As the world recovers from the pandemic and progresses towards a better future, exploring the possibilities introduced by the internet is on the rise. Among the entrepreneurs understanding the changing times and adapting to them is Henry Calix, who is determined to unite the cannabis industry and bring it to everyone’s fingertips.
Henry is the founder and CEO of Weedsies, a technology company that delivers an online marketplace combining all three sectors of the cannabis industry: hemp, CBD, and recreational cannabis. Its extension, Weedsies Mobile, consists of retailers resembling ice cream trucks. They promote the vendors and products on the marketplace by selling samples to potential consumers to decide what they like and shop online later.
Weedsies provides an online payment solution for the cannabis industry and even accepts cryptocurrencies. Besides uniting cannabis companies with private funding, Weedsies offers other shops and dispensaries to register as vendors. What separates Weedsies from other online marketplaces in the industry is that they also provide an offline retail avenue to generate a circle of purchases.
While Weedsies Mobile is the equivalent of Uber Eats/DoorDash for stoners, Henry is proud of having positioned the Weedsies Marketplace as the “Amazon/Shopify of cannabis.” As a pioneer in the growth of the budding cannabis industry, Henry is a nominee for this year’s Business Elite’s “40 under 40.” The award gala will be at St Regis in New York on June 30th.
Born in Honduras, Henry came to the US when he was 12 years old. He grew up as an only child raised by his mother. After graduating high school in 2006, he attended Miami Dade College for two years while working at a local dry cleaner, his first job out of high school. Henry started his first business as a grant writing consultant but closed it during the 2008 and 2009 recessions. In 2010, Henry went back to dry cleaning.
Working at a franchise dry cleaner first and then a local high-end dry cleaner, he built an online onboarding and full-training platform as he taught himself how to code and develop websites. In 2017, Henry bought the domain weedsies.com and started researching the cannabis industry, noticing the different regulations per state. Realizing his calling, he began building an online marketplace to offer solutions for problems faced by the growing industry.
Committed to establishing Weedsies as the go-to place for retailers and consumers from the cannabis industry, Henry worked tirelessly for three years before launching the website. He credits his success to his consistency and shares that making a decision and sticking to it has helped him realize his goals.
Weedsies.com was launched on 4/20/2020 (Weed Day), and Weedsies Mobile on the same date in the following year. As Americans await the federal legalization of the cannabis industry, we’re excited to see how Henry will celebrate the Weed Days to come.
