Many companies across America wouldn’t hire an applicant who admitted to smoking marijuana, but in Colorado, where pot is legal, some tech startups have embraced their workers’ cannabis consumption.
One of those startups is Denver-based Flowhub, which was founded in 2015 by Kyle Sherman and Chase Wiseman to develop software for cannabis growers and dispensaries. According to CNN, the company currently has 18 employees that often bring marijuana-infused edibles and drinks to work — smoking isn’t allowed in the building.
“Our philosophy at Flowhub is to get shit done,” Sherman told CNN. “If it helps our employees get work done, then we don’t care if they consume at work.”
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Both co-founders consume edibles at weekly brainstorm meetings because, as Sherman said, they believe it “surfaces new ideas.”
Also based in Denver are social-networking-for-stoners platforms High There! and MassRoots, both of which allow their employees to bring weed to work.
“Being in Denver, we’re in the heart of the cannabis industry,” said Darren Roberts, cofounder of High There!, which has amassed 150,000 users since its launch 10 months ago. “Cannabis is part of our culture.”
The 2-year-old startup MassRoots, which has 30 employees and $4.4 million in funding, was thought up by cofounder Isaac Dietrich while he was a college student smoking weed in his friend’s apartment.
“Our general philosophy is that we need to be as productive and creative as possible, everyday,” he told CNN. “If cannabis facilitates that, then we’re allowing it.”
In San Francisco, where medical marijuana is legal, software firm sales executive Brandon David said most of his company’s employees consume cannabis throughout the day. He says he uses a cannabis vaporizer daily to help him “press ahead” and to sometimes “get a second wind.”
According to David, although many companies are beginning to allow cannabis consumption, few are open about it: “There definitely are far more that allow it than are willing to openly talk about it.”
