Seed: The Future Of Cannabis Information

Anyone who has experienced the uncomfortable situation of walking into a new dispensary and asking someone a thousand questions about cannabis can probably agree that it’s not the easiest conversation. Most of the time you feel like you’re a burden and taking to much of their time or worse, they could be telling you something completely incorrect. Leaving you with the wrong strain, bad service, and a feeling that you spent your hard earned cash on weak buds and an even weaker sales team. If you are anything like me you probably find yourself roaming the entire grocery store searching for a specific item before you’d ever think about asking someone and the phrase“I’ll do it myself” is something you say on a daily basis. That’s why when I found out about Seed, a fully interactive touchscreen capable of providing strain specific knowledge to cannabis users popping up inside of dispensaries throughout Southern California I had some questions. So I sat down with Matthew Cutone, CEO of the San Clemente based company to get an idea of how Seed could be the future of on-site cannabis information.

What got you interested in providing cannabis information to the public? Was it purely a business idea or are you a cannabis user yourself?

I have always had a huge passion for solving real business problems with digital technology.  Our interactive platform enhances the retail experience and helps consumers travel the learning curve on various products.  With cannabis going legal in many states across the country, you have thousands of new customers being introduced (or reintroduced) to cannabis as well as thousands of new products entering the market.  This creates a tremendous amount of confusion. Seed helps to eliminate this confusion and fill the gap, that is the lack of accurate and well curated cannabis education. Now, having been involved in the cannabis industry for almost 2 years, much more of the passion is in helping people successfully discover the health and wellness benefits of cannabis… including myself.

Do you feel that technology like this helps to provide legitimacy to our industry?

Absolutely. Today’s consumers operate with very high expectations when it comes to the buying process.  They expect ease and convenience. Technology provides this. Unfortunately, there is still significant stigma surrounding cannabis.  Technology helps to move away from this stigma and legitimize it. Education and self service devices will play a very large part in successful adoption of cannabis.

What was your biggest obstacle during the development of the touchscreen technology?

The software development and touchscreen technology was, essentially, easy.  We have been doing that successfully for Fortune 500 companies for over 10 years.  The hard part was in curating accurate cannabis information/research and digitally delivering it to consumers in a way that is effective.  Cannabis is still very foreign subject matter for most people. It still carries a stigma. Helping to build a solid knowledge base around cannabis and getting consumers to become comfortable and confident has been the biggest obstacle.  Fortunately, we are making great progress.

What is your next move for the company?

Seed will continue to help dispensaries, recommending physicians, and the health and wellness market provide cannabis education for safe and successful adoption.

If you’d like to experience Seeds’ vast database of cannabis info for yourself visit People’s OC in Santa Ana or, for those who like to travel, at several dispensaries throughout Arizona and the greater Los Angeles area. Happy Smoking!