In 2014, Rick, Harrison, Scott, and I were naming our new company. In cannabis you have no shortage of weed names. Pot. Weedly. Dub, Dime, Herb, Bud. Something green.
We wanted something that focused on the flowers. And where do flowers grow? Where do people gather? Where does it feel safe? Where can you touch grass?
A meadow. We found it with our trusty thesaurus and instantly knew.
Tending
Twelve years later, the name turned out to be the operating manual. A garden needs to be tended. Walked through, maintained, weeded, new seeds planted. That's how we view software: build something of really high quality, something that gives back. What you plant well, you harvest year after year.
We've been through many seasons. Droughts, fires, floods. The one I think about most: a couple of years into the transition from Prop 215 to Prop 64, COVID hit. Toilet paper shortages. Empty grocery shelves. Dispensary lines out the door, because nobody knew if the stores would be shut down.
Through the will of the people, our community, and the governor's office, cannabis was classified essential, and the people working with it became essential workers. Because it's medicine, and people needed it.
Then came the adapting. Distancing, payments, queuing. Curbside pickup, online ordering, pick-and-pack. Delivery took off. We built for that moment of change: not just essential cannabis, essential software.
In this industry the rules change every quarter, so you prepare, and you keep building through it all. You nurture the garden, protect it, give it the sun it needs. Sometimes you just allow time for the roots to grow.
The part the title gets wrong
Here's where the skyscraper comparison breaks, though. Tending and building tall were never actually enemies. Because the foundation is solid, you can keep adding on, as high as you need. A well-kept garden and a skyscraper are built on the same thing: what's underneath.
And like a great garden, the point is the ecosystem. We serve our clients. In serving them, we serve their customers. And in serving those customers, we help people get access to the medicine they're looking for.
We may not be building tall. But we are getting high.