Ep 50 - Blowing...glass for Cannabis. An interview w/ Chris Piazza, Co-founder/CEO, CannaDevices.

CannaDevices is an American handcrafted glass and accessory distributor (wholesale only) specializing in serving cannabis dispensaries.  We got a chance at MJBizCon 2021 to interview Chris Piazza, Co-founder & CEO of CannaDevices.  Chris talks about setting the standard for glass blowing.

CannaDevices was founded by Robert Bank and Chris Piazza to serve the fast-growing cannabis industry in the United States.  Both local glassblowers of the Chicago suburbs with over 30 years of glass blowing experience.  Starting in 2008 - Chris began in the cannabis industry as a glass blower - selling his pipes at head shops and concerts in Colorado.

CannaDevices now works with over 40 different glass blowers around the US, with that number growing day by day. Since the inception, Chris has managed the growth of this new company, which services many of the largest dispensaries in the US, all while staying true to his roots in sourcing glass from artists throughout the country, creating consistent work and income for them and their families.  In addition to his position of Founder/CEO for CannaDevices, Chris is a founding member and Chairman of the non-profit, Startup Syndicate, created to help new entrepreneurs get access to tools and capital for their businesses.

Connect with Chris:
Website - https://cannadevices.com/
Instagram - @CannaDevices
LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrispiazzail/

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Transcript

Ronjini Joshua: 0:05

I was really, really excited to do this interview with this gentleman, Chris Piazza co founder and CEO of Kenna devices, it was really cool to talk about how they created their custom hand Glass Blown pipes and devices, he gave us some samples for us to kind of give away to you guys as well. So check on our Instagram to make sure you join that contest to get some of these but these are all hand glassblowing talks about the glassblowing industry, how he got into it, and then how he transitioned into cannabis and how his mind for business open this gateway for artists to have a platform to create really cool things. So join us in this interview, and I hope you enjoy it as much as we did. Hello, we're here with Chris Piazza. He is the CEO and co founder, co founder of Canada devices. It's been a long day of interviews. Hi, Chris. It's nice to have you. Thank you. Thank you so much for having me. Yeah. And I'd love to hear a little bit more about what you guys are doing here at mjbizcon. This week.

Chris Piazza: 1:07

Sounds good. Sounds good. You know, we were here as bending over can devices were vending American made glass. And we're the only booth in the show. That's actually all 100% truly American made. Oh, yeah. And the glass side of things. Yeah. So glass pipes.

Ronjini Joshua: 1:23

That's very cool. Yeah. So well, like what was your most kind of anticipatory moment of this week? I know a lot of people have been excited to come here and get out and get into the industry and get to network again. So what is your like Moore's most anticipated thing? Oh, man,

Chris Piazza: 1:39

well, this week, it was. It was just, we were not expecting to do this. And then just a couple months ago, we sort of, alright, let's just do it. And so I think it was when we finally got the palette together. Uh huh. And we packed everything up, and then it left. And we're like, wow, this is really gonna happen. We're gonna see all these people and getting to see everybody that I've been talking to on Zoom. Honestly, one of one of our purchasers that we've been working with for a couple years, we saw each other and she's like, Chris, I'm like, and I read her tag, like, ran and like, she just ran up and we just gave each other a huge hug. I was just like, it's amazing. It's like seeing lost relatives or something. First time getting to meet people in person after all this time. Yeah. Special. I feel

Ronjini Joshua: 2:26

like also like, because we all the pandemic was worldwide. And so it's like an emotional attachment to people that have also experienced it. It's like a whole different thing.

Chris Piazza: 2:36

It is incredible. It's incredible. It makes it so much. You know, I don't know if it's more special, but it's definitely a it's a unique special.

Ronjini Joshua: 2:44

Yeah, absolutely. So tell us a little bit about Canada devices and tell us about like, you know, actually, let's sorry, go back. No problem, your journey in the cannabis industry. I'd love to kind of start there. How did you get into cannabis? What was your first experience? How did you know you wanted to work in?

