Investors & Strategic Partners
The Cannabis Marketplace Built for the Next Era of Legal Cannabis
WeedNearby is a community platform connecting cannabis consumers, patients, dispensaries, doctors, and brands — starting in California, built to scale across every legal market in the United States.
We are currently seeking pre-seed investors and strategic partners to power our public launch.
Pre-Seed Round | $250K – $500K Target | California Launch
The Opportunity
A $44 Billion Industry — and the Discovery Layer Is Still Broken
The U.S. legal cannabis industry generated $44.3 billion in sales in 2025 and is projected to reach $76.4 billion by 2030 (Grand View Research, 11.5% CAGR). Cannabis is now legal for adult use in 24 states representing over 55% of the U.S. population, and medical use is permitted in 40 states.
California alone — our launch market — accounts for $4.66 billion in annual retail cannabis sales across 1,500+ licensed dispensaries. It is the single largest legal cannabis market in the world.
The cannabis delivery segment is growing even faster, projected to reach $18.65 billion by 2033 (CAGR: 20.3%), driven by consumer demand for convenience, discretion, and on-demand access.
That is the gap WeedNearby fills.
The Problem
Cannabis Consumers Deserve Better Than a 2010 Yellow Pages
Consumers searching for dispensaries, specific strains, or cannabis doctors have no single trusted platform. Searches happen across Google Maps, Yelp, outdated directories, and word-of-mouth. The experience is disjointed and unreliable.
Weedmaps charges dispensaries $1,000–$3,000+/month for basic listings. Small and mid-sized dispensaries, emerging brands, and cannabis doctors cannot compete on these platforms and are effectively invisible to consumers.
Dispensaries, doctors, brands, and delivery services each live in separate silos. No platform brings the complete cannabis discovery and purchasing journey — from finding a doctor to buying a product — into one cohesive experience.
Our Platform
WeedNearby: One Platform. The Entire Cannabis Ecosystem.
WeedNearby is a community-driven cannabis marketplace that brings every part of the cannabis journey into one seamless experience. Built for consumers. Designed to help every type of cannabis business grow.
Browse, compare, and navigate to nearby dispensaries. Real-time menus, ratings, reviews, and delivery options — all in one place.
Find licensed cannabis doctors for medical cards, consultations, and patient support. Verified profiles, appointment booking, and telehealth-ready.
Discover thousands of cannabis products from top and emerging brands. Strain info, lab results, pricing, and availability all searchable and filterable.
Connect consumers with dispensaries offering on-demand and scheduled delivery. Real-time tracking, estimated arrival times, and seamless checkout.
Verified consumer reviews, strain ratings, and a community of patients and enthusiasts sharing real experiences.
Budtenders and cannabis professionals can build verified public profiles, helping dispensaries hire and consumers trust.
How We Make Money
Multiple Revenue Streams. Proven Model. Built to Scale.
WeedNearby operates on a SaaS-driven marketplace model — the same proven revenue architecture that powers Weedmaps and Leafly. Unlike our competitors, WeedNearby is designed from the ground up to be accessible to small operators while offering premium tiers for scaling businesses.
Dispensaries, brands, and doctors pay monthly subscription fees for verified listings, enhanced profiles, analytics dashboards, and visibility tools.
Tiered pricing: Free → Basic → Pro → Enterprise
Premium placement in search results, category pages, and the homepage. Sponsored product placements and banner advertising for brands.
A percentage-based commission on every order processed through the WeedNearby delivery network. We earn when dispensaries earn.
Data-driven insights sold to dispensaries and brands: foot traffic patterns, search trend reports, product performance, and consumer demographic data.
API access for cannabis POS systems, delivery software, and compliance tools to integrate directly with the WeedNearby network.
Supporting data point: Weedmaps (WM Technology, NASDAQ: MAPS) reported $184.5M in full-year 2024 revenue from approximately 5,179 paying clients — an average of ~$35,600 per client annually. California alone has 1,500+ licensed retail locations.
Go-To-Market
California First. Then Every Legal Market.
California is the largest and most mature legal cannabis market in the world — 1,500+ licensed retailers, $4.66 billion in annual retail sales, and a consumer base of over 39 million people. It is the ideal proving ground for WeedNearby.
