Meet Cannabis Wire, the weed news startup that’s backed by the city

Yep, the city — specifically the Mayor’s Office of Media & Entertainment and the New York City Economic Development Corporation —  is backing a news startup that’s devoted to covering the cannabis industry.
It’s called Cannabis Wire and it’s run by two Columbia Journalism School grads. Based in the Made in NY Media Center in Dumbo, the company got a city-backed Made in NY Entrepreneur Innovation grant last fall. (We covered a handful of the most tech-relevant and unique projects here.)
Kasiana McLenaghan of The Brooklyn Ink, Columbia Journalism School’s Brooklyn news outlet, recently profiled Cannabis Wire.
Read the story
The media outlet’s cofounders credited the Made in NY Media Center and the Brooklyn Tech Triangle internship program with helping them get off the ground.
From the story:

“Developing our brand, hiring a lawyer, figuring out if we should be a c-corp versus an LLC—we had to figure all of that out ourselves,” said [cofounder Nushin] Rashidian. While Cannabis Wire developed a board of advisors to help address these questions, they also received support from the Media Center, which gave them formal workspace at the Dumbo incubator. It also connected them with other city resources, like the Brooklyn Tech Triangle Internship program, which furnished the fledgling venture with city-paid interns to begin building the bones of the website.

According to the report, Cannabis Wire “has sought private investment.” Paging Charlie O’Donnell?