Chris Piazza: 3:01

Okay, so, three much this is? I can Alright, no problem. Honestly, I got introduced to cannabis when I was a pretty pretty young, you know, 13, something like that. So I definitely had that. Before all this wonderful stuff that's going on these days. You know, I dabbled. Honestly, I was. I was 15 when the first time I saw a pipe. And this kid came from a phish concert. And he had you know, the, you know, the big jackets were like all the watches. Yeah, he came to school with a jacket. And he opened it was all these pipes. And I was like, What is this? Yeah. And he showed me and it's color changing. And this was back, you know, probably 2001. So still more of an old school. Yeah, I saw the pipe for the first time and I bought one right there with the money I shouldn't have spent and was like, I want to do this sometime. And then later on, I got to start doing that. So it started really young and had my own little businesses before having a legitimate business and then got a legitimate business starting with glassblowing

Ronjini Joshua: 4:09

oh, wait a minute. Did you say you had your little business? Oh, no, what I was talking Oh,

Chris Piazza: 4:13

yeah. You know, I think a few of us did that guy. So then I got into blogging last in 2008. The opportunity to be an apprentice under Roman glass. He's find him on Instagram. He was the most amazing teacher and he's an amazing artist.

Ronjini Joshua: 4:40

So it was this blowing glass like directly in relation to cannabis and like, Okay, so that's what made you get into it. Yes. Okay.

Chris Piazza: 4:48

Exactly. I was actually living in Colorado and I was doing some doing seasonal work working at the resorts just sort of nomadic. Yeah. And this friend that I had, we were at least one was turned it was ending. And they were like, well, you love glass. Why don't you try it? And so I put a post before Facebook or any of that stuff on like a real old school forum. And within 24 hours, I got a response from this gentleman Tyrrell, and he's like, Hey, why don't you come down? Meet me. And let's see what you did what see what you think.

Ronjini Joshua: 5:19

Yeah. What does an apprenticeship entail? I mean, in this industry,

Chris Piazza: 5:24

so I there was a, there was a feat, you know, I had to pay a monthly rent. And for lessons, I also gave a small percentage of what I sold as sort of like a royalty, you know, a teacher, okay. But he provided me with work. And so I didn't actually have to go out and look for, for sales or anything at that time. I was very fortunate. Oh, so you

Ronjini Joshua: 5:46

were working? It was like, almost like a work study? Sort of?

Chris Piazza: 5:50

Yes, exactly. He would teach me a style, I would make it and then he would sell it to his customers. Okay. And so that was how I was able to apprentice under him. Yeah,

Ronjini Joshua: 5:59

that's cool. Yeah. How long does it take to do a glass blowing glass apprenticeship?

Chris Piazza: 6:04

So I can get somebody? I actually had a school at one point I can get to I can get somebody making sellable goods within a couple of weeks. Okay, now we're talking about actually, I left them over on the table, those little pipes, okay. I can get somebody can you grab the pipe? Thank you. Thank you. So I can get somebody making something really basic like this? Pretty early. Okay. And. But then to master it takes for lifetime.

Ronjini Joshua: 6:32

A lifetime. You know, that's like a commercial. I don't want to

Chris Piazza: 6:36

do that. No problem. It just sits. Perfect. Just like oh, okay, perfect.

Ronjini Joshua: 6:39

Yep. Very cool.

Chris Piazza: 6:42

Yeah, so those are pretty. Those are pretty simple, but I can get somebody actually making money pretty quickly. Okay, but to really start to actually make artistic glass it takes years. What is

Ronjini Joshua: 6:51

the most difficult thing you've made so far?

Chris Piazza: 6:55

I was actually just talking to a gentleman earlier today I made a trophy. Not sure if anybody would know Wolf of Wall Street on Twitter. Made a trophy for a cannabis Super Bowl thing for the stock market. Fun little thing, but it was a piece about this big had a pot leaf about this big couple marbles with some writing in it. Yeah, that was probably the most elaborate thing.

Ronjini Joshua: 7:20

That's cool. So you can do this at your house.

Chris Piazza: 7:22

So I have had a studio for you were teaching. Okay, so I actually had a studio afterwards. So that was while I was in Colorado. I moved back to Illinois to be closer to family and bought a house. I was doing scientific last for a little while. That's a whole nother story. But I need to get into that. Scientific making x ray tubes for machines and working for the DOD. Cool. Yeah. Interesting. Some interesting. Wow. Okay. Yeah, I can talk about most of the stuff that I did. Yeah. Oh, my God. So then I I ended up that wasn't really my thing. I didn't want to be in that space. I was nice. It was a nice paycheck, bought a house. And then I went back on my own and started studio brought some guys in network with me in there. And so that was where I was working out of for a long time. I worked out of there for about eight years. Okay. Yeah.

