A Letter on the California’s Cannabis Crisis
As an equity-certified, Asian-women founded brand, Potli has proven that there is a demand for diverse products through the legacy of artisanal, award-winning plant medicine infused products we’ve launched. Products like Dream Honey, Shrimp Chips and Sriracha have gone viral with small upfront investments and resulted in high praise and high returning customer rates. Against all odds of operating in the complicated Cannabis and Hemp industries, Potli has made it past the $1M in revenue mark, an achievement less than 5% of all startups cross. I am so deeply humbled by our strong and supportive community who have resonated with our message and championed these results.
However, the industry that we entered into back in 2018 is changing, and not for the better. There is a battle happening for the soul of this industry. The truth is, the current state of the California cannabis industry is bleak at best— across the industry revenues are down 30% from the previous quarter. Up to 85% of growers in Northern California will not be planting this year, and there is very little legislative support to help facilitate innovation and socioeconomic equity.
On an early morning last month (3/1/22), our cannabis manufacturing facility and 2 others were the targets of an armed, organized robbery that resulted in losses of more than twenty thousand dollars.
Fortunately, no one on our team was physically harmed. We did, however, lose a sense of safety that took years of long days and nights to build. While this may surprise you, our story is not uncommon. This is just a single thread of the much larger tapestry that represents the state of recreational cannabis in California.
Despite our wins and successes, one can imagine that it has been difficult for a small business like ours to continue to innovate and create in the way that we know resonates with our community, while feeling the squeeze of doing business up and down our own supply chain in its current state of affairs. Overhead costs and taxes are high, while variable costs are only exacerbated by events as local as robbery and as global as pandemic supply issues.
Our mission has always been to push the boundaries and innovate. Something has to change if Potli wants to continue to build the functional food brand of tomorrow.
In order to fuel our demand and continue growth, we look to the core of our brand— our “secret sauce”. We dreamed of a functional food marketplace that no longer settles for the traditional suite of investors. Potli’s story has always been fueled by customers who believe in us and our mission. We are calling on you, on our community, to follow our tradition of thinking through things a little bit differently. What if we could unleash the full potential of Potli’s passionate customer base? To co-design products as co-founders with our community, and fundamentally reward this community for evangelizing the same products we have all built together. Welcome to Potli’s Night Market!
How It Works:
We unite our community, passionate about functional foods to
• Vote on key business decisions and product roadmap; such as the packaging creative direction alongside our artist and manufacturing partners.
• Try first samples at exclusive and super rare experiential IRL activations, like an infused dinner at the Michelin star chef led cannabis and organic vegetable farm in Petaluma.
• Earn cash commissions from Potli’s sales, and be awarded two of our first NFT drops within the first 3 months of joining. Exclusive influencer PR boxes gifted to holders of NFT.
To start, we will mint limited edition Genesis Memberships that mark a new kind of stakeholder for Potli.
Because fuck the supply chain. This is a new type of market built on people, transparency and trust. This is a chance to be part of a functional food business yourself, while being part of a community that will make a difference in the CPG landscape of tomorrow.
2022 ROADMAP
- Genesis Membership
- Drop 1: Ginger Chews
- Drop 2: Fortune Cookies