Meet Plantz – a community-driven cannabis company owned by its members

Take a look around the medical cannabis industry and you’ll notice a common promise across many an about page: We always put patients first. Yet the conventional wisdom of business is that shareholders come first, not customers. In fact, it’s a must that any company director should “promote the success of the company for the benefit of its members (shareholders)”. It’s enshrined in law. 

Plantz is a UK-based start-up looking to flip the traditional business model of profit before patients on its head. Utilising a relatively new organisational structure called a Decentralised Autonomous Organisation (DAO), Plantz promises to share profits with members of their community, not investors.

If the idea of a DAO sounds a bit crypto web 3.0 to you, then you’re barking up the right tree. DAOs use blockchain technology to record rules, votes on community decisions and even assign monetary rewards to members. “Instead of using Companies House or a stock exchange to maintain a record of share ownership, a DAO company uses the blockchain,” Plantz founder Neil Cartwright explains to leafie. “The primary benefit for patients is we can measure & reward the time and contributions of our community in an ownership structure.” 

The proposal is an interesting one, and unique to the UK’s medical cannabis movement. Members of the Plantz platform are awarded points for actively participating in the online community. Posting to the forum, managing groups or adding friends will all earn members points. Completing tasks that benefit the community, such as writing an article, submitting a review or taking part in a project can also earn points. The more active a member is in the community, the more points they earn, which can be used against purchases on the marketplace.

Sort of social media

The Plantz platform takes many of the social functions that we recognise from networks like Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, but it’s not quite a social media platform, more a social company platform. “We’re building a marketplace for our community to securely sell their own products. We’re developing our own IP through sourcing cannabis, both medicinal THC and CBD, then building a brand with our community’s backing,” Cartwright says. “We can do buying deals with device makers or offer our community the opportunity to work on projects. We could build up research for the benefit of the community or offer secure ticketing to events. The list of possibilities is endless. We’re essentially a company asking our community what they want us to do. They propose it, vote on it, then we do it.”

By taking this approach, Plantz is hoping to turn the traditional approach to building a business on its head. Rather than developing a product and then trying to sell that product to a group of people, the members get a say on what comes next. “Our approach is to build the community first then ask our members, what products and services do you want? They get to have a say in things they’d never previously had any control over, like marketing and pricing.”

It’s a radical approach to building a business, but with many patients disillusioned at the current state of medical cannabis in the UK, harnessing the power of community could well be successful. The platform has already had buy-in from some well-known names on the cannabis scene, including Stoned Island, Herman Hustlin’, Conscious Genetics, Buddy High, Cannacarts and Tastebudz Genetics. Signing up as a member costs £5 per month, but members instantly get a £5 credit to spend on products from the online marketplace. 

Interested in learning more or signing up as a member? Visit plantz.io