Ronjini Joshua: 8:09

Okay. And then what got you to the point where you wanted to make candidate bases. So

Chris Piazza: 8:14

that's exactly where we're at right there. Excuse me. So, my partner, Robert bank, he had, he had a bunch of headshots, and then moved into cannabis wholesale, and ended up getting a lot of really amazing relationships. And we saw a need for glass. In the dispensaries. There was a lot of gas station glass and really inexpensive, quite honestly, poor quality products that had paint rather than actual glass to make color and no, but paint and a lighter. They don't go good together. You're inhaling more than just cannabis. Okay. Right. So that's chemicals. Yeah, it's not healthy. Yeah. So he ended up coming to me and asking if I'd be interested in starting canned devices with him. And I said, you know, what,

Ronjini Joshua: 8:59

I would love to Yes, remember the guy with a jacket.

Chris Piazza: 9:04

You know, so I was I was fully supporting myself as an artist, but I have found that I'm, I feel like I hurt people's feelings when I say this. But I am more interested in business than I am necessarily as an artist. And this was kind of a coming of age type of experience for me to realize that I am more about spreadsheets, SOPs, building a business. And then I realized, Bob and I realized that we can really do a lot of good for artists, right.

Ronjini Joshua: 9:36

So because you know about the skill, you've developed that, but you just don't want to do it anymore. Exactly. Yeah.

Chris Piazza: 9:41

And then I can do things that all the artists don't want to do. Right. I mean, how many artists you know want to work on spreadsheet?

Ronjini Joshua: 9:46

I doubt it. Yeah, you know, I don't want to work on

Ben Michaels: 9:51

a 5050 blessing and curse where you can't do either. 100% right. So if you can lean more one way that's cool that you chose exactly. I

Chris Piazza: 9:59

still Good to have my foot in the artistic stuff to write. And it's cool to get to work with these artists that sort of don't have quite a framework to really be like a business. So I can actually start helping them to create a better production strategies and increase their capacity and be able to support their families even better than they could on their own. Do the

Ronjini Joshua: 10:24

artists sell through you? Or do they sell on their own,

Chris Piazza: 10:28

so we actually buy from them. So we send out we any artist that comes on with us, it has the opportunity to be completely full time. And they literally get a weekly po for weeks at a time, every two weeks. So they always have between six and two POs that they're consistently working on. And then I can work with these artists to explain to them that. Okay, so now you know that you're getting this much work of this style for six weeks. Why don't we buy products in bulk, so you can get a discount on your raw materials. Okay, so now their cost of goods is going down while we're paying them the same amount. It's they're actually making more money. Yeah. And so that's why it's just a wonderful opportunity to be able to help them with their business.

Ronjini Joshua: 11:07

So all of these are like, like custom. They're almost they're basically custom made. Yeah, these are all individually made. They're not processed,

Chris Piazza: 11:16

right. They're all handmade by individual artists, we have a product line that we so we have one thing that's called a fruit spoon, this is this is called the hitter. So we have this hitter. And we need 10s of 1000s of them. So we have multiple artists making the same thing. They have a spec, it's supposed to be three and a half inches with 12 mil tubing with a dot, you know, sometimes they're 3.6 inches or 3.4 inches, but that's the beauty of it. Right? It's handmade. So that's what we're offering you different products.

Ronjini Joshua: 11:47

They come in different colors.

Chris Piazza: 11:48

We do have some color options. Yeah. For the branded ones. We only do clear,

Ronjini Joshua: 11:53

obviously, for so for color, how do you make glass a different color the right way.

