
Launch HN: Nabis (YC W19) – Cannabis Shipping and Logistics - vning93
Hi HN! We’re Vince and Jun, the founders of Nabis (<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.getnabis.com" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.getnabis.com</a>). We are building a software and infrastructure solution to ship legal cannabis products for brands to licensed dispensaries throughout California.<p>About two years ago when the legalization of recreational cannabis was pending in CA, we were excited as consumers to be able to try out a variety of products without having to get a medical card. While we knew that many more brands were coming to market, we discovered that there was a lack of supply chain infrastructure to support the growing demand. We started out driving our own personal vehicles across the state to help a friend ship his products just to learn more about how the supply chain was set up. We learned that brands were still predominantly self-distributing, since you can’t just Fedex cannabis products due to compliance restrictions. Apart from shipping, the lack of secure warehousing space, a ubiquitous cash-based payment system, and vague new regulatory language all created massive friction to building a sound and cost-effective supply chain for cannabis products.<p>Once we started shipping more orders than we could deliver ourselves, we hired a team and built out a web portal that automates the most tedious parts of our operations, especially with regards to compliance and paperwork for shipping, storing, and testing cannabis products. We wanted to help scale the growing cannabis industry that was about to legalize, and convert more of the illicit black market into the legal market.<p>When recreational legalization commenced in January 2018, we applied for our distribution license since that would allow us to continue building our business as the logistics backbone for the industry. We thought distribution was the best place to start as it sits right at the center of the supply chain as the final checkpoint before products are sold into the retail market. By scaling out distribution, we help drive down the costs for everyone in the industry due to the economies of scale that we can achieve by owning one set of infrastructure for multiple brands, rather than having each brand build out its own delivery and warehousing solution.<p>Today, Nabis tracks and delivers over 1,000 SKUs for nearly 40 of the largest brands to 90% of retail dispensaries in California. The data that we track gives us insights into the cannabis market as it continues to grow rapidly, providing data-driven metrics of what brands and product categories will perform best in the market. We want to continue to support as many products that consumers love by ensuring reliable shipping and logistics of products to retailers. By expanding our infrastructure and portfolio of brands, we’re hoping to achieve our ultimate goal of scaling cannabis access to the masses and become the widest distributor of cannabis products.<p>Thanks for reading and hope that you continue to support the legal cannabis market! We’re looking to build a community of technologists to grow a data-driven supply chain for the cannabis industry, so we’d love to talk to you if you’re interested in working with us. Also, if you&#x27;re well-versed in logistics and working in regulatory landscapes, we&#x27;d love to hear from you. And we&#x27;re very curious for feedback in general! Looking forward to comments, and you can also email us at founders@getnabis.com.
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drefanzor
Do you hire felons (ex-felons, with clean record for 7+ years)? Being in the
cannabis industry is bound to have attachments that were previously on the
south-side of the law; if not - why? ; if so - hi

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vning93
Local governments are actually very supportive of former criminals who were
penalized for cannabis-related infringements. If you want to drop a resume, we
can certainly see if there’s a good fit! Feel free to email
careers@getnabis.com.

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ill0gicity
Just out of curiosity, have you already dealt with Navis, the packing and
shipping company? When spoken "Nabis" and "Navis" are very similar, and I'm
sure some enterprising lawyer would claim it to be confusingly similar and
you're also in a similar business.

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vning93
We've noticed the similarity in name and currently we work specifically in the
cannabis industry, so it's differentiated by our scopes of work as they do
general packing and shipping.

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curun1r
There’s also the post-impressionist art school [0], though that’s unlikely to
cause confusion. Still, it’ll be the first thing many people think of when
they see your name, so you should probably be aware of it.

[0]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Les_Nabis](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Les_Nabis)

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vning93
That's certainly something that we're aware of, and we're actively working to
build up our SEO to address that :)

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dillonforrest
Hey guys, VP of Engineering & Product here at Nabis. We're hiring engineers!
Email me dillon@getnabis.com if you'd like to learn more. :)

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vning93
Job listings here! [https://angel.co/nabis](https://angel.co/nabis)

We have openings in Oakland and LA for engineering, design, data science, HR,
and supply chain. Reach out directly if you or anyone you know might be a good
fit!

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remotepayqs
First, thanks for putting salary ranges up in your listings. That's something
I _really_ wish more companies did, and, regardless of anything I say below,
is really appreciated.

However, speaking of things I wish more companies did, your job listings would
seem to preclude remotes? (even for the data scientist position?) Given the
pay ranges specified and lack of equity, having to relocate to Oakland seems
like a very hard sell to my eyes. I wonder if others could comment on whether
I'm living in a bubble (could 100% believe that) or if this resonates.

In any case, feel free to ignore the above, congrats on the launch! It's a
very compelling sector, or I wouldn't even be asking this.

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vning93
Thanks for the support. To be clear, we are open to remote work! Please email
careers@getnabis.com and we can send you more information on that :)

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tonydiv
We're big fans of Nabis here at Flower Co, my cofounders Ted and Scott were
also their first customers at Humboldt Legends.

Congratulations ^.^

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junsup
Thanks Tony! We’re also huge fans of Flower Co at Nabis :)

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edoceo
Are you trucks or software? METRC integrated? API?

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vning93
Our solution is both software and infrastructure. On the infrastructure side,
we our own distribution license, fleet of trucks, warehouses, and more. And
that's all wrapped under our web portal to help make shipping and compliance
easy.

We're METRC approved and working on the integration now. API is on its way
too.

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edoceo
Well, please don't waste time making yet another cannabis API, there are open
specs. And if you need help with METRC reach out, I've been coding against it
for 5+ years

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sgammon
hey - congrats on the launch!

however, are you guys aware of Nabis (CSX: NAB) up in Canada? It might be
confusing w.r.t. naming