- Onboard 250+ dispensaries, doctors, and brands across Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Diego, and Sacramento
- Launch consumer-facing platform with full search, discovery, reviews, and delivery integration
- Target 50,000+ monthly active users within 6 months of launch
- Establish brand presence through SEO, community partnerships, and targeted social media
- Scale to 1,000+ active business listings across all California markets
- Launch mobile app (iOS & Android)
- Introduce premium subscription tiers and analytics products
- Build delivery network partnerships with licensed carriers
- Expand into Colorado, Washington, Illinois, Michigan, and other high-volume legal markets
- Launch affiliate and referral programs to accelerate dispensary onboarding
- Explore strategic acquisition of complementary cannabis tech or directory platforms
The founder brings deep expertise in SEO and marketplace growth. WeedNearby is being built with organic search as a primary acquisition channel — a significant cost advantage over paid-acquisition-dependent competitors.
Competitive Advantage
The Market Has Players. None Built for This Era.
| Feature | WeedNearby | Weedmaps | Leafly |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dispensary Listings | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Doctor / Medical Listings | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ |
| Brand Profiles | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Staff Profiles | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ |
| Delivery Integration | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Affordable Pricing for SMBs | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ |
| Community Features | ✅ | Partial | Partial |
| SEO-First Architecture | ✅ | Partial | Partial |
| Free Listing Tier | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ |
- Dispensary + doctor + brand discovery in one platform
- Affordable SMB pricing + free tier
- SEO-first architecture
- High pricing for basic visibility
- Limited ecosystem coverage (no doctors/staff profiles)
- Partially modernized UX
- Strong brand recognition
- Partial community features
- Less complete end-to-end journey
The Investment
Pre-Seed Round: $250,000 – $500,000
WeedNearby is raising a pre-seed round of $250,000 to $500,000 to fund platform completion, California launch operations, and initial go-to-market execution.
- Equity stake in WeedNearby (details shared under NDA)
- Founder access and quarterly investor updates
- Early positioning in a high-growth, high-margin marketplace
- Opportunity to help reshape how consumers discover cannabis
Strategic Partners
We're Not Just Looking for Capital. We're Building an Ecosystem.
WeedNearby is actively seeking strategic partners across three categories. If your business operates in or serves the cannabis industry, there is a place for you at the table.
- Preferred listing placement
- Reduced subscription pricing locked in for 12 months
- Co-marketing opportunities at launch
- Direct input into product development
- API partnership program
- White-label and integration opportunities
- Co-development agreements
- Affiliate and media partnership opportunities available
- Amplify reach while improving consumer discovery
The Team
Built by Someone Who Has Done This Before
Artur Katyshev is a serial entrepreneur with a track record of founding and scaling successful online marketplaces. He brings hands-on experience in every stage of marketplace growth — from concept and product strategy to user acquisition, partner development, and monetization.
His core expertise lies in organic growth through SEO, a discipline he has used to build sustainable, low-cost acquisition engines across multiple platforms. Where other founders burn capital on paid advertising, Artur has consistently built audience and traffic through search — a decisive competitive advantage in capital-efficient, early-stage growth.
WeedNearby is built on everything he has learned: how to connect two sides of a marketplace, earn trust from both, and grow a platform that compounds over time. He identified the cannabis discovery space as one of the most underserved and highest-potential marketplace opportunities in the current market.
We're Building The Team
We are actively looking for driven individuals to join WeedNearby at the ground floor — and potentially the right co-founder.
If you have a background in startups, fundraising, cannabis, or marketplace growth and believe in what we're building, we want to hear from you.
Where We Are
Platform Ready. Launch Incoming.
- Platform architecture designed and core features built
- Full demo environment live at WeedNearby.com
- Dispensary, doctor, brand, product, and delivery modules completed
- Design system and user experience validated
- Pre-seed fundraising round open
- Strategic launch partner outreach (dispensaries & brands)
- SEO infrastructure buildout
- Month 1–2: QA, performance optimization, legal compliance review
- Month 3: California soft launch — LA & San Francisco
- Month 4–6: Partner onboarding + activation
- Month 6: 250+ business listings, 50,000+ monthly active users target
- Month 12: Mobile app launch, statewide California coverage
Get In Touch
Ready to Learn More?
Whether you're a potential investor, a strategic partner, or simply curious about the opportunity — we'd love to hear from you. Fill out the form below and we’ll be in touch within 24 hours.
- Pitch deck + go-to-market plan
- Product roadmap + milestones
- Competitive strategy + pricing
- Launch partner program details
The cannabis industry is growing at 11.5% per year.
The platforms that connect consumers to that industry will grow faster.