If you’re tired of hearing everybody talking about Peter Thiel entering the cannabis investment world, I’d urge you to reconsider. Long have I been saying that Thiel would open the doors for others to follow and, sure enough, we saw Eaze get a $10 million investment: mind you, they’re a legal cannabis delivery company. Nugg, an online and mobile ordering platform for medical marijuana, officially opened their doors on 4/20, also known as the holiest of holidays for the cannabis world. Starting today, Nugg will service the Los Angeles and Orange County areas. Qualified patients can sign up and get verified through the Nugg app in minutes. Those who aren’t patients have the option to schedule a medical evaluation with one of the app’s trusted partner physicians for either an in-home or in-office visit. Once verified, patients can view the menus of legal cannabis providers near them, access detailed information about each product, and place orders for pickup or delivery with a few taps on their smartphone. The process includes e-signing the patient agreement specific to each collective as well. Pickup orders are pre-packaged at the storefront dispensary, and Nugg users are notified in-app when they can expect their order to be ready – they also get to skip the line for pickup. According to Milligan though, the platform truly shines when it comes to delivery. Once an order is placed the user receives an ETA and can even contact the driver or see him move in real-time on a map, much like Uber. The dispensary is provided a simple interface for orders to be assigned, re-assigned, and re-routed based on inventory availability and distance to destination. Incoming calls can also be routed to a dispatcher, or directly to the driver. As Milligan says, novice and first-time cannabis users are expected to enter the market and they’re looking for a service that eliminates barriers to entry. Nugg caters to them by making the cannabis experience seamless from start to finish. Establishing yourself in this industry earlier versus later is how people are going to be majorly successful. And that’s exactly what Nugg is doing with this launch.
Image Credit: Flickr/Brett Levin
