Inside Stiiizy, The World’s Best-Selling Weed Brand

Forbes

James Kim’s Los Angeles-based cannabis company grew from a scrappy startup in 2017 to a legal unicorn worth $1.5 billion. Allegations of black-market activity and lawsuits be damned—Stiiizy aims to be the Nike of cannabis.   Read the full story here: https://www.forbes.com/sites/willyakowicz/2025/04/18/inside-stiiizy-the-worlds-best-selling-weed-brand/   Subscribe to FORBES: https://www.youtube.com/user/Forbes?sub_confirmation=1   Fuel your success with Forbes. Gain unlimited access to premium journalism, including breaking news, groundbreaking in-depth reported stories, daily digests and more. Plus, members get a front-row seat at members-only events with leading thinkers and doers, access to premium video that can help you get ahead, an ad-light experience, early access to select products including NFT drops and more:   https://account.forbes.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=growth_non-sub_paid_subscribe_ytdescript   Stay Connected  Forbes newsletters: https://newsletters.editorial.forbes.com  Forbes on Facebook: http://fb.com/forbes  Forbes Video on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/forbes  Forbes Video on Instagram: http://instagram.com/forbes  More From Forbes:  http://forbes.com   Forbes covers the intersection of entrepreneurship, wealth, technology, business and lifestyle with a focus on people and success.

Transcript

00:00Today on Forbes, Inside Steezy, the world's best-selling weed brand.

00:07Inside a warehouse in downtown Los Angeles, next to a strip club,

00:11James Kim, the CEO and co-founder of the California-based cannabis brand Steezy,

00:17opens the door to one of his grow rooms, revealing 972 pot plants,

00:22thriving three-foot-tall beauties two weeks from harvest.

00:27Kim, who is 37 years old and has tattoos covering his arms,

00:31including a portrait of Ben Franklin and a rose made from a $100 bill, says,

00:36quote,

00:37These days, Steezy is bringing in plenty of Benjamins, a.k.a. a lot of money.

00:46The company, which was founded in 2017 and grows cannabis,

00:50manufactures vapes, pre-rolls, gummies, and flour,

00:53has nearly 50 branded dispensaries across California

00:57and generates more than $800 million a year in revenue.

01:02Steezy, which is also California's biggest cannabis retailer,

01:06is the best-selling weed brand in the country,

01:08according to sales data firm Headset.

01:11A vertically integrated powerhouse that now operates in seven states,

01:15one out of every eight cannabis products sold in the United States is a Steezy product.

01:20The company, which Forbes estimates to be valued at $1.5 billion,

01:26is privately held, secretive, and mysterious.

01:30Out of four original co-founders, only Kim would agree to speak,

01:34and he would not confirm the names of his partners.

01:37Founded in the gray market days before California legalized recreational marijuana,

01:42Steezy has also been dogged by lawsuits,

01:45rumors of illicit activity, all of which the company denies,

01:48and scandals.

01:50But none of that has changed the fact that in the $32 billion regulated cannabis industry,

01:56Steezy is the brand to beat.

01:59A floor below the grow room, Kim walks through his production facility,

02:03where dozens of employees in blue hairnets and face masks

02:06brush mini-blunts with a brown liquid

02:08and roll them into a half-pound of Keefe and put them into trays.

02:12In another room, a woman uses a machine to fill 100 Steezy vape pens at a time.

02:19By the end of the day, workers here will make nearly 100,000 of them.

02:24Every month, Steezy grows 15,000 pounds of weed

02:27and produces about $70 million worth, in retail sales,

02:31of cannabis products in California,

02:33not including how much it produces in Nevada, Arizona, Michigan, Missouri, Illinois, and New York,

02:41where Steezy launched in February

02:43and rose to be among the top 10 best-selling brands within a month.

02:48Kim walks out of his warehouse and jumps in the back of his black Cadillac Escalade,

02:52and his driver takes him a few minutes down the road to Steezy's downtown LA headquarters.

02:57The notorious B.I.G.'s song, Juicy, plays over the car speakers,

03:02while Kim tells Forbes,

03:03Kim, who sports an Audemars Piguet Royal Oak chronograph on his wrist,

03:14grew up humbly in Cerritos, California.

03:18He shared a bed with his older sister so his parents,

03:20both immigrants from South Korea,

03:22could rent out the other bedroom to help make ends meet.

03:25After selling weed and getting into trouble,

03:28he dropped out of high school his junior year.

03:30In 2006, he joined the army and later did a tour in Baghdad.

03:35Years after returning home,

03:37he launched Kilo, a nicotine vape juice brand,

03:40with a high school buddy.

03:42They hit pay dirt.

03:43Kilo had $6 million in revenue the first year,

03:46$12 million the second,

03:48and $20 million the third.

03:50In 2016, a different high school friend

03:53who was working in the medical marijuana space

03:55told him that they should start a weed brand

03:57and get ready for California's recreational market,

04:00which was set to launch in 2018.

04:03Kim mapped out the brand and came up with the name Steezy,

04:06blending the skate slang,

04:07steez,

04:08and the word,

04:09easy.

04:10He sank his life savings,

04:11a couple million dollars into the brand,

04:14and with partners who seeded the company,

04:16Steezy was first born as a vape brand.

04:19Within a year,

04:20Steezy built a cultivation site,

04:22expanded into flower,

04:23edibles,

04:24and pre-rolls,

04:25and by August 2019,

04:26Steezy opened its first store.

04:29For full coverage,

04:31check out Will Yakowitz's piece

04:32on Forbes.com.

04:35This is Kieran Meadows from Forbes.

04:38Thanks for tuning in.

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