Skip the weed store Local startup, SitBak, wants to be the DoorDash of cannabis delivery apps when it launches this summer By: Gabrielle Piché Posted: 7:00 PM CST Wednesday, Feb. 23, 2022

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This article was published 22/02/2022 (1036 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

You can get groceries, dinner, gym equipment, clothes and electronics delivered to your door — so why not cannabis?

That’s the question Dustin Roitelman and Connor Bowey asked themselves. Now, they and their team plan to launch SitBak, a recreational cannabis delivery service, this summer.

“There’s a lot of people who have ailments where they can’t go to the store, and a lot of people don’t want to (go)… whether it’s because of COVID or maybe they don’t want to be seen, because of the stigma,” Roitelman, 23, said.

He’s familiar with the shopping trips — he’d do them often for his grandma, who eased lung cancer-related pain through cannabis products but couldn’t search the shelves herself.

“I kept on thinking, ‘How can she get access to these products that are helping her without me being there?’” he said. “(She needs) a service that can get her her stuff on a timely basis.”

The same thought ran through Bowey’s head. The two have been friends since their freshman year at Shaftesbury High School.

“I just noticed (delivery) wasn’t really an option,” said Bowey, a business sports management major.

He toyed with the idea of a cannabis delivery app in the summer of 2020. After researching app development, he shared the idea with Roitelman.

By December 2020, things were rolling. The duo contacted lawyers, software developers and entrepreneurs in the cannabis industry.

“Our (chief strategy officer) Andrew Dunsmore is a close friend of a cannabis producer,” Roitelman said. “(The producer) laid out what we need to do if we want to get their business, and we kind of went from there.”

SitBak is open to partnering with all licensed cannabis retailers in Winnipeg as long as the two parties can agree to terms, Roitelman said. Any product legally available in stores can be sold through the app.

He wouldn’t share who’s already signed on; SitBak’s earliest unveiling date is in June.

The company is still testing its app, securing deals with local retailers and undergoing licensing procedures. When all is complete, a fleet of vehicles will be ready to bring cannabis right to your door, the co-founders say.

“We are very lucky that we have investors who believe in our company,” said Roitelman, a University of Winnipeg business student.

So far, it has cost upwards of $200,000 to get the app off the ground, he said. App creation and legal fees add up.

“It’s been a lot of fundraising through… angel investors,” Roitelman said.

But customers shouldn’t fear product markups, he said.

“I’ve heard the nightmare stories of trying to deal with (delivery apps) when you have to upcharge your items four, five dollars just to be on the app,” Roitelman said.

Shoppers will pay the product’s regular price, plus a delivery fee (most of which goes to the driver), a service fee and an optional tip.

SitBak will upcharge the service fee, but on average, the fee will be around $1.50, Roitelman said.

Much of the company’s revenue will come from business-to-business deals. SitBak will offer services that will boost stores’ online presences, which could translate to more sales for them, Roitelman said.

“It’s a ‘You grow, I grow’ partnership,” he said, adding SitBak has linked with Top Tree, a group specializing in social experience design, to create a strategy on bolstering online reach.

SitBak is akin to apps such as SkipTheDishes for delivery times, Roitelman said. Once someone makes a purchase, it will be on a driver’s queue to drop off.

“If (customers) are doing an outside-of-your-range order, there would be a larger fee, but we don’t make it unrealistic,” Roitelman said.

The service won’t be available outside the city limits yet, but the goal is to expand beyond the province and perhaps country, Roitelman said. Even so, the co-founders plan to focus on their home city.

“We want to be that… company that does help the community,” Bowey said.

The pair envisions sponsoring sports events and raising funds for local spaces, such as the River Heights arena Roitelman grew up in. They mentioned boosting small Winnipeg businesses financially.

“There’s no point of making a business if you’re not going to give back to the community,” Roitelman said. “We want to be that next generation of businesses that can do things right.”

Roitelman said there’s nothing like SitBak in Manitoba. However, he’s used Eaze, a cannabis delivery service based in California.

The app has gone through several iterations to meet the province’s laws, Roitelman said. Delivery apps can’t process payments for cannabis products, so users will be directed to cannabis shops’ websites — in a browser in Sitbak — when buying.

“The delivery arrangement and delivery fees can be done through the app,” a spokesperson for the Liquor, Gaming and Cannabis Authority of Manitoba clarified.

Once the order is complete, customers can track their purchase. SitBak has about 20 drivers and is hiring more. It has a team of four executives, including Roitelman, Bowey, Dunsmore and CEO Nathan Grant.

gabrielle.piche@winnipegfreepress.com