Flow Kana is a new San Francisco-based, on-demand cannabis delivery service that sources marijuana from small farmers in California. The Bay Area is already blessed with a growing number of apps that deliver weed to your door, but Flow Kana claims it gives farmers much better margins. On Thursday, the startup invited me to a launch party at an undisclosed location in the Berkeley hills. Flow Kana was promising hors d'oeuvres and drinks "paired with curated 'intermezzos' of cannabis treats and boutique flowers." Finally, a product I want to unbox!
The invite also pledged to teach us more about the burgeoning "clean cannabis" movement. (Don't bother Googling it, the movement hasn't made its way online.) Flow Kana CEO Michael Steinmetz uses the term to mean organic, sustainably grown pot, delivered "farm to table," if your table is where you keep your bong. He says Flow Kana — which is currently invitation-only — will also have "almost zero carbon footprint," because its couriers will tool around San Francisco on bicycles carrying jars filled with an eighth of a pound of weed from every partnering farm.
Flow Kana's party invitation called for formal dress: "Great Gatsby meets California." I was coming from work, though, and ended up closer to "Urban Outfitters catalog meets Pennsylvania." And for a weed party, getting there was no chill sitch. Guests had to catch a shuttle from a UC Berkeley parking lot, located 20 minutes from the nearest BART station. As soon as the shuttle driver began our rickety ride ascent up a very narrow road, a pre-recorded message about Flow Kana started blasting on speakers. The backing instrumentals recalled the tuning of a violin.