Week 2 - MassRoots

by StankyyDankyy

The majority of us have been using social media for the better half of 10 years. Depending on how old you are, your first experience may vary from others. In the early 2000s, social media became the phenomenon it is today. First, there was Xanga and Friendster. Then along came MySpace, which absolutely killed the competition. The following year Facebook was created and Twitter would follow soon after. Finally, there was the birth of the exclusive social media app. Apps such as Instagram and Vine would soon become available. These social media networks, among others, have dominated the market for the last decade. And what do they all have in common?

In my experience, all these networks really weren't the best place for a marijuana user. Before Instagram came along, I always felt scrutinized when sharing my smoking lifestyle on social media accounts. Social media networks like Facebook and Twitter have always been a fun and convenient way to connect with friends, family, coworkers and classmates. But not all of us feel comfortable sharing this part of our lives with everyone. Alot of us tried to manage both a personal and a marijuana related account on Instagram to avoid unwanted confrontations. And the majority of us ended up abandoning our personal Instagram accounts all together to focus on our "weedstagram" account. But finally, there is a solution! And it's name is MassRoots.

Founded in the Spring of 2013, MassRoots is a social media app thats main focus is on the cannabis community. Built to bring marijuana patients together and support the legalization movement, the app is one of the first of its kind to excel. With the support of a few investors, the founders of this social network have managed to create a means to connect with one another in the cannabis community without having to worry about persecution from others. With the medical marijuana movement sweeping the nation, and recreational legalization finally happening, it's a sure bet that MassRoots will continue to have success.

To find out a bit more about the origins and future of the company, I recently spoke with one if the founders of MassRoots:

Me- "Hey man, how's it going?!"

MassRoots- "Hey! I'm doing great! How about yourself?"

Me- "That's good to hear. I'm great! Keeping busy! Well, why don't you go ahead and introduce yourself to our readers and tell us your position at MassRoots."

MassRoots- "My name is Tyler Knight and I am a co-founder and Chief Marketing Officer at MassRoots."

Me- "Awesome. Well firstly, I want to say I'm a huge fan of what you guys are doing over at MassRoots. Tell us a bit about how MassRoots came to fruition and who the creators are."

MassRoots- "Thank you! It means a lot to us at MassRoots to see other people with the same ambitions as ours! MassRoots began as an idea between fellow co-founder and CEO, Isaac Dietrich, and myself in my college apartment. We wanted a community where people could post pictures of cannabis, meet other stoners, and interact with the cannabis community. Being an anonymous community was our main goal because we wanted a place where users felt free to post about marijuana. After we came up with the basic idea we collaborated with cofounder and Chief Graphic Designer, Hyler Fortier, to come up with the basic design of the app. From there we hired our fourth and final cofounder and Head iOS Developer, Stewart Fortier, to start building the app. We went from basic idea last April to a minimum viable product in the App Store in July."

Me- "Well congratulations on all the success so far! You've certainly met your goals by creating a unique, user friendly App for the cannabis community. I'm curious about the name! How did you come up with it and what is the meaning?"

MassRoots- "Thanks! The name MassRoots was a collaboration between the cofounders. We wanted a name that would work well with the already existing cannabis community and also bring some of our own hometown slang into the picture. Many people initially see "Mass" and immediately think that we are from Massachusetts, which is not true. The other cofounders and I are from Virginia Beach, Virginia and use the word "Mass" in a different way than others may. We use the word "Mass" as another word for big, a lot, many, or huge. The word roots was one of our first ideas and we had many different meanings of it that we could apply. Whether it be the physical roots of a marijuana plant or "roots" meaning where you originated from, we felt that roots was the perfect fit. From there we put together MassRoots and have kept the name ever since."

Me- "Thank you for the explanation! Like others, I assumed that you were based out of the Massachusetts area. I absolutely love the name and the meaning behind it. In a past conversation we had, you mentioned getting an investment from angel group. If you could, elaborate on how that relationship started and the investors involved."

MassRoots- "Yes, we recently closed our seed round of investing at $150,000 from the ArcView Group. The ArcView Group is an angel investor network that invests solely in the Cannabis Industry. We were first introduced to the ArcView Group while pitching MassRoots in San Francisco at Peter Thiels "20 Under 20 Summit". We were fortunate enough to meet Randy Hencken of SSDP ( Students for Sensible Drug Policy ) who introduced us to the ArcView Group. Our lead investment was made by Douglas Leighton of Dutchess Capital, and the rest of our seed round was funded by two investors which choose to remain anonymous."

Me- "And I understand the famous Steve DeAngelo is also involved?"

MassRoots- "Yes, he is the President of the ArcView group and also an investor in the group."

Me- "It's really inspiring to hear that you all had a dream, set some goals, and made it happen. What can we expect from MassRoots in the future? What are some of your aspirations for the App and the company itself?"

MassRoots- "We have many goals for MassRoots that we strive to attain everyday, and it is all of our "buds" that give us the inspiration and drive to keep the community an awesome place. Some things to expect in the near future will be an Android app that is fully up to par with our iOS version, a web and mobile web version (for those without smartphones ), and a multitude of new features to the network. It is our goal at MassRoots to be the digital hub of the cannabis industry and be able to offer the best experience possible to our users."

Me- "I'm excited to see the web version, as well the new features for the network. One final question before I let you go, and this is a personal one. Having made a social network, you've obviously had some experiences with them in the past. Do you remember your first social media experience? If so, tell me a bit about it!"

MassRoots- "Haha yes I do remember my first social media experience. I was in 7th grade and one of my buddies had told me about this new website called MySpace that "everyone" had and that I needed to get it. So I made a MySpace, updated my profile information, took a weird selfie, put up what I thought was a cool song and pretty much thought that I was king of the school, even though I was only friends with Tom, haha. Since then, I have used just about every social network you can think of, and I am very ecstatic to see where social media goes in the future."

Me- "That sounds very similar to my first experience with MySpace haha. It was definitely the first of its kind! As for my first experience, Xanga was my first shot at the social media game. A game that has evolved immensely since it began roughly 10 years ago. It's awesome to see folks like you taking the time to create a network geared toward those in the Cannabis community. And as I mentioned, it's truly inspiring to see you guys chasing this dream. I've been extremely impressed with what MassRoots has been able to accomplish in such a short amount of time and look forward to seeing what you have in store for us in the future. Once again, congratulations on all the success and I wish you the best of luck in the future! Thanks for taking the time to sit down with me and give us some insight as to how MassRoots came to be, and what to expect in the future."

MassRoots- "Thank you so much, it has been our dream come true to be where we are at right now, and it's people like you and the rest of the cannabis culture that give us that opportunity and we can't thank you guys enough! MassRoots has big plans ahead and we can't wait to keep growing our community!"

I personally haven't seen a better example of someone in our community having a dream and pursuing it to the fullest. MassRoots recently hit 50,000 users. And with a desktop version coming soon, you can expect the MassRoots community to grow at a faster and faster rate. As society continues to accept cannabis and what it has to offer, a network like MassRoots is needed now more than ever before. It's vital for our community to stay in tune with one another and stay up to date on the progressing movement. Thanks to MassRoots, that's now easier than ever.  They had a dream and made it happen. And that earns them the title of this week's Stoner Of The Week.

MassRoots is current available for FREE download in the Apple App Store as well as the Android Market. You can For more information about MassRoots, visit www.MassRoots.com or www.Instagram.com/MassRoots.