We caught up with the man behind Vapefiend! If you aren’t familiar with George already, allow us to get you acquainted. George launched Vapefiend in December of 2008, and has since become one of the most reputable names in the European vape scene. As a vape enthusiast himself, George reviewed vapes well before Vapefiend came to fruition.
The passion he has for matching customers with the perfect vape is evident the moment you speak to him, and we love that about him! Check out the full interview below to see what we mean.
“We’re delivering joy to people! . . . they’ll always associate that experience with Vapefiend.”
George, on what they do at Vapefiend
Interview with George
Jerry: [00:00:00] But yeah, guys, this is George from Vapefiend in the UK. And, um, Troy and I are excited to have him on here and talk. We had a chance to hook up with you at champs a while back, and didn’t quite make it. I was really bumming because, um, I never really had a chance to meet you. I’ve recommended you. Uh, as, as a store to anybody who asks me about where to get a vape and UK for literally, it feels like a decade now.
Um, and, uh, you’ve been going strong over there and nobody’s, I’ve never, it’s never bit me in the butt, so I just keep recommending you over there. Uh, and uh, people like it. And, um, I know that I can tell, because when I look at your catalog, your catalog is rock solid, dude. There’s nothing there that I’m going.
What the fuck is you can do a great job of picking your vapes. So we’re stoked to have you on here, man. Thanks for spending some time with
George: It honestly is an absolute honor to be on with you guys. I mean, uh, Jerry, uh, I’ve [00:01:00] been kind of seeing your name on FC since before I was even in the vape business, uh, years and years and years you’ve been at this.
And Troy, I just, you are like one of the few. Truly honest vape reviewers out there. Who I know if I’m watching your videos, I know that there’s no, uh, sort of profit or anything swaying your opinion. You, you’re always totally honest, even to the extent where, you know, some manufacturers have gotten a little pissed off with you in the past for being a little too honest.
And I really respect that. So honestly, guys, I’m just totally chuffed to be here with you and thank you so much for inviting me.
Troy: Well, thank you. Thank you for saying those things. Uh, George, I know, I know you’ve had you, you had your own, uh, run ins with the industry, like YouTube deleted your account. You, you had a YouTube channel removed.
I think you had an Instagram removed [00:02:00]
at one point.
George: Uh, I don’t think we’ve had Instagram removed, but yeah, definitely YouTube was a real kicker cause for some, and. You know, we’d amassed like thousands and thousands followers. We were getting all the big videos and we never been able to regain that. It’s such a shame it’s just gutting, but, uh, you know, we’re still going strong and things change, you know, and the good thing is we’ve got such a, uh, uh, really devoted following of customers and viewers and followers.
And, uh, they they’ve really kept us going in this age where it’s really difficult to be an independent, small business nowadays, you know, you’ve got Amazon muscling in, you’ve got the things like the pact act on, you know, banning shipping on vapes. We’ve got Brexit over here causing problems and yeah, it’s just purely because of our followers and customers that we’re able to still keep going.[00:03:00]
I’m just so grateful to them
Jerry: right on, right on well said, man.
Troy: And the UK has had some, uh, vape shipping changes as well. Like there’s, there’s like a, an import thing where in the UK people can’t mail vapes in or mail, anything in are
not sure what, what the specifics are…
George: It’s not specifically vapes. It’s, it’s a, it’s a tax thing.
When our government has decided that they’re gonna outsource sales collection to overseas retailers. So, um, basically if you’re a retailer in the U S or anywhere else in the world, you have to collect sales tax for the UK government and then like a tax return four times a year, um, which really small businesses off.
I mean, I’m totally honest when I started as a really small one man band from my spare bedroom. And if it was this kind of climate when I started, I [00:04:00] don’t think I would have followed through, you know, it’s a lot easier when I started to just set up a business and sell to everyone in the world, ship it all over the place and nobody cared, but things are getting a lot more complicated these days.
Troy: Things are getting a lot more
complicated.
George: Yeah. It’s tough. You know, but I mean, the good thing is we’re now because we’ve been going for 13 years now, we’re in our 14th year. So we kind of built a, kind of a buying power and, uh, you know, we’ve got relationships with a lot of them, you know, the, the medical providers in the UK, a lot of the clinic clinics and pharmacies and staff all recommend Vapefiend
and we’ve just got such a solid customer service reputation. And that really just keeps us going. It’s it’s uh, it’s just purely down to that.
Jerry: You build up the rep man.
George: Exactly.
Jerry: Well, then, then, cool. So, so we’re just going to [00:05:00] sit here for a minute, cause like Troy’s rolling. I’m rolling. And, uh, George here is kind of done with the day and needs to get started.
George: Absolutely. Yeah, damn right. I do. So yeah, let’s go for it.
