Why the Jointly App Will Elevate Your Cannabis and CBD Lifestyle to a Whole New Level

Cannabis.net sat down with the developers of the super, red-hot Jointly app that is taking the marijuana industry by storm to find out what it was like to build a cannabis app, what it was like dealing with Apple and Google, and where they see the future of cannabis apps!

What is the Jointly app, as in, what does it do?

The Jointly app helps cannabis users optimize how they consume cannabis and CBD so that they can achieve their wellness goals while minimizing adverse side effects.

Our app helps cannabis users in two primary ways: it helps them discover new products, and it helps them track the 15 factors that can impact their cannabis experience so that they can enjoy their ideal experience every time.

In the modern cannabis market, there are so many products that if you tried one product every day for one hundred years, there would still be thousands of products that you hadn’t tried. And more products are being created every day.

Many of these cannabis products produce different effects and side effects. A product that is perfect for improving your sleep may not be well-suited to enhancing an intimate moment. How are you supposed to find which products work for your goals if there are too many products to try in a lifetime?

The Jointly app solves this issue by letting you see how other Jointly users rated a product based on how well it helped them achieve their wellness goals. If ten thousand Jointly users rate a product as being highly effective for improving their sleep, there is a good chance it will work similarly for you. And if it doesn’t, the Jointly app will help you track and optimize the 15 factors that might be impacting your cannabis experience.

For example, if you want to improve your sleep, but you want to avoid smoking, you can filter your products so that you only see topicals, edibles or tinctures. Once you find a product that you like, you can begin to turn the dials on the other factors: your dose, how much sleep you got the night before, how long you wait between cannabis sessions, etc. Over time, the Jointly app will show you which factors have the greatest impact on your experience and provide you insights that will allow you to enjoy your ideal cannabis experience every time.

Jointly is better than a strain guide or strain finder in what ways?

When we say Jointly is better than a strain finder, we don’t mean to denigrate any of the great strain finders that helped get us where we are today. However, a typical strain finder doesn’t cut it in the modern cannabis market.

A strain finder usually provides people with information about a specific strain’s genetic heritage, whether it is classified as Indica, Sativa, or Hybrid, and anecdotal information about its psychoactive effects. More advanced strain finders will often provide a snapshot of a strain’s terpene and cannabinoid content. But how accurate is that information? And does it accurately reflect the cannabis that you just bought?

Cannabis is extraordinarily responsive to its environment. Environmental factors like light, soil nutrients, humidity, and more can alter the chemical composition of the plant and change the subjective effects it will produce. A sample of Blue Dream grown in Florida can have a radically different cannabinoid and terpene composition from a sample of Blue Dream grown in Colorado.

Additionally, recent research indicates that some of the information provided by a typical strain finder may not be accurate. A study published in the Journal of Cannabis Research in June 2019 found that “strains with the same names, purchased at different locations, are often not actually the same strain at all.”[1] Genetic studies have revealed that “the genetic identity of a marijuana strain cannot be reliably inferred by its name or by its reported ancestry.”[2] So what is a cannabis user to do?

For a strain finder to be useful in the modern cannabis market, it needs to provide accurate information that a cannabis user can use to improve their experience. The only way to provide meaningful information to a cannabis user is to provide information about each individual product.

The Jointly app allows users to rate any legal cannabis product. When you look up a cannabis product, you won’t find a general snapshot of Blue Dream from a sample from many years ago, you will find the exact product you are looking for, as well real user ratings for that product.

What are the 15 trackable factors that the Jointly app follows for cannabis users?

The fifteen factors are:

Your wellness goals.
Your product type (vape oil, flower, tincture, etc.)
The specific product you are using.
Your ingestion method (inhalation, oral consumption, sublingual ingestion.)
Your dose.
How much time you wait between doses.
Your hydration level.
Whether your stomach is full or empty.
Whether you exercised before, during, or after using cannabis.
How much sleep you got the night before.
The quality of your diet.
Whether you ate any “companion foods” that day.
Your environment or physical surroundings.
The people you are with when you consume cannabis.
Your unique endocannabinoid system.

How did you come up with the idea for the app and when did you start working on it?

Our co-founder and CEO David Kooi came up with the idea for the app when he noticed that his cannabis experiences weren’t consistent. Sometimes he would take an edible and it would relieve mild day-to-day anxiety, buts other times it would make him drowsy or even exacerbate his anxiety.

He wanted to build something that would allow him to have a more predictable cannabis experience. He realized that there must be factors at play that were altering his experience. He began to carefully track his sleep, his diet, and what products he was using. As he researched, he discovered forums and academic articles discussing other factors that might impact a cannabis user’s experience. He began to track these factors as well. As he tracked these factors, he began to see results and have better cannabis experiences.

During this process, David re-connected with Jointly co-founder Eric Gutshall, a former colleague. Together they decided to embark on a new business venture in the cannabis world. They wanted something that was wellness oriented and would allow users to interact with the company. They pondered the idea of creating a vape pen with a QR code, allowing users to upload ratings of each cartridge. After bouncing around various ideas, they decided to turn Dave’s personal project into a business. Jointly was born, and the app was launched in April of 2020.

What is one mistake you made along the way that you wish you could change?

Luckily, all our mistakes were positive learning experiences that helped us refine our strategy, so we wouldn’t change any of them.

What advice would you give someone today that is trying to break into the cannabis space or looking to start a cannabis-based business?

Find the niche where you can have the most impact. We wanted to work in the cannabis wellness space and provide something that would allow people to take action to improve their health and wellbeing through cannabis.

What are your favorite strains and why?

Top of the list would have to be Blue Dream. Many samples of Blue Dream create a cerebral, clearheaded high that is quite pleasant. For a nightcap, you can’t go wrong with Blackberry Kush. Not only are the buds a dark, rich purple color, but it also has a pleasant fruity taste and usually has enough myrcene to produce a “couch lock.”

How can someone download the app?

The Jointly app is available to download on the App Store or the Google Play Store.

If someone has questions or wants to contact you, what is the best way to reach you? Email? Social media?

You can contact us at hello@jointlybetter.com or through our Instagram @jointlybetter.

What are the future plans for the app and what gets you most excited about the future of marijuana legalization?

We are very excited about our new project that will bring our product database to the web, allowing people to search for products without downloading the app. And in regards to marijuana legalization, we are excited about the idea of more people discovering purposeful cannabis consumption and improving their health and wellbeing with plant medicine.

[1] https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2021/mar/02/whats-in-a-strain-studies-show-that-many-strains-a/

[2] https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0133292