We recently connected with Ali Baron and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Ali , thanks for joining us today. Alright, so you had your idea and then what happened? Can you walk us through the story of how you went from just an idea to executing on the idea
PodTones was an idea on its way to becoming a product and company when the vape crisis of 2019 hit. At the time, we used a proven and safe additive to liquify our rosin. But once we saw how scary and dangerous anything is that’s not 100% PURE, we went back to the lab and Alex came up with our patent-pending process for liquifying rosin without the use of additives or solvents. 100% live rosin differentiates our product on the shelf and allows PodTones to be the most clean and potent way to consume cannabis.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
I like to smoke joints – I like to self-titrate or control how high I get, which is the experience we wanted to bring to PodTones. We offer the most simple way to enjoy the most pure cannabis extract – Rosin, squeezed straight from the plant.
We feel like premium weed is good at delivering 4 distinct effects so we curate the most potent strains into the effect you are looking for, think: ultra premium concentrate meets super convenient all-in-one.
PodTones vaporizers are designed with the user in mind. They’re sleek, stylish, and easy to use. But more importantly, they’re incredibly effective. Our vaporizers use state-of-the-art technology to deliver a smooth, flavorful hit every time.
Alex LeVine, PodTones CEO and my co-founder, and I did our best to brand weed. You can think of our logo like a sundial – time of day or Sativa to Indica. We want our 100% Pure ROSIN to be the industry standard since it is the cleanest, purest way to consume cannabis.
Have you ever had to pivot?
In 2019 we were still in R&D when the vape crisis hit. At the time we were using a safe and effective cutting agent to liquify the rosin, which naturally wants to be a thicker viscosity than is needed to effectively make it through a .5mg vape tasting perfect from start to finish.
Alex solved for this by figuring out a way to liquify the rosin without the use of solvents or additives which gave us our differentiating factor – we were able to offer 100% pure live rosin. If it’s not 100%, then what else are you inhaling straight into your lungs?! We knew that was a big selling point for our brand and have stuck with that strategy.
Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?
Our strategy was always to get our product to authentic influencers who we respected and who would validate our truly excellent HIGH. We early on got a sample to Abdullah Saeed after seeing him perform at a 420 comedy night. We were blown away with his comic chops (also we sat with him and he was super nice). One day he posted an instagram story about how “he met these people at a comedy show and they gave me this rosin vaporizer… and it’s FUCKING DELICIOUS!” It was the start of a beautiful friendship between our brand and Abdullah, who also co-hosted the well respected podcast “Great Moments in Weed History” with David Beinenstock – who also became a PodTones advocate.
Also Adam Tschorn, the culture and cannabis writer at the LA Times has been a huge champion for our little start up from way back when we launched on 4/20/2020. He chose us for the LA Times cannabis gift guide and included us in his article on ‘Green Weed.’
Most recently we got a shout out from the popular canna YouTuber Erick Khan who took some blinkers with his PodTones and LOVED THE HIGH. So that’s been our strategy since we are a tiny team and have to use our product to build our reputation as the top shelf all-in-one vape option.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.PodTones.co
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/podtones/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ali-baron-5667b7177/
Image Credits
Ali baron, PodTones