Grower Stories #86: Jake Catt

Cannabis for a New Modern Consumer: An Interview With Jake Catt, CEO and Co-Founder of Cannabis Vape Brand Dompen 

Founded on a commitment to transparency, quality products, and a mission to modernize and destigmatize cannabis for the modern-day consumer, Dompen is a cannabis vape company with a higher mission. That’s why AskGrowers sat down with Jake Catt, a co-founder and CEO of ultra-modern cannabis lifestyle brand Dompen, about their origins, their products, and the future of the legal cannabis industry overall. #growerstories

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In addition to being an entrepreneur, I am an artist, so I try to approach our brand development and business in an artistic way. Whether I’m designing vape pens or directing music videos, I’m driven by the same love of creating things. That (and some good cold brew!) is what gets me up in the morning.

That’s also why I was originally drawn to cannabis. I believe that cannabis is a powerful creative stimulant, which has become more and more necessary in a world of exponential growth in both creativity-enabling platforms and creativity-disabling platforms. In other words, it’s easier now than ever to create, but also easier to just watch Netflix or passively scroll Instagram.

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Tia (AskGrowers) : How did you start Dompen? Tell us your origin story!

Jake Catt : One of my co-founders is a friend from high school who was in college in Colorado when cannabis was legalized for adult use. At the time, he was experimenting with flavored vape juice and cannabis vaping and began mixing the two to create a more discrete cannabis vape. He dropped out of college to pursue that product at around the same time that I was dropping out of college to pursue the development of a separate non-cannabis product. Reconnecting in our hometown, Washington, DC, I immediately fell in love with his initial prototype. I decided to join him and move out to Los Angeles to launch the business.

We first moved to LA in early 2015, so none of the MAUCRSA laws were in effect and everything was very loose, to say the least. We operated as a collective (a closed-loop non-profit with members), for several years until 2018 when California went recreational.

At the time of our launch, we were the first all-in-one vape on the market, and also one of the first distillate vapes. That allowed us to pretty quickly establish a significant retail penetration in SoCal. Since then, we’ve expanded to Nevada and Florida, released high-CBD products, live resin, cartridges, and we have several new brands and collaborations set for launch this year. Additionally, we are set to launch in a few new states this summer.

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Tia : How does your brand differ from many others on the market?

Jake : We have always been focused on discretion and ease of use, which is why our pen comes all-in-one, without buttons, and our strain profiles have stayed consistent. Our motto is “Pick up. Inhale. Enjoy.” which clearly explains our mission. To make a cannabis consumption process that is as seamless as possible.

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Tia : Is Dompen a sustainable brand? If so, what do you do to maintain it?

Jake : We were actually one of the first brands to launch a vape recycling program in California. Our program accepts all brands–not just Dompen–– and so far we have recycled over 500 lbs of vapes.

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Tia : According to your website, you guys do everything on your own, without any help from the third-party vendors, right?

Jake : We do not grow in-house. Our specialty is in manufacturing concentrates. For certain extractions, we work with third-party vendors but only with a few close partners that we have been working with for years. We also co-pack jarred flower, pre-rolls, vapes, and dabbable concentrates for other brands.

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Tia : Share with us your extracting methods. Do they differ somehow in approaches from others brand extracting methods?

Jake : All of our live resin products are created via hydrocarbon extraction. To avoid crystallization, the extracts go through a specific decarboxylation process to create a vape-able concentrate.

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Tia : How can the consumer be sure he’s buying the pure, toxin-free products?

Jake : Every cannabis vape sold legally in California has to go through stringent testing for toxins, additives, etc. So the first step is to only buy legal products. Secondly, a good step is to purchase products that include links or QR codes to COAs and additional information. That’s what we do, and it just adds another level of transparency.

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Tia : What’s your personal consumption routine? What are the top three products that you’re personally using?

Jake : I try to support the third-party brands we work with. One of our close partners is Seed Junky, a top genetics brand, and they produce some incredible flower. Additionally, a premium flower brand called Clarity. They are also women-owned and we feel it is important to support them in such a male-dominated industry. And obviously, I use our in-house Dompen products.

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Tia : Your top strains to smoke? Why?

Jake : Seed Junky’s Purple Push Pop is a potent Indica and great for nighttime use. Also, the Banana Kush from our new limited-batch Dompen collaboration with a farm called Sonoma Hills Farm—it’s a super flavorful, fruity strain.

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Tia : If you could smoke with anyone in this world, dead or alive, who would that be and why?

Jake : Probably Leonardo Da Vinci. I don’t feel like I have to do much explaining here.

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Tia : Are there any cannabis brands in your state (or in the USA) that you appreciate and follow? If so, give them a shout-out here!

Jake : I really appreciate and follow a brand called Sundae School that we are rolling out a collaboration with later this summer. They have a super unique aesthetic and they are also a streetwear brand, which I think is really cool and definitely rarer in the cannabis space than it should be. Check them out!

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Tia : If you weren’t working in the cannabis industry, what do you think your job would be? What industry would you be focused on instead?

Jake : I am really drawn to fringe industries, or industries that have been unfairly stigmatized, but have incredible potential for positive social impact once mainstreamed like cannabis. It’s been a powerful experience participating in the cannabis legalization movement. I could see myself getting involved in other early-stage industries like psychedelics, CRISPR and gene-editing technologies, and artificial intelligence.

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Tia : Your prediction on the cannabis industry for the next five to ten years?

Jake : I think cannabis will be legalized federally within the next couple of years. Hopefully, the SAFE Banking act will pass later this year, which would open up the floodgates to mainstream venture capitalists and banks. Once that happens, a ton of capital should pour into the space. That would result in higher valuations, and plenty of capital for brands and retailers to subsidize the cost of their products, and consequently offer competitive pricing to the black market. This, in addition to new jurisdictions opening up to cannabis and loosening their regulations, would result in massive market growth. I am excited to see so many new states incorporate social equity measures into their laws. That will be very important in undoing the harms done by the war on drugs. Legalization should also mean a more equitable marketplace.

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Tia : Do you plan to implement something new to the brand’s product line? If yes, what would that might be?

Jake : Yes! We have a lot of stuff in the pipeline. We have updated hardware that we’re rolling out next month. We’re calling our new pen model the Dompen 3. Lastly, we are rolling out several collaborations with other brands in the industry; growers, streetwear brands, geneticists, and retailers. A lot to look forward to!

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You can follow Dompen at:

Twitter

Instagram

LinkedIn

Thank you so much, Dompen team, for taking the time to do the interview. To learn more about them, head on over to their website.