California startup wants to make online cannabis shopping easier for Coloradans

BOULDER  — An online cannabis marketplace that launched in California is expanding to Colorado to cover the Denver and Boulder markets.

Jane Technologies Inc. is an online marketplace where cannabis consumers can search for very specific parameters with the ability to see available inventory in real-time. Customers order the cannabis online and pick it up at the dispensary.

“You can get as specific as you want,” CEO Socrates Rosenfeld told BizWest,  “whether you’re looking for a particular strain or gluten-free edible muffins. Or you can get as broad as you want, searching for sleep, pain relief, energy, morning time, night time. You can search for wax, teas, lotions or search by brand.”

Rosenfeld added that the search is guaranteed to be in real-time: Jane’s software plugs directly into a dispensary’s point-of-sale system, promising a live look at the store’s menu.

In addition to being an easy way to search and buy cannabis for customers, Rosenfeld said the goal was to provide a service and make business easier for retailers.

“We’re a marketplace,” Rosenfeld said. “We don’t operate retail stores, hire employees, grow the product or inventory. We don’t have a footprint in the community like a dispensary does. So as stakeholders in this industry, we need our dispensary partners to be very successful. We’re looking for dispensaries that want to reduce wait times, are tired of uploading menu items and want the flexibility of new ways of reaching customers. Their reputation is our reputation.”

Rosenfeld said Jane has no cost to dispensaries to list their products and charges a flat gratuity fee on purchases. Jane only makes money when the product is sold. Jane doesn’t charge consumers to use the marketplace.

For its Colorado debut, Jane partnered with Boulder dispensary Green Dream, as well as Denver dispensaries Ballpark and Mr. Nice Guys Wellness Center. The plan is to expand into other dispensaries in the Front Range as well.

Rosenfeld’s own life experience inspired the start of Jane. At age 29, the U.S Military Academy alumnus left the Army after a career of flying Apache helicopters. He discovered the health benefits of cannabis while studying at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

“I never consumed cannabis a day in my life until I got out,” he said. “I was 29 years old and cannabis was the only thing that got me back to balance. It gave me a sense of wellbeing and I started to appreciate the plant. It became a passion of mine.”

The company formed and started in Santa Cruz and launched in a dozen stores seven weeks ago, but Rosenfeld said launching in Colorado as soon as possible was a priority for him.

“Once we proved we were onto something, we wanted to bring it to Colorado,” he said. “The people in Colorado in the industry are so educated; it’s the most progressive state we know of. They’re willing to try new software to provide a better shopping experience for customers. Colorado is the epicenter of the cannabis industry. We wanted to get on the ground there, and start letting people know there’s a new way to shop for cannabis online.”