Cannabis tech company Leafly opens East Coast hub in Baltimore

A cannabis tech company with connections to Baltimore is opening its first East Coast office in the city.

Leafly, a tech company which provides marijuana recommendations and media, opened an office in Southeast Baltimore, said CEO Chris Jeffery.
The office is located at the Holland Tack Factory near Little Italy, and is opening with a team of 15 people based out of the Central Avenue building. The company is looking to hire locally in a variety of technical roles.
Leafly provides reviews of dispensaries and marijuana strains, as well as news around cannabis culture. The move comes as dispensaries are opening around Baltimore, and Maryland’s medical marijuana program is getting off the ground. Jeffrey noted the area’s tech talent as a key factor.
“Leafly is building the cannabis tech hub of the East Coast in Baltimore, where there’s so much talent,” Jeffery said in a statement. “I moved to Seattle to be involved in this rapidly growing industry but wanted to stay connected to Baltimore. I’m excited to be able to launch Leafly’s East Coast presence from the city.”
Jeffery is familiar to the Baltimore tech community as the cofounder and former CEO of OrderUp, the food delivery service that at one point was one of the city’s larger tech offices. The Canton-based company also had one of the area’s more notable exits, as it was acquired by Groupon in 2015 for $69 million in 2015. OrderUp’s presence was scaled back dramatically after Groupon partnered with GrubHub in 2017, a move which resulted in 60 layoffs and the shuttering of 27 OrderUp markets, including Baltimore.
Jeffery took the CEO job at Leafly last fall, and promptly hired former members of OrderUp’s team. Tapping into that talent pool is continuing with this move, as OrderUp alums at the new office include Ed Schmalzle, who is Leafly’s Vice President of Platform Integrations, Matt Alexander, who is general manager for Maryland and D.C., and Daniella Jones, who is director of marketing for the East Coast.
Open roles at Leafly include software QA specialist, senior software developer and senior front-end engineers, according to the company.