Visit weed delivery startup Flow Kana online and you'll find colorful descriptions of "connoisseur grade" cannabis that's "nourished by the sun, moon, and stars" and packaged in Mason jars.
It sounds like something the hipster characters of "Portlandia" — and other socially-conscious urbanites — could be into.
Flow Kana may be the first "farm-to-bowl" platform, enabling Bay Area-based medicinal marijuana patients to order organic, sun-grown bud to their doorsteps in 30 minutes or less. In order to buy, the user needs only create an account and upload a letter of recommendation from a physician.
The startup launched in 2014, and though its user base remains small, Flow Kana sets itself apart from delivery services Eaze or Meadow by taking transparency to a higher level.
"For so long, we've had no detail as to where cannabis comes from," Michael Steinmetz, CEO and cofounder of Flow Kana, tells Tech Insider. "We went from a black market environment, where whatever your dealer had was what you got, ... to dispensaries, which are leaps and bounds better. Now you have choice."
The next logical step for the industry, according to Steinmetz, is offering complete transparency.
Today, most marijuana dispensaries receive product from farms, package it using the dispensary's branding, and assign the strains arbitrary names like "Pineapple Express" in an affort to tickle customers' fancy. It's as if a grocer slapped its logo on every bottle in the liquor aisle, without differentiating between the types of alcohol.
As consumers demand better quality and transparency in everything from the food they eat to the beauty products they wear, it's logical to think that the cannabis industry is the next step. More and more, marijuana users want to know where their grass grows, according to Steinmetz, and how it will affect them.
"Consumers at large are becoming more conscientious of where they're putting their money," Steinmetz says. "The cannabis industry is just taking parallels from the local food movement."
Flow Kana shakes up the traditional model by labeling each Mason jar of bud with the name and location of the sustainable farm that produced it. The company only sources from farms that grow cannabis outdoors (indoor marijuana cultivation makes up a staggering 9% of California's household electricity use) without free of pesticides.
It's not uncommon for a Flow Kana-partnered farmer to collect and store rain water or generate electricity from solar panels.
Customers can learn more about the farmers by reading the bios on Flow Kana's site, or contacting them directly through the company's messaging service.
For example, Nikki and Swami of Ganga Ma Gardens grow cannabis in a private valley in the Mendocino mountains. They live off grid and use solar power and spring water.
House of Aficionado, founded in the heart of California's Emerald Triangle, has "custom tailored" designer cannabis for over 20 years. The growers reserve exclusive varieties for "the most serious connoisseurs" only.
The bios read like reviews for an indie bed and breakfast. While it may seem silly, Steinmetz believes this level of accountability serves the consumer and the farmer.
"For so long, [the farmers] have been putting pounds [of marijuana] into black bags and for all intensive purposes, it ceases to exist," Steinmetz says. "They have no idea where it ends up or who medicates from it.
"I fundamentally believe the farmers are the bedrock of the industry," he continues, passionately, calling it a "huge mistake" to build the market on the backs of faceless, unthanked workers. "Part of what we try to do as a company is honor and give credit to every single one of the farmers."
Like an increasing number of dispensaries, Flow Kana makes it easy to identify a strain that best suits a medicinal user's needs.
Different chemical compounds in marijuana, called cannabinoids (THC and CBD are two of the most common), affect the brain differently and provide a spectrum of relief. Choosing the right medicine is further complicated by the variance in indica, sativa, and hybrid strains.
Flow Kana offers a multiple choice quiz that asks how you want to feel — such as relaxed, focused, or euphoric — and what ailments you're treating. You then receive a custom suggestion based on the strain's chemical makeup.
The quiz isn't all that specific, and patients' experiences may vary. But it's a step in the right direction for the cannabis industry.
Steinmetz hedges when asked about Flow Kana's user base, saying members number in the "tens of thousands." The company is experiencing 60% growth month over month, he says. By comparison, weed delivery startup Eaze, which has $12.5 million in venture capital, serves cities from San Francisco down to San Diego.
While Flow Kana's delivery service only runs in the Bay Area, it will overnight marijuana to anyone in California for a premium. For some, the cost is worth the peace of mind.
"At a consumer level, you want to [travel] and have the same [medicinal] experience wherever you buy the flower," Steinmetz says. "When you buy a Stella Artois, you want the Stella to taste the same in San Francisco as it does in Santa Cruz."
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