Leafly is a website focused on

cannabis ''Cannabis'' () is a genus of flowering plants in the family Cannabaceae. The number of species within the genus is disputed. Three species may be recognized: ''Cannabis sativa'', '' C. indica'', and '' C. ruderalis''. Alternativel ...

use and education. The company says it has more than 120 million annual visitors and over 10 million monthly active users. Leafly provides a wide range of information on cannabis, including 1.5 million consumer product reviews, more than 9,000 cannabis articles and resources, and over 5,000 verified strains in its database. Leafly additionally provides 4,500+ retailers and 8,000+ cannabis brands with e-commerce tools such as digital storefronts, embedded menus, point-of-sale integrations, targeted advertising, and more. The company is headquartered in

Seattle, Washington Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest region of ...

and from 2012 to 2019 was owned by

Privateer Holdings Privateer Holdings is an American private equity company that invests in the legal cannabis industry. Privateer Holdings is headquartered in Seattle, Washington and employs more than 350 people in seven countries. The company is building a divers ...

, a private equity firm focused on the emerging legal cannabis industry. Leafly is now a wholly independent company with 160 employees.

History

Leafly was founded in June 2010 by Scott Vickers, Brian Wansolich, and Cy Scott. The three Orange County engineers recognized the need for a legitimate strain resource and began to build Leafly as a side project to their jobs as web developers. Privateer Holdings acquired the company in 2011, at which time Brendan Kennedy became the company's CEO. Meanwhile, the original founders left to launch a new company named Headset. By July 2011 the website had received about 180,000 unique visitors and was growing at 30 percent per month. In April 2012, Leafly reported about 2.3 million monthly visits and approximately 50,000

mobile app A mobile application or app is a computer program or software application designed to run on a mobile device such as a phone, tablet, or watch. Mobile applications often stand in contrast to desktop applications which are designed to run on de ...

downloads per month. In June 2016, the company announced that it received more than 6 million monthly visitors and 31 million page views across its website and mobile applications. On August 2, 2014, Leafly became the first cannabis company to place an advertisement in ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

.''

Leadership

On November 6, 2017, Privateer Holdings announced the appointment of Chris Jeffery as CEO; he was formerly co-founder of food delivery service OrderUp, He was replaced in 2018, . On March 4, 2019, the firm appointed former vice president of Amazon Prime Video International Tim Leslie as its CEO. He was replaced on August 18, 2020 by Yoko Miyashita, formerly the firm's General Counsel.

Business model

Leafly generates

revenue In accounting, revenue is the total amount of income generated by the sale of goods and services related to the primary operations of the business. Commercial revenue may also be referred to as sales or as turnover. Some companies receive revenue ...

by selling online

display advertising Digital display advertising is online graphic advertising through banners, text, images, video, and audio. The main purpose of digital display advertising is to post company ads on third-party websites. A display ad is usually interactive (i.e. ...

and priority listing packages to companies in the cannabis industry. Display advertising campaigns are sold on a Cost Per Impression model. More than 4.5 million orders are placed with businesses on Leafly each year, generating $460 million in gross merchandise value (GMV) annually for Leafly partnered retailers.

Use

Leafly has three primary functions:

Strain explorer

Patients and consumers use Leafly to search for cannabis strains according to medical use, such as

anxiety Anxiety is an emotion which is characterized by an unpleasant state of inner turmoil and includes feelings of dread over anticipated events. Anxiety is different than fear in that the former is defined as the anticipation of a future threat wh ...

nausea Nausea is a diffuse sensation of unease and discomfort, sometimes perceived as an urge to vomit. While not painful, it can be a debilitating symptom if prolonged and has been described as placing discomfort on the chest, abdomen, or back of the ...

, and desired effects, like

euphoria Euphoria ( ) is the experience (or affect) of pleasure or excitement and intense feelings of well-being and happiness. Certain natural rewards and social activities, such as aerobic exercise, laughter, listening to or making music and da ...

creativity Creativity is a phenomenon whereby something new and valuable is formed. The created item may be intangible (such as an idea, a scientific theory, a musical composition, or a joke) or a physical object (such as an invention, a printed literary ...

. Relevant strains are then presented in a format similar to the periodic table. The table is color coded to identify whether the strain is

sativa Sativa, sativus, and sativum are Latin botanical adjectives meaning '' cultivated''. It is often associated botanically with plants that promote good health and used to designate certain seed-grown domestic crops. Usage ''Sativa'' (ending in -a) ...

, indica, or a hybrid of both.

Dispensary locator

Patients can use their zip codes or city and state names to search for dispensaries, which are then displayed on a map of the area. The dispensary profiles include menus, reviews, photos, and store locations.

Reviews

Leafly users can write reviews of strains and products they have tried or dispensaries they have visited. For dispensaries and products, reviews consist of a brief comment section and a star rating system that is based on medication, service, and atmosphere. Strain reviews include desirable effects, attributes, and summary information.

Mobile access

Leafly has mobile applications for iOS and Android devices. In 2021, the company launched a new iOS app that enables iPhone and iPad users to place pickup orders for cannabis in legal state markets.

Statistics

* 220 million annual sessions *10+ million monthly active users * 5,000+ strains in the Leafly database, sorted alphabetically and categorized by indica, sativa, and hybrid * 1.5 million product reviews * 9,000+ cannabis articles and resources * 4,500+ retailers online with Leafly * 8,000+ brands online with Leafly * 4.5 million orders placed annually * $460 million GMV

References

External links

* {{Authority control American review websites Cannabis websites Cannabis media in the United States Cannabis in Washington (state)