How techies helped the personal vaporizer become a mainstream product.
Eaze, a cannabis delivery service known as the “Uber of weed,” were first to notice a blossoming relationship between the vape industry and the southernmost slice of San Francisco, where an ethos of innovation and entrepreneurship incubated the first personal computer, the iPhone, and now the most advanced portable vaporizers in the world.
The company’s second annual “State of Cannabis” report, one the most comprehensive evaluations of California marijuana spending to date, found that their traditional cannabis sales slumped in 2016 while vape sales skyrocketed. The market that saw the biggest increase in vape sales was Silicon Valley, the same area where some of today’s leading vaporizers were launched. It seems the valley has formed a lucrative relationship with vaping. It’s not only the place from which the best vaporizers come, but where the most vape sales happen.
Itself a San Francisco startup, Eaze recently raised $13 million in venture capital for entering markets outside California as legalization spreads. Their service delivers weed on-demand and enables customers to acquire a medical marijuana card in ten minutes with just a phone call. Vape cartridges are their most sought-after product, more so now than ever.
In 2015, only 7% of people had ordered a vaporizer cartridge on the Eaze platform. By the end of 2016, 31% had ordered a vaporizer cartridge – a 429% increase over the previous year.
Eaze attributes their increase in vape sales to the convenience and stealthiness that the latest vaporizers offer.
“As cannabis continues to normalize,” says Sheena Shiravi, Head of Public Relations at Eaze, “we see the newer markets prefer easier and more discreet methods of consumption such as vaping. Vaping, for instance, doesn’t necessarily require you to carry other paraphernalia. And overall it’s a more discreet form of consumption that’s essentially odorless.”
Eaze’s growth spurt is almost perfectly timed with a period of Silicon Valley innovation that put a dent in the vaping universe in early 2016.
The iPhone of Vaporizers
Ever since the vaping industry revealed its multi-billion dollar potential in 2015, a number of vape startups have launched from the fertile seedbed of Silicon Valley, which is rich with venture capital and talent. One such Frisco-based company, Firefly Vapor, drew significant media attention to vaping with the release of their flagship device, the Firefly 2 vaporizer.
Like Apple, Firefly’s recipe for success was equal parts innovation, quality, and usability. The result: a highly marketable product.
Constructed with lightweight yet durable magnesium alloy, touch sensor controls, and a zen-like design, Firefly 2 looks and performs like an Apple product. And that’s no coincidence: Firefly 2 was co-created by Mark Williams, former designer at Apple, who said goodbye to the largest brand in the world to focus on the vape industry.
Williams spent six years at Apple as a design manager before he co-created the Firefly 2. It all began when he met Firefly co-founder Sasha Robinson, with whom he shared a common love for Burning Man, an annual gathering of free spirits in the Nevada desert. They both quit their gainful Silicon Valley positions to create Firefly 2, which bridged the gap between the valley’s culture of innovation and the vaping industry.
Baran Dilaver, Chief Operations Officer at Firefly Vapor, believes there’s no question that Williams leveraged his experience at Apple while designing the Firefly.
“What really stands out for me is the simplicity at the core of the Firefly 2 design,” says Dilaver, “especially when it comes to user experience.”
Firefly is the only portable vaporizer with touch sensor controls like the one found in the iPhone, making it easy to take quick hits without fiddling with the device. It also boasts features underneath the hood not found in the average vape, including a convection oven that heats dry herb with hot air to prevent any smokiness. To conserve herb, Firefly 2 only heats the bowl when you inhale, giving users rapid “on-demand” vaping. Heat settings are controlled with masterful precision via mobile app.
Dilaver believes that simplicity of use coupled with incredible functionality has made Firefly 2 one of the most influential vaporizers to reach a mainstream audience. Like Steve Jobs did with the iPhone, Firefly Vapor focused on user experience first, building around that rather than creating advanced features just for the sake of it.
“First we looked at the complexities of cannabis at the fundamental level,” Dilaver explains. “Then, we designed a product around the plant. The controls are boiled down to the most intuitive level. And the heating system is unmatchable in terms of extracting the most from plants, including the fragile terpenes that combine with receptors in the brain to deliver all the medicinal benefits of herb.”
By virtue of its Apple-esque character, Firefly 2 elevated the vaporizer to the realm of what Jobs called “insanely great products,” with the media touting it as the “iPhone of vaporizers.” When other Silicon Valley vapes like the popular PAX 3 hit the shelves, reviewers used the same irresistible Apple comparison, further signaling the arrival of portable vaporizers in the mainstream.
A Growing Trend
Eaze isn’t the only canna-industry business to notice an increase in vape sales recently. VaporNation, one of the largest distributors of vaporizers in America, has reported a significant rise in vaporizer sales since 2016.
“Ever since the Firefly 2 and Pax vaporizers launched, we’ve noticed increased interest in portable vapes,” notes Kyle Muladore, Director of Distribution at VaporNation. “Some of our best-selling vaporizers--and we stock all the leading brands--came out of Silicon Valley. It’s hard to imagine that’s a coincidence.”
Muladore notes that since vaporizers like the Firefly 2 entered the market, similarly advanced vapes have followed. He believes that a marked improvement in design, usability, and performance has attracted cannabis users to VaporNation who are looking for a healthier, easier, and sleeker alternative to smoking.
As far as the budding romance between Silicon Valley and the vaporizer industry goes, Muladore approves. “The two are a match made in heaven. The valley gives vaping the technology and legitimacy it needs to appeal to mainstream markets. And consumers are responding positively.”
Along with a growing vaporizer industry, overall legal marijuana sales are expected to reach $20 billion by 2020.