“The illegality of cannabis is outrageous, an impediment to full utilization of a drug which helps produce the serenity and insight, sensitivity, and fellowship so desperately needed in this increasingly mad and dangerous world.” — Carl Sagan
As the world prepares to embrace the new possibilities introduced by modern technology, Henry Calix is an entrepreneur who uses innovation and technology to reshape the future of the cannabis industry that awaits federal legalization. He is the founder and CEO of Weedsies, a company that has established itself as a trailblazer in offering solutions to the problems faced by the industry.
Henry was born in Honduras and 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, Henry attended Miami Dade College for two years while working at a local dry cleaner, his first job out of high school. He started his first business as a grant writing consultant, which failed during the 2008 and 2009 recessions. In 2010, Henry returned to 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, he bought the domain Weedsies.com from GoDaddy. While figuring out what to do with it, he considered selling it for $1,200 months later. After researching the cannabis industry, Henry noticed the different regulations per state and began building an online marketplace to solve the industry’s major problems.
After tirelessly working for three years, Henry launched the website on 4/20/2020 (Weed Day) amidst the pandemic after maxing out credit cards and putting the down payment for his house into the business. He celebrated Weed Day the following year by launching Weedsies Mobile, styled after an ice cream truck, to promote the vendors and products by selling samples to potential consumers who’d go online and repeat purchases.
With Weedsies, Henry aims to unite the divided cannabis industry and bring it to everyone’s fingertips. He sees Weedsies as the “Amazon or Shopify of cannabis.” Weedsies aspires for cannabis companies to join forces with private funding. Rather than seeing shops and dispensaries as competition, Henry considers them potential clients who can register as vendors on the Weedsies marketplace.
What separates them from other online marketplaces in the industry is their provision of an offline retail avenue to generate a circle of purchases via Weedsies Mobile, the equivalent of Uber Eats/DoorDash of cannabis. Henry sees the company in a position to be a combination of eBay, Amazon, and Shopify, exclusively catering to retailers and consumers of all three sectors of the cannabis industry: hemp, CBD, and recreational cannabis.
Head out to Weedsies to shop. They provide an online payment solution for the industry and even accept cryptocurrencies.
