“If you ever miss 4:20, just wait until 4:22. Because 4:22 is 4:20, too.”
Sitting on a wall at San Rafael High School getting high, the Waldos were unaware that the code they created for their pass time would find its way to the mainstream. The group of high schoolers popularized “420” because they’d gather at 4:20 to get stoned. Decades later, the numbers have become an integral part of cannabis culture. Stoners worldwide (most of them beyond the stars) celebrate Weed Day on 4/20. So it was a no-brainer for Henry Calix, the founder, and CEO of Weedsies, to choose the date to launch his company.
Weedsies is an online marketplace combining all three sectors of the cannabis industry, from hemp, CBD, and recreational cannabis, and selling products directly to consumers. Like the plant that brought the Waldos together, Henry aspires to unite the divided cannabis industry to bring it to everyone’s fingertips. He sees Weedsies as the “Amazon or Shopify of cannabis.”
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 and had never met his father. 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 it failed as it was during the 2008 and 2009 recessions. In 2010, he went back to what he knew: dry cleaning.
Working at a franchise dry cleaner first and then a local high-end dry cleaner, Henry 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 from GoDaddy. After researching the cannabis industry and noticing the different regulations per state, Henry realized his calling: building an online marketplace to solve the industry’s major problems.
After three years of tireless work, Henry launched the website on 4/20/2020 while in the middle of the pandemic after maxing out credit cards and putting the down payment for the house into the business. In the following year, Henry celebrated Weed Day by launching Weedsies Mobile. It looks like an ice cream truck and promotes vendors and products by selling samples to potential consumers who’d later crave ice cream. They can shop for what they like online as Weedsies provides online payment options and accepts cryptocurrencies.
“A friend with weed is a friend indeed, and a friend who shares is a friend who cares.”
Rather than seeing shops and dispensaries as competition, Henry sees them as potential partners. If you are a CBD, hemp, cannabis shop, or dispensary, sign up as a vendor at Weedsies Marketplace and create your online shop now!
