Leafly

Leafly was founded in June 2010 by Scott Vickers, Brian Wansolich and Cy Scott. The three Orange County web developers built the site as a side project, intending it as a strain-information resource. Privateer Holdings acquired the company in 2011, after which Brendan Kennedy became chief executive. The founders later left to start the cannabis analytics company Headset.

By July 2011, the website was reported to have about 180,000 unique visitors and to be growing roughly 30 percent per month, and by April 2012 it reported about 2.3 million monthly visits and around 50,000 mobile app downloads per month. In 2016 the company said its website and mobile applications drew more than six million monthly visitors. On August 2, 2014, Leafly ran a full-page advertisement in The New York Times, described in press coverage as the first such cannabis-company advertisement in the newspaper.

Leafly generates revenue by selling online display advertising and priority dispensary 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.