the Houseplant site experienced so much traffic that it crashed, and the brand set up a "waiting room" for customers looking to get access to the site.
Less than an hour later, Rogen tweeted that the site had been taken offline to get it in better shape to support all the traffic. He told fans that many of the Houseplant products were still available.
Well... we have underestimated you once again. Due to insane traffic we took the Houseplant site down temporarily while I learn to write code. I'm very sorry if you've been waiting. There's still a lot of products available! I will let you know as soon as it's up again.
— Seth Rogen (@Sethrogen) March 11, 2021
Houseplant initially launched in Canada in May 2019. The launch on Thursday marked a move to the US market for Rogen and his longtime writing and business partner Evan Goldberg, as well as the brand's CEO, Michael Mohr, a venture capitalist.
The brand sells bespoke strains of cannabis, which are packaged to look like vintage records. Rogen shared photos of a block-shaped lighter and ceramics from the brand on his social-media accounts as well.
Rogen told Architectural Digest that Houseplant was "trying to really consider people who smoke weed in a way that they have not been considered before."
"Just like alcohol has martini shakers, wine glasses, and corkscrews. If you are someone who smokes weed, there is really none of that," he said.
A press release said that after Houseplant's launch, the brand would be releasing new products from the "Housegoods" line "every few weeks."
"We are thrilled by how insanely positive the response has been so far — we have been completely inundated with interest and requests, and our site has been overwhelmed with the amount of traffic," a Houseplant spokesperson said in an emailed statement to Insider. "We are working hard to get the website back up and running again, and will be in communication with our customers all along the way to provide the best experience possible."
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