Chris Piazza: 11:58

So there's actually any color that we put into the glass is actual glass, rods of color. Okay, so it's actually it's all glass is half some of it happens to be colored. So it happens to be clear. Okay, so we actually have a color rod that you'll coat on top of the glass. Oh, I see. And it'll be or on the inside, we'll have crushed glass and you melt it into the inside. And then it's that's how you get the color like a

Ronjini Joshua: 12:25

cool color. That's really interesting. So okay, so these guys are that's really cool. I like like this, like artists marketplace. I mean, we're seeing a lot of people who want to do more sustainable and more like, kind of not giving back but just like a collaborative approach to creating a business. And I think this is really cool, because you are getting like people off the ground. Right? Appreciate it. So it's a very cool thing. So what kind of designs do you tell me a little bit more about like the kind of different designs that you guys have.

Chris Piazza: 12:54

So we really stick with the basics honestly, because we are dispensary facing, we are really trying to create a streamline set of products that hit all of the needs. So there you have your spoon, you have your Chilam steamroller hitters, basic bomb, tube, and a basic rig. And we really want just a really basic line. Now they're all creative, and they're all artistic. But we don't need to get into the really elaborate multi chamber, blah, blah, blah stuff, because honestly, dispensaries are not looking for that they want something that's affordable, they want something that can be picked up very quickly and easily. And honestly, some of that stuff can get pretty confusing to you. And we were talking about new patients that are just getting started smoking cannabis. Exactly. So we've really we really want to focus on that product that's geared towards dispensaries. Yeah, yeah. So that's our product. So

Ronjini Joshua: 13:51

this is your first year exhibiting at mjbizcon I'm like, what is good is kind of like the goal of this show for you guys. And this is a very unique space. So like how do you compete with like, kind of the other guys I guess, whatever that might be entail?

Chris Piazza: 14:09

No problem. As far as our expectations, you know, I've had I've ran the gamut from not having any to having let's do a year's worth of sales in three days, you know, and I honestly I'm trying not to have any expectation just experience and meet as many wonderful people as we can. Yeah, seeing all these, these people that we know digitally in person. But as far as the competition side, honestly, what we there are other glass distributors that focus on headshops and smoke shops. But we are the only American glass distributor working with dispensaries as our main focus. Yeah. And so our way of keeping the competition is we want the products on the dispensary shelf. Once it's there, it speaks for itself. We've had one dispensary that started with us. And they said, you know, we don't really sell much glass, we don't sell much glass and they were doing import products. They we finally after six months, got them to do a$500 order in each of their stores. And all of a sudden their glass was selling Go figure, you have a quality product and people buy it, you know. So that's sort of what happened. And now they are buying in the 10s of 1000s every month, you know, and so it's really just as long as we can get it in the door, then it takes care

Ronjini Joshua: 15:32

of itself. So I'm not a smoker, no shoes, other avenues, no problem. Like what is the difference between smoking with glass and something that can made even versus anything like any other opportunity, like, you know,

Chris Piazza: 15:46

it's actually kind of funny, I've had that conversation three or four times today, okay, of course. So what makes glass special is, for one, it does not have any other flavor or anything like that doesn't have any. So when you are heating up metal, you can get that metal tangy flavor, you know exactly what even though you don't smoke, you already know what it was. So glass does not do that. And glass is also pretty much non porous, so you can easily clean it. The main thing is that flavor thing, it just it really gives the true flavor of the cannabis. So especially with the quality products that are being produced these days, you can actually get the true taste of it is something that a lot of cultivators are actually grabbing these from us with their brand on them so that they can actually hand it with a this is our new top shelf stuff. Try here's a clean pipe to try it. You know. And so that's really where glass really stands part even joints, you know, you have flavor of paper. You know, there's a lot of great joints that are out there papers out there these days, but you're still getting something else. This is how you can get the truest flavor of the cannabis as a whole.

Ben Michaels: 16:53

In glasses, glass, right? There isn't like one that could be you know, more poisonous or like ones that can make it?

Ronjini Joshua: 17:00

Well, unless there's the paint on there. Right?

Ben Michaels: 17:02

The glass is less right.

Chris Piazza: 17:04

So for the most part, I borosilicate glass is a scientific grade glass. That's what they use. And yeah, as far as those products go, there's glass as glass. Definitely, definitely.

