🎙️ Timeless Vapes, Co-Founder, Rocky Huang
🎙️ Timeless Vapes, Co-Founder, Rocky Huang
The profitable, AZ-based brand is currently in five markets (AZ, CA, OH, OK, MO) with plans for another 2-3 by year end. Impressively, the company has taken no outside funding.
Update: Depending on what period of time is being looked at in the AZ market, Timeless is typically the #1, #2, or #3 vape brand in the state.
Background. Prior to founding Timeless, Rocky was CEO & Co-Founder of Molly Water, a premium alkaline mineral water designed to assist in regulating the body’s pH balance. The brand was available in 200+ convenience stores in Arizona and California between 2008-2011. While Molly Water was not a successful venture for the pair as Alkaline water, and beverage in general, is a tough category—a lot of the learnings on consumer education, community, branding and marketing helped lay the groundwork for Timeless. Rocky and Shawn started the lifestyle brand Always Timeless in 2010 when they opened a screen print shop and resale store on Mill Avenue in Tempe, AZ.
Overview. Timeless is headquartered in Scottsdale, AZ and currently operates in Arizona, California, Oklahoma, Ohio, and Missouri. It holds the #1 ranking for market share in AZ for vapes (BDSA estimates Timeless generates ~$6.8M/month1 in AZ sales, ahead of Select, Stiiizy, Abstrakt, Jukebox, Dime Industries, Item 9 Labs, Drop, Grow Sciences), and is one of the top 5 vape companies nationally (and only one of two that is independent, Stiiizy being the other). For BDSA trackable markets that Timeless is in (AZ, CA, MO), the brand ranks #4 behind Stiiizy (not in MO), Select and Raw Garden (only in CA).
BDSA estimates that Timeless did ~$75M in retail sales in 2021. Building on the success of Timeless, the Company has launched a “house of brands,” which includes prerolled brands JOILO and Tumble, NOIR Live Resin vape, and Canary CBD.
Management Team. In addition to Rocky, the management team includes Josh Hirschey (President), Shawn Williams (COO) and George Thimsen (CRO). Prior to joining Timeless, Josh was SVP/General Manager at Amphenol Broadband Solutions (ABS), a division of Fortune 500 Amphenol Corporation, an RF and optical broadband connectivity supplier. Shawn co-founded Molly Water and Timeless. George spent over 11 years at Red Bull in various leadership roles and Sunday Goods / The Pharm before joining Timeless.
Brands have to be in CA and NY to be relevant. From a brand standpoint, in any industry, he believes you have to be relevant in CA and NY. While they are conscious of what’s happening in CA Cannabis, their strategy is to work with dispensaries to engage with the local community, while paying close attention to economics.
Vape is a big enough market for several brands to do well. Rather than looking at how they can gain market share from competitors, Rocky views the market as big enough for multiple brands to thrive.
Partnership with TILT Holdings / Jupiter Research. Timeless is a longstanding client of TILT’s subsidiary, Jupiter Research for vape hardware. In addition, Timeless recently partnered with TILT’s subsidiary, Standard Farms, to launch in Ohio. TILT is a partner to several brands to enter markets, so I’d assume they have had discussions about other markets in which TILT operates (MA, PA, NY).
Profitable with no outside funding. Timeless has funded growth through its own cash flow, not taking any outside funding so far. The Company’s reverse licensing structure (where it keeps a majority of the economics) allows it to be asset-light and methodical in its expansion. While Timeless expands into new markets when it makes sense for them, the current market challenges have slowed down competitors’ aggressive efforts.
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~30 day estimate from January 30–March 6.