COMPANY

Name: Kannatopia

Legal Name: Kannatopia, LLC

Location: Chicago, IL

Founded: 2015

Founder(s): Kurt Akers (CEO), Valerie Scarlata

Website: https://kannatopia.com/

Social Media: 2270 Likes on Facebook, 1945 Followers on Twitter, 2534 Followers on Instagram

INDUSTRY – Legal Cannabis

Size: US market size estimated at $7.06Bn in 2016 (Source: Grand View Research)

Projections: Expected to grow at a CAGR of 24.9% from 2017 to 2025

Introduction

Kannatopia, LLC is a Chicago-based company operating in the legal cannabis industry. Kannatopia is an online community for users in the United States who are 21+ years of age and legal cannabis enthusiasts. The platform allows users to connect, socialize, share, and learn from one another.

The Product

Kannatopia enables recreational and medicinal users to create profiles on the platform, either anonymously or using their real names. Users can further post a variety of cannabis-related content such as photos, videos, and links, interact with other users by guiding them with legal cannabis use and offer recommendations. Additionally, Kannatopia also allows users to create and write in an online journal called “Kannalog”.

In March 2018, Kannatopia launched business pages on the platform to enable cannabis companies and organizations to promote their offerings and reach out to consumers. Like business profiles on Facebook, legal marijuana businesses and organizations can create free profiles, provide information on the causes they’re involved in, as well as their contact information to allow users to reach them. They can also post links, articles, photos, videos, and other content relating to their business as well as their advocacy efforts.

Kannatopia is accessible in 29 states and Washington, D.C., and hosts members from various medicinal or recreational cannabis programs in the US. In an interview, Kurt Akers said he plans to take the social network global in the near future.

Origin and Founding Team

Kurt Akers’ inspiration to build Kannatopia was his brother who has epilepsy and uses cannabis to mitigate the side effects from his medications. He would often see him searching for reliable online communities to exchange information on the use of legal medicinal marijuana, dosage, etc. Moreover, Kurt also observed that legal cannabis focused startup founders or aspiring entrepreneurs were hesitant to communicate or network with each other on traditional online professional platforms.

Identifying an opportunity in the market with the widespread legalization of medicinal and recreational marijuana in the US, Kurt decided to create Kannatopia for entrepreneurs like himself as well as other users. Soon after, Kurt roped in Valerie Scarlata, a software and web developer, to join him as the co-founder, thus launching Kannatopia in 2015.

Performance and Trends

There is currently no information provided by Kannatopia in the public domain regarding the number of users on its platform or its revenue model. Although the platform does host business pages, it does not directly monetize from ads.

According to a report, the market for legal marijuana in the US was valued at around $7.06Bn in 2016. The market is further expected to grow at a CAGR of 24.9% from 2017 to 2025. On the other hand, the global market is estimated to grow at a CAGR of 34.6% to reach $146.4Bn by the end of 2025.