Ben Michaels: 17:15

But then what link? Because I'm totally like, I mean, I remember I bought I recently bought this, this pipe and I got it because I knew it was gonna change colors, and it's finally changing come nice. Is that just like a glass thing? Or is that something that the way that the glass was, was treated or

Chris Piazza: 17:31

so how that's done is it's called fuming. So you actually take and this sounds a little strange, but you actually take metal, so silver or gold, you put that in the torch, and you get that to 3000 degrees. And so it goes on we're gonna have a little science solid to liquid to gas gaseous state, right, so we actually turn that few that silver or gold into gas, it attaches to the glass, we then heat the glass so that it bakes into the glass and won't come out or be on the surface anymore. So that their way that way it's not getting off gas again and now we're talking 3000 degrees a litre is 600 so it just can't do it. But then that creates a fume and a haze. And then after it cools and you smoke out of it, the the the the black from the cannabis on the back of it is what is creating that appearance like the chemical

Ronjini Joshua: 18:28

like reaction almost is not a chemical it's actually just a

Ben Michaels: 18:32

border it's just a coating of the pipe enough that's your reward. Yes,

Chris Piazza: 18:37

I love it. So I'll give you a little more so silver creates your blues and gold creates your pinks greens and you know purple ishes color so you'll know if it's gold humor silver fume based on what color comes up

Ben Michaels: 18:52

well okay, and I don't want to go I want to get more into like everything else with

Chris Piazza: 18:57

no problem.

Ben Michaels: 18:58

So like gold and silver is like worth a lot of money right? So like how much like gold and silver is

Chris Piazza: 19:04

like the gall like a couple pounds of gold for five. That's why they're so expensive. So now we're honestly using tiny, tiny tiny pieces, like like so a gram of gold is about this big. I can probably do couple 1000 pipes. So we're talking about tiny amounts, but don't tell anybody that part you know, like it's lots we

Ronjini Joshua: 19:26

have a lot a lot you're not documented on video or no no, no, no. So like so then when it becomes a fume do you have to like encapsulate that fume somewhere and then you have is like a few would just, you know,

Chris Piazza: 19:41

so we have ventilation. Okay, so that's what keeps the artists safe. So we have ventilation that sucks all that away from the artist. Then once it's on the glass, you then keep the keep the glass in the torch so that glass becomes molten when it's hot right so the the fumes sinks into the glass just a little bit And so then that way it won't come out of the class anymore.

Ronjini Joshua: 20:03

But like, how do you? How do you keep the fumes in like a certain spot,

Chris Piazza: 20:09

you just coat the whole thing most of the time. There's some artists that get really fancy, where they'll do fume in certain areas. And how you do that as you get the glass hot. First, you need the glass to be hot for it to accept the fume to touch it. Oh, so

Ronjini Joshua: 20:23

it's like you're like, Yeah, dabbing it. And

Chris Piazza: 20:25

so some of these artists like they get really specific or they'll just put a little bit of fume here and then double the amount here and get some crazy patterns I mean, we're talking true are like how that word that yeah, that's incredible.

Ben Michaels: 20:37

That's crazy. Well, you're you're finding that you know, this this artwork that used to sell big in the in all the head shops is kind of starting to maybe go away a little bit where where you're more like surgical and top quality, the clear glass that is, you know, get the reason of just smoking the really good herb that's selling better now in the dispensary.

Chris Piazza: 21:03

So we do have some that yes, we do have some products that we have a lot of products that have color and things like that, what our focus is on price point. So we want nothing to be as far as a hand pipe over $50 retail. head shops are where you're going to still and I and I hope that never stops head shops over you're going to find your elaborate pieces of art that are 1000s of dollars. You know, we have one pipe that actually sold for a million dollars what we broke the seven figures in Austin, you know, amazed so it's a beaut I just got tingles. Yeah, it's incredible.

Ronjini Joshua: 21:37

Send us a picture of that. Yeah,

Chris Piazza: 21:39

I will. So yeah, we're getting so the head shops are where all of that still going on. But for the dispensaries that's not what they're interested in.

Ben Michaels: 21:47

Yeah, that's that's very interesting. And just every dispensary puts their logo then on that glass like that's what Well, I

Ronjini Joshua: 21:57

think for these ones, right, but like, no, not on

Chris Piazza: 21:59

the artistic stuff. No. Oh, okay.

Ronjini Joshua: 22:01

Yeah, yeah, cuz that would be horrible.

