Strainprint
“Of course, my experience with cannabis led me to where I am with Strainprint today,” says Andrew Muroff, CEO of Strainprint Technologies Inc.
Now Muroff is leading the largest longitudinal cannabis study in North America. Muroff has found the perfect union between cannabis, his experience, and what’s possible when you’re a bona fide “data nerd”.
Blending Tech and Cannabis
“I was a recreational cannabis user in my teens and all through my MBA and Law School,” Muroff describes, later going on to spend 20 years leading public and private tech companies where he says he “cut my teeth” in business through dot-com boom, where he “lived through the bust” as he describes it.
Looking for the next promising business opportunity, he recognized cannabis as a similar opportunity and trajectory to the tech industry of the mid-1990s. “I felt confident in the therapeutic promise of cannabis because of my experience with it,” says Muroff.
In 2015, he turned to cannabis when he was seeking alternatives to traditional anti-inflammatories (like Advil) to treat the pain from arthritis. “I was surprised at how effective high CBD cannabis was, without the impairment.” Muroff also suffered back to back sport-related concussions due to his active lifestyle, where cannabis supported his recovery. It’s safe to say, Muroff, was fully convinced that cannabis was his next great opportunity.
It took a few years of work in the space for him and his business partner, David Berg, to find the right niche that would leverage their combined 40+ years experience in tech and business. “It became very clear when our other co-founder and friend, Stephanie Karasick, showed them an idea for a patient app.”
And that is how Strainprint was born.
Data Nerds Unite for Largest North American Longitudinal Cannabis Study
Strainprint is the leading cannabis data and analytics provider. Since Feb 2017, tens of thousands of cannabis patients from across North America (mainly Canadian ACMPR patients) have tracked over 750,000 personal health records on their free mobile app (personal digital health journal), generating over 28 million data points from real-time patient use. It is by far the largest and most granular longitudinal, observational dataset on cannabis in the world and it’s growing organically at 20% per month. These are not qualitative “reviews” like you find on sites like Leafly or Lift, but rather research-focused, doctor-designed medical outcomes of chemovar efficacy and real-world patient use of lab-verified products (from consistently tested Canadian ACMPR producers).
It is this scientific rigor that differentiates Strainprint from everyone else in the space and has helped them to become the platform of choice for researchers looking to do clinical research and academic cannabis study. To that point, in March 2018 Dr. Carrie Cuttler from Washington State University published a study on cannabis use for treating anxiety, depression, and stress, based entirely on Strainprint data, in the Journal of Affective Disorders, with some key medical findings. It was the first peer-reviewed medical journal to validate their data, but stakeholders can expect more to come. A number of other leading medical institutions in Canada, the U.S. and Israel will begin using the Strainprint platform for driving their own research in the coming months with built-in validated questionnaires and custom surveys.
While the Strainprint app is free to patients, they sell subscription access (SaaS) to their aggregated, anonymous data through their Strainprint Analytics web-portal (http://strainprintanalytics.com/). Strainprint Analytics is the place for visually understanding and mining their incredible data in real-time. Their subscriber customers are licensed producers (growers), medical clinics, government & biotech (amongst others). The mobile app can be custom-branded for white-labeling research on the platform and it includes a fully-featured and customizable built-in loyalty platform that drives engagement. Producers use Strainprint Analytics for business intelligence and product optimization (ie. understanding what is working for what and what they should be growing). In Canada, it can also show them where and why their patients might buying products from competitors. Clinics, doctors, and large Pharmacy chains use it for patient treatment guidance because of it being the only scientific data source available. Governments use it for research and to help drive public policy around both the medical and recreational programs.
Strainprint will soon launch tablet and kiosk products for care-giver and retail product support.
Cannabis in the Lifestyle of a CEO
Along with it being a focus of his business life, Muroff holds cannabis as an important support to his busy work life, especially when it comes to his health and wellness activities.
“I need to be active every single day,” says Andrew Muroff, 50.
He places fitness at the top of his priorities. These days, when he’s ready to sweat he turns to speed walking, paved-trail riding, and rowing, supported by low-weight, high rep free weights, along with push-ups, sit-ups, and pull-ups. When he’s ready to kick up the adrenaline, Muroff is a seasoned water-skier and considers himself a “pretty solid snow skier”, as well. While the physical challenge is a daily importance for Muroff, he admits, “it gets harder to stay fit the older you get.”
It’s high-potency cannabidiol (CBD) that provides crucial support for his daily workouts. He chooses to vape a CBD-only strain every day as a preventative support for past sports injuries and the pain from arthritis in his knees. “If you can find the right strain that works for you, the anti-inflammatory properties can be amazing,” he says.
While CBD is a helpful supplement to high-impact fitness routines, like many CEOs, Muroff engages and yoga and meditation, which he says “changed my world”. Every evening, Muroff makes it a goal to meditate for 30 minutes before bed, “after a vape of low THC cannabis to relax, of course.”
“If you are serious about using [cannabis] therapeutically as an alternative to traditional medications, then understand that it might take time and some trial and error to find the right strain for you,” says Muroff, “But hey, that’s why Strainprint was invented!”
Muroff and Strainprint’s self-proclaimed “data nerds” live their mission of connecting cannabis to wellness, and it’s through sharing their stories that cannabis continues to get de-stigmatized.
“Strainprint is helping to legitimize cannabis as a way to lead healthier lives,” says Muroff, “and that is why I am most excited.”
