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CannaBuild is building the first genuine, online budtending experience and has just secured $225K in seed funding from investors through the San Francisco-based ArcView Group. On top of this, the startup has a stacked advisory team to help them navigate the cannabis industry and product development processes.

The company shifted its focus and already found its core market. "At first our plan was to develop a very business oriented suite of software for cannabis dispensaries. We found out real quick this space is very crowded, highly regulative, and not that high growth. We shifted our focus to more driven towards creating consumer facing applications that are based around interactions with products. A la - virtual budtending,"said Zach Marburger, CEO and and Co-founder of CannaBuild.

The increase of dispensaries has spurred reoccurring complaints regarding patient care, long wait times and inadequate consumption compliance. CannaBuild's cloud-based platform gives dispensary operations the ability to serve their customers from wherever, whenever on any device.

App users will be able to initiate sessions (anonymously if desired) with budtenders based on specific questions.

"Many people are much more comfortable in an anonymous or private setting when discussing their medical problems and needs related to cannabis, specifically first time users. Our app will provide a secure environment where users can get answers to their symptom and usage questions. We think increasing the honesty of this dialogue will bring the customer experience to another level, " said Marburger.

Based on the advice given a user can reserve products for in-store pick up at their desired time. Sessions will be available via traditional chat, text, and video chat. "People are strapped for time and often don't have 20 minutes to spend with a budtender in store."

Customer service and communication are the main drivers behind the product. The team envisions it's technology adding value beyond the cannabis industry, specifically in e-commerce and healthcare.

"Evaluating products online is extremely time consuming and often doesn't answer the customer's specific question. People like to talk to people. Having your customers trolling pages of reviews to see if a particular product or service fits their needs isn't exactly a buying proposition," said Brandon Cook, VP of Design and co-founder.

By easing communication, the team hopes the product will generate sales by increasing customers' knowledge base to make informed decisions.

CannaBuild is specifically looking forward to launching 3 crossplatform (iOS + Android) apps by the end of the year. "The first app being our virtual budtending and the others are 007 top secret at the moment," said Marburger. The seed funding will be spent on "building out our product offering to a take to product stage. Will mostly spend directly on programming & design human capital."

Interested in the platform? They're looking to expand the staff this year. "Our team just relocated from Asheville and Bloomington to Denver to start and build. All tech/marketing jobs will be in greater Denver area, we could see a need for sales in developing markets in the future," noted Markburger.