Ben Michaels: 22:03

But well, the ones that like so because like they're starting to buy those pieces now to put the actual dispensary itself. So they're not branding Vestas, we

Chris Piazza: 22:11

have a, we have a very, we have a fine line of products that we can brand. We have a we have a basic hand pipe chillum steamroller nectar straw, joint holder, and hitter. And they're all clear. So we have this line of products that we can bring branding says exactly. And then we have an artistic line that we can that are just, that's where there's a there's a big, there's a loose sometimes a little bit of variance between the products. But that's where you have your colors and things like that. So some dispensaries want to have that because they have that kind of old school down home feel they want to have that art and things. Then there's other dispensers who really want to stay with like the medical side, and they want the they need to have a glass pipe because that's how it's consumed. And they don't want to have the headshot the Yeah, feel right. And so that's where they those are the ones that exclusively purchased the branded stuff.

Ronjini Joshua: 23:06

So I wanted to kind of a little bit go back to you were talking about working with artists and kind of cultivating them, which I think is really interesting. Because in the direction that cannabis is going as it gets more commercialized. Like you know, you see fashion brands, and like even like, I'm going to use target, it's not a good example. But target like, you know, partnering with designers to make a certain line or like, you know, Nike partnering with an athlete to make a certain type of shoe. Can you see this being like something like that, where you guys are partnering with like, really cool brands, or even designers to design something like kind of cool and different.

Chris Piazza: 23:43

That would be where we'd go with the branded stuff. Yes, we can actually do any design on this. So we could actually get really creative with, with imagery and things like that. It's a screenprint process. But we could really, we could do any brand on here. We were talking to some brands during the day today that are not dispensaries, but they want to have a custom piece of glass. The problem with custom glass making it as like different shapes, is that price tag goes through the roof share very quickly, custom right and impossible to do at scale. Right, because now you have one artist that's able to do it. But it's really elaborate. So they can only do two a day limited edition. And we can we are definitely looking at doing collaborations with high bigger name glass artists. And then what those would be more for is like the corporate gifting side of Yeah, industry, right. So the CEO wants to give his VP or the VP you know, so some direction of that. That's where we can see an opportunity for those higher priced and unique options.

Ronjini Joshua: 24:47

Yeah, I mean, I feel like there's so many really cool things that I'm thinking in my mind of like translating from, you know, just the consumer regular consumer world of like consumer products, where you can do this and it's got this like nice art variant to it, but then also mix with the whole cannabis industry. So it's like, very different.

Chris Piazza: 25:05

Oh, yeah, definitely, definitely. We did a collaborative hitter like this with with a partner company that we were working on, where we had both of our names on it. Okay. Oh, and, and so we could do things like that. The tricky part about glass is it is so unique that making things to costume, it just the scalability, and we, you know, like I said, I'm the spreadsheets guy and business guy. And so I'm making sure that we can stay on on the scalability side, because industry is growing so fast and and the corporatization and everything, what we're offering is that we're still keeping those artists in the game, you know, and so while we're working with these publicly traded companies that are worth, whatever, one of our companies probably gonna do a billion dollars this year, that that billion dollar company is working with this artist that's working out of their garage,

Ronjini Joshua: 25:58

like he would never, never would have gotten connected. So I mean, scalability at this point is a good question. Like, how does an artist one, I'm sure you have multiple artists working on that, but like, I mean, How scalable is custom glass?

Chris Piazza: 26:15

So handblown? I guess it's so every company has a hurdle, right? Yeah, this is that's our hurdle. Yeah. And we are the right people for the job though. Because we like we say, my partner and I have combined 30 years of experience, we, I was sort of known as a very high volume production artist. Okay, so I've got that kind of skill down. And I while I wasn't known by the consumer, other artists knew who I was because I was producing so much. And so you were kind of a big deal. No, I don't want to go there. I want to go there. That's what I caught other artists attention, because it was like, how did you post this many times on Facebook in the last couple of weeks? Like, how could you actually make that much stuff? Right? So because I was there, and I've, you know, this industry, it depends it. I wish all the luck in the world for the people that have been growing for six months to make a name for themselves, but the ones that have been growing for 20 years. They're the ones that know how things are done. And also people want to work with them, right? Yeah. And so we're those people out of the glass side. So we have, we can very easily reach out not easily, it's still difficult. But we can really reach out to a very deep pool of artists, and we can bring them in now, a lot of artists aren't ready for this. So out of 10 or 20 artists that we bring on for an opportunity, we see maybe two to five that actually are really interested in doing high volume production, because they're artists too, right. And so some of them want to do the art exam. Yeah, they might think they want to do this. And then they find out it's not really their thing. Yeah, too much pressure. Right. Exactly. But so the scalability side, it's it's definitely our burden, but we have an incredible network of, you know, probably 15 20,000 artists that we're slowly working through and bringing on

