Cannible

Summary

Searching for cannabis online can be a losing effort - with most apps trying to jam impersonal search results down your throat, its easy to miss out on life-changing products. Cannible exists to connect people with the cannabis products and ideas they'd most likely enjoy.

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Scope and Discovery

There’s so much that people love about cannabis. But even in a legalized world, the cannabis industry lacks a sophisticated, curated, end-to-end experience designed to help the customer feel comfortable, secure and informed.

The hard truth about the cannabis industry: *No one* is addressing both sides of the market well. Right now the "other guys" are trapped in legacy technologies and outdated business models that are incompatible with the true experience of cannabis. The fact is they’ve all bet heavily on the wrong side of orders and debit transactions, and the experience is pedestrian at best.

So not only are we going to do that better, but I see an opportunity to go beyond convention and reframe the solution as: Facilitating decision making for the entire supply chain of cannabis. From seed to after-sale.

Approach

Cannible is a first-of-its-kind marketplace app designed to learn a customer's unique cannabis preferences and connects them with the products they'd most likely enjoy from any local or out-of-town dispensary.

It's a 2-sided network that facilitates contactless payments, security and decision-making in one easy to use experience, creating a natural ecosystem that enables Cannible to match like-retailers with like-customers based on deep-level understanding of both sides of the market.

Target Audience

Did you know that 66% of Americans now support legalizing marijuana, and 12% of U.S. adults report to regularly consume cannabis? The average customer age is 37.6 years old, but 25- to 29-year-olds account for the largest percentage of customers (20%), followed by 21- to 24-year-olds (16%). People ages 65 to 95 make up less than 5% of customers. Most people (35.8%) spend between $25 and $50 per trip to a dispensary, while only 8.2% spend more than $100/trip. The rest spend less than $10 on average.

Competition

The clear truth is that we have 2 kinds of competitors: (1) those with network effects which facilitate orders but NOT payments, and (2) those who facilitate payments but LACK network effects.

Most "marketplace" solutions are generally concentrated in conversions, whether online or in-store. There is evidence available through online reviews that indicates low customer satisfaction at scale, however when viewed through the objective lens of business enablement in a heterogeneous market,

Cannible clearly provides a unique feature set that is the most comprehensive solution compared with competitors.

Go-to-Market Strategy

Due to restrictive policies set forth by the largest display networks like Google and Facebook, display advertising is generally unavailable to us. Therefore, the marketing channels available to us that make sense to pursue include:

- Targeting niche blogs - industry blogs with large audiences

- Offline publicity - radio, billboards, newspaper, magazines

- Unconventional PR - small actions that don't scale; contests and handwritten notes

- Search engine optimization - evergreen content relevant with top search queries

- Content marketing - byproduct supporting content to draw traffic back to Cannible

- Email marketing - creation of large email lists to promote/cross-promote

- Virality - encouraging users to refer other users with incentives

- Free business tools - engineer embeddable menus, widgets, calculators, or other free tools

- Business development - sales, outreach, direct relationship building with prospects

- Affiliate programs - commissions for sales by independent contractors not employed by Cannible

- Platforms - App stores, presence on existing and emerging social media platforms

- Trade shows - in-person industry conferences to create essential B2B connections

- Speaking engagements - TED-like talks, conference presentations

- Community building - engagement around the product

Growth Mechanisms

When you zoom out and consider the entire cannabis supply chain, both from a business perspective and as a customer, you can start to imagine a world where its possible to meet people at the intersection of their interests. Some mechanisms we can employ to maximise utility and value of the platform for both side of the market include:

- Hyper-personalized demand generation with product boosts

- Geotargeted and omnichannel outreach

- Offers like BOGO, Punchcard, On Sale, New Customer, Re-engage Customer

Branding and Creative Work