Jerry: Got the bull far out, man. How do you, how do you use your bull? You have to tell me like where you start and all that kind of shit. Everybody’s got their own way of going at it. That thing is legit. I love that, babe.
George: Yeah, me too. It’s awesome. Like I honestly barely touched another vape since I got it, which is what a couple of years now, something like that feels like it’s been there at least a year.
Um, so yeah, I start on. And then I’ll, I’ll sort of do most of my hits on two actually. And then I’ll just crank it up to like three and maybe a on four at the end. Um, but yeah, it’s, it’s just a fantastic little vaporizer and I think it’s kind of a shame that the cup is so controversial to people because [00:06:00] it’s kind of put people off.
What is an amazing vaporizer. I find myself having to try and convince people, you know, honestly forget about the cup. This is honestly like the best heat on demand, vape that you can get out there. The best battery powered heat on demand vape. I would say, I think he’s hands down. The next closest to it, I would say is the tiny money, but that’s got it.
Jesus. Now I’ve got the dog barking in the background. You’re
Troy: like, don’t forget about
Jerry: you put up with that.
George: Yeah, exactly. That’s it. Isn’t it fascinating
Troy: about the cup though? About how, when, when enthusiasts people that are into vapes. Cause right now our market is like so many people that are into
George: vapes. Yeah, totally. It’s like an obsession. Yeah. Yeah,
Troy: exactly. [00:07:00] Like so many people are like, it’s our, it’s our hobby.
Like we’re, we’re obsessed with like the, oh, the obsessive compulsive people are here. And that that’s a lot of the share of the voice. A lot of the people that are talking about the products with us are, are infatuated with them. They’re there, they’re into them beyond the level of a typical consumer to the point where it shapes the.
The words and the opinions around them. Like people like people about the cup, like about how this vape is, is all gimmicky and yada yada, yada, why, what, why is that even relevant? Like w for the cup, you know, like the ghost MB one comes out of the gate at $400 and people are willing to jump on it. A cup comes out that does the same thing for less money and people there are pissed
George: and yeah, [00:08:00] totally.
Like, I mean, I, I can, I can understand it to an extent because when I first saw it, I thought this looks crazy. Like I actually, I I’ve heard it from loser people who say, when they first saw it, they thought the vapor goes through the water and it’s like some kind of bubbler device. And I saw it and I thought, you know, it’s a plastic cup.
The vapor goes through the water in a plastic chamber. Like that sucks. You know, I’m not interested in that. It wasn’t until I actually got one in my hands, I was like, oh, hang on a minute. You know, the whole pathway is, it’s not plastic. It’s that kind of aluminium stuff that the fireflies made out of something, I think.
And. It hits like a Firefly, but without the hassle. And I always loved the Firefly, you know, but there’s something about the stirring and the, the shape of it. And that was a little bit awkward. So this is like the improved version of the Firefly and, and that’s, that’s perfect for me. The [00:09:00] flavors there it’s, it’s got the little heat sink in the mouthpiece, which just makes everything so smooth and easy to where you, you know, you’re on setting forward.
It’s like 240 Celsius. I don’t know what that is in Fahrenheit, but it’s hot, you know, it’s high. Yeah, you put that on a tiny might you would be coughing. It could be drawing your throat out, but you’ve got it on the bowl and it’s like smooth, it’s smooth as silk going down beautifully. And it’s only like five minutes later that you realize what kind of size hit you’ve taken.
And that that’s the future to me. I mean, that, that is absolutely awesome. And it’s, you know, the way it clicks together and all that stuff, I think Bruno has done an incredible job with this. And I just think he’s kind of a bit of a travesty that there are more people talking about it, you know, and, and having it in their collections because to me, I’d rather have a bowl then.
I think the Mighty’s awesome. It’s the gold standard of [00:10:00] portable vapes, but I prefer the bowl. So that’s high praise.
Troy: Uh, on that note, I agree with you a lot. And, and I was a naysayer in the beginning. Like when I first saw it, I, I had a lot of skepticism and Jerry Lee Geraghty or already liked it. Jerry, Jerry brought it to me.
He’s like, man, this is my favorite thing ever. I’m like, Jerry, what the fuck are you doing, bro? You’re like, you’re, you’re painting a picture before I thought I was touching the thing, you know? So I came at it with extra skepticism. And then when I saw all the skepticism in the community, uh, after, after I already fell in love with the vape, uh, I found myself with like three or four of those things on my shelf.
And I, I, I gave them out to a couple of them. Uh, more vocal people in the community who had negative impressions. Uh, and they, they came at it objectively and now they’re [00:11:00] fans.
George: Yeah. Now they’re all fans. Yeah. I don’t think there’s many people who’ve tried it we’ve don’t like it.