Ronjini Joshua: 28:08

Okay, I can't remember if I asked this question, excuse me. I can't I feel like I did. But I can't remember. How long does it take to make this?

Chris Piazza: 28:16

I can't tell you 10 years of experience?

Ronjini Joshua: 28:22

And 20 pounds of gold? Yeah.

Chris Piazza: 28:26

You know, honestly, these are these you can make probably all depends on the artist, right? Yeah, some artists can do about 100. Some people can do up to 200 in a day, okay. And but the material costs on these are, you know, about 15 cents a unit. So they're looking at, you know,$30 in material. So Right. At this type of a product, the margins for them are kind of thing, so they like to do a lot of them.

Ronjini Joshua: 28:56

So, um, do you have a question?

Ben Michaels: 28:59

Well, I was just gonna ask. So we know it's all glass. And we know that that personal custom, but like, are these so the logo part itself? So like these particular ones out here? Is that something that's like mass produces it? Or is that still glass? Is that still part of the art?

Ronjini Joshua: 29:16

I think it's he said screen printing.

Chris Piazza: 29:17

So it's, so that's actually a ceramic decal, so it's actually ceramic ink. Oh, and we have to have to the pipe is done. We then put the decal by hand onto the pipe, and then it has to dry and we bake it in a kiln at 1200 degrees. And that actually melds with the glass. And so this is actually ceramics. I'll do it for the camera. You can't scratch this off. When you smoke it, it is not a sticker. So it's not going to smolder. There are some people that are putting these out with a sticker. And I mean, it's just a shame vinyl sticker. Yeah. And what is the later do new vinyl sticker nowadays? Yeah, yeah, you don't smoke now. Do that.

Ronjini Joshua: 30:02

Exactly. Very smart.

Chris Piazza: 30:06

It's just a shame some people what they're doing what they're getting, like what they're trying to do here. It's just it's, it's, you know, it's all right. Yeah. All right, exactly.

Ben Michaels: 30:13

Yeah. I've gone through a lot of children's and some of them like, nothing was on that shouldn't be smoking. I was like asking like, I mean, maybe. So that sounds like it's like a something maybe the other people cut corners on how to actually adds a lot of value, you know, to what you

Chris Piazza: 30:28

appreciate. Appreciate that. Yeah, we are not gonna we're not going to cut any corners. We started in the medical market. Yeah. And that's what we are trying to focus on. We want it to be medical grade. I mean, you know, I would like to there's an association out there that is talking about having standards for different parts of the industry. And I'm proposing right now to have a smoking device standard for the industry. And we don't have that. Yeah, nobody's thinking about this right now. Right. And so that's what we that's our main thing is, our main thing is safety and health, and also the artists. And if we can, you know, make something in between there. That'd be great. Just another good thing. Yeah, exactly. Exactly.

Ronjini Joshua: 31:11

Yeah. So is there. Is there anything we didn't touch on that you might want to talk about?

Chris Piazza: 31:15

You know, I don't think so. I think we did a wonderful job on Yeah, I

Ronjini Joshua: 31:18

mean, obviously, your family thank you so much for joining us. These are awesome. We're gonna do a giveaway. So if you're watching this on YouTube, look at our Instagram and if you're listening to this, then also look at our Instagram. But we'll definitely do a giveaway of gays. These are pretty cool. We have a couple of you can do a few just a few. Yeah. So we'll we'll get them out to you guys. Thank you so much. Cool.

Chris Piazza: 31:46

Awesome. Thank you really appreciate the opportunity.

Ronjini Joshua: 31:49

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