PlainView in the News
Small Growers Or Corporate Cash Crop?
Trevor Curwin, CNBC.com, 4/20/2010
If marijuana becomes legal for the average consumer, today's small growers may have more to learn from Starbucks' lifestyle branding than from the mass production of Kraft's Maxwell House.
In other words, producers may have to focus on "artisanal" handling and distribution to attract experienced consumers, instead of mass production for a huge new market.
Starbuds?
He went bust in Silicon Valley, now helps internet weed traders
By Peter Hecht, The Sacramento Bee, 3/12/2010
Last April, John Lee, a 25-year tech industry professional, was laid off from his job as director of partner integration for an on-line music and video service. In the downtrodden Silicon Valley, he had few prospects to turn to.
So Lee turned to another passion: medical marijuana.
Now he has risen again as the CEO of an on-line business-to-business network that is taking pot trading to the web. Lee's PlainView Systems bills itself as a "Compassionate Care Marketplace."
Could Joint Promotion Thrive in New Jersey?
By Rich Thomaselli, Advertising Age, 1/18/2010
Here's what the Garden State can expect now that it is poised to become the 14th state to legalize medical marijuana: a bumper crop of cash from taxes, doctor's fees -- and, potentially, marketing.
Startup Hopes to Sell Weed Online
By Jackson West, NBC Bay Area, 1/14/2010
Sonoma, Calif. resident John Lee has a vision -- that the legitimization of the cultivation and sale of marijuana is progressing apace, and that the multi-billion dollar business wants online tools just like any other.
The Amazon.com of weed?
By Richard Metzger, Brand X, 1/14/2010
Entrepreneur and computer engineer John Lee, in Sonoma, Calif., thinks the medical marijuana business has reached a tipping point in terms of its social (and legal) acceptance, and his 5-month-old start-up, PlainView Systems, wants to be the Amazon.com of the burgeoning industry.
The Amazon.com of pot
By Chris Matyszczyk, CNet, 1/13/2010
I am sure there are many of you who inhale marijuana for purely medicinal purposes. Your pains might be physical. They might be psychological. But you feel as though your world is going to pot, so you turn to pot.
Now, an enterprising man called John Lee has decided to bring a little online rigor to your smoking vigor.
Medical Marijuana, Meet E-commerce
By Geoff Williams, CNN Money, 1/12/2010
The numbers back him up. Marijuana is California's biggest cash crop, generating sales estimated at $14 billion a year. Thanks to the state's increasingly liberal medical marijuana laws, more of that money than ever before is being spent legally.
PlainView Systems Launches Medical Marijuana Marketplace
By Mitch Wagner, InformationWeek, 9/9/2009
It's a long way from Cheech & Chong. PlainView Systems launched its Compassionate Care Marketplace, a secure system to allow suppliers of medical marijuana to buy weed, with full accounting of the transaction for state and municipal compliance.
Marijuana supply chain gets a B2B market
By Mark Hall, Computerworld.com, 9/8/2009
Legal pot suppliers and distributors in California now have a home to do business in the cloud. Today PlainView Systems LLC of Sonoma, Calif. launched its Compassionate Care Marketplace so licensed medical marijuana growers and dispensariescan more efficiently get their drugs to patients.
Although undoubtedly a disappointment to some, Plainview CEO John Lee cautions, "This is not an eBay for weed."
PlainView Systems Introduces First Ever B-to-B Medical Marijuana Marketplace in California
Sonoma, California, 9/8/2009
PlainView Systems, LLC, the first business to business medical marijuana marketplace, introduced today its PlainView System Compassionate Care Marketplace, or CCM. PlainView is a secure traceable transaction system allowing suppliers of medical marijuana to achieve fiduciary compliance while procuring supplies for their dispensaries, with full accounting of the transaction for state and municipal compliance.