Jerry: No, no. I’m with you. Yeah.
And you know, it, there’s a big barrier. It’s almost 400 bucks. So that’ll, that’ll, that’ll hold some people back. But I was, I was lucky enough to not even, well, the first time I tried it was with Bruno. Like, I didn’t know anything about it. He was right there. He told me the story of it. So I’m getting, uh, you know, like I’m I’m okay.
And in the first hour of just talking with him and using the thing. I was like, motherfucker did exactly what he was trying to do. Check mark. I didn’t see that coming. And then he just let me spend the rest of the night with a vape. And then I fell in love with the vape. And then I was like, I don’t care if he fucking put this on a chair,
like it’s gone with me everywhere. I can tell you. And I was pissed when I couldn’t use it for awhile and I’ve told him I’ve been like, you know, there’s going to be people don’t get past. But I’m just going to tell him, look, man, [00:12:00] I’m okay, but don’t go run out and I can like, you know, anything when there’s going to be soccer moms out there with more discerning cannabis pallets than you, because they’ve got this thing and you’re stuck on whatever the fuck that is on the cook.
George: Yeah. Yeah, no, you’re absolutely right. And he actually convinced me on the, on the whole thing of like taking a sip of water after every hit of a vapor, you know, that, that, that is a revelation to me, you know? So I mean that alone, it, it kind of proved itself. But then I was talking to my buddy, who’s a lawyer and he’s like a family man.
He’s got two young kids and you know, he, he vapes, but he kind of vapes in his little man cave sort of place. So that there’s no. So he’s kind of keeping it a little bit separate, but when he saw. The bowl with the cup. He’s like, okay. I could actually sit here with this cup, taking a sip in the living room and take a sip of any water or whatever.
And it just kind of [00:13:00] breaks the it’s. Not that it makes it stealthy. Cause it doesn’t look like a normal cup. It’s not like a secret vape, but it just makes it look more every day it brings no sex. Exactly. It’s less of an unusual thing. It’s not something that the kids are going to say, what are you doing there?
That is just that he’s just putting his cup to his mouth. You know what he does it a hundred times a day or whatever. So, you know, it’s interesting. And I think Bruno is just such an articulate, like intelligent guy, like what a cool ambassador for, for vapes. You know, I want to hear more from him. I want to see what else he’s got to bring us, you know?
So I really hope he, he can kind of stick out the, the tough, uh, waters with, with the, with the cup design. Cause I think he’s got some, some really interesting ideas. Yeah. I agree.
Jerry: And so that’s your daily, huh? Right, right on man. That’s what you reach for.
George: Yeah. That is my [00:14:00] daily. If I’m dabbing, I will use the vapeXhale Evo still.
I love that for, for dabs, the kind of the little glass. Um, kind of low dose dabs you know, uh, but they, they feel like high dose dabs. It just feels like more efficient with it with a small amount of concentrate. And, um, if I’m going like for, for heavy dose, then I’m with the, uh, the hot rod at the moment, the old had hot rods.
Uh, just love it. I love the feel of it, the look of it. Um, it’s, it’s just a beautiful piece of machinery and it really delivers, you know, like heavy, heavy hitter, which I love. George has
Jerry: got some balls over there.
Troy: I’m a big fan of the hot rod as well. Uh, I love the bowl. The bowl is, is, is a kind of a game changer for me because it keeps the screen flat and like maintaining the screen, having a few screens, they never get frayed.
They never get poked up. Um, [00:15:00] I’m in love with that.
George: Yeah. I say it’s an interesting one because I was actually, that’s another thing. I was not convinced by originally the wooden bowl. I was like, whoa, whoa, hold on a sec where we’ve got a bowl now out of the fully combustible material, you know, it doesn’t sound like a good idea.
And then when you first start using it, you’ve got all that kind of bees wax smoking off. And it’s like, okay. And I, I spoke to, to, uh, Brian, I was like, um, what’s the deal with, this is kind of smoking off this, like this oil or something coming from the woods. And I was like, is there a way this can be dealt with in factory before I get it?
Cause I’m not sure I want to be inhaling this beeswax vapor, but you know, he kind of explained it to me. It was like, you know, this is a curing process. You know, there’s people are going to want to go through this themselves and, you know, there’s other benefits to the worst, um, to do with kind of the heat retention and the, you know, that kind of stuff, the [00:16:00] insulation that the wood provides.
And actually, you know, having gone through those little questions in my mind and just using it, you know, day in, day out, I’m, I’m totally on board with that too. So it goes to show that these people who are sitting at home, watching our videos and watching what’s going on in the vape while reading fuck combustion and read it.
And what have you, you know, they’re making a judgment based on what they’re seeing, but even we who know, you know, we’ve been in this business for years, we know what we’re talking about. Even we can make snap judgments based on the first few uses of a device. But they are out in the long term, you know?
So take it from us, you know, you can’t make a judgment until you’ve tried a device. Yeah. Yeah.
Troy: I want to, I want to point out in the video that I actually launched today on my YouTube channel for the ardent FX, I actually left it in the video because it was kind of on a similar note. [00:17:00] The buttons on this machine were touch buttons.
And for some deep-seated reason in my head, I thought that they were like actual buttons and that was pushing them. And it went for like five minutes, like five minutes and be like, Ooh.
George: And then
Troy: I realized,
George: oh, they’re fucking touch buttons. How’s it going to do is like touch.
Troy: And I put that in the video just to show like, Hey, these things happen,
Jerry: you got to do that.
I’m a human, I did a live stream, uh, where I was removing the. Screen from a VAP cap tip. And I was using an M and, and somebody said, Hey, take the screen out. And I went okay. And, but I was only halfway through the bowl and I was like, but I want to finish this bowl. I don’t want to just dump it out. So I said, here I’ll, I’ll take, I’ll take it out of this next one.
So I took my, my cap off my M pulled another one over and then yanked the tipping cap off and proceeded to use it, to [00:18:00] push out the condenser tube. Right. And it was an enough. So an Omni has got the O-rings in there. You don’t need this shit. You just pull it out. It’s in there and I’m on the other end with the tail of the cap measuring, going, damn this sucker’s in there.
Good. Like I’ve gotten some in there or something. And then pretty soon I bent the fucking tail flooring and I went, oh fuck. What’s going on? And then, and then I just said,
George: fuck it. We’ll grab another. And then it wasn’t like a day later I was like, what the fuck up? And then I was like,
I don’t think it would be call me on it. But I was like, what a numb that’s movement. Oh, we’ve all been there. We’ve all been there. Absolutely. There’s times when I’m picking up the hot end of a dine of app after it’s built into the induction heater and you heat your skin on your fingers, all those little glass tubes on the vaping sale, you know, drop it on the carpet and then you’re like grabbing for it with your hand.
Oh, it’s
Troy: hot balls. My SSB 43. [00:19:00] Exploded and dumped hot balls all over my desk and they melted into my shorts.
George: I remember you talking about the
Troy: risks we take for our industry to develop all ball vapes
George: oh, yeah, yeah, absolutely. This is the, this is, I mean, w this is, uh, uh, totally, it’s like an improvement on, on the world.
You know, how many hundreds of years of people smoking, and it’s only really the last, like a guess app, the most, you’d say maybe 20 years or so that we’ve had vapes of one sort or another, and. I just can’t see that ever-changing, you know, I know there’s in the states that the vast majority of cannabis consumers are using the, um, the carts, you know, the vape carts
and there’s a little fear in me that maybe those are going to [00:20:00] push out dry hub vapes one day, because, you know, as generations go by, you’ve got kids who never even see herbal cannabis. Now they just buy it, come up from a dispensary or whatever, and that’s all they’ll ever use. But to me, I think the dry hurt they is perfection.
It gets all the benefits of smoking. None of the downsides of the vape. You know, I think, yeah, you can tweak it here and there, but the idea of a dry hub site to me, I don’t think it gets any better than that for, for consuming cannabis. And with
Troy: these new, with these new high high heat, high calorie ball vapes and other hard hitting vapes, they’re in a different league than dry herb vapes from, from days past.
And I think, I think we almost need to differentiate them a little bit because to a casual smoker or to even a regular smoker who has attempted vapes in the [00:21:00] past a ball vape would treat them very differently. They, they deliver a very different experience and they deliver a lot more THC than to even smoke in one hit.
So I feel like the, the, the ball vape, the hard hitting this tiny, tiny little scene right now. It’s like a Petri dish, that’s going to explode and change the space. And I think it’s going to change the smoker space. Maybe, maybe the vape people will casually come in. But I think the, the vape carts, I think that those are for like the casual, like the medicinal just like kind of stay high people.
And, uh, when I, when I talked to dispensary’s there, they usually say that they’re like 60, 40 flour, so they sell a little bit of flower.
George: Okay. That’s good to hear.
Troy: And then slightly less on the
carts
George: And then concentrates way down in third. Now would you say
Troy: well, [00:22:00] that’s probably somewhat skewed by my community, right?
Because I live in like south orange county. In California. And there’s not, not a lot of concentrates here. Like if I go 30 minutes away, I, I have way better access to concentrates just because people in my town don’t buy concetrates
okay. That’s interesting. Yeah, because I mean, a few years ago it felt like that was going to be the thing that took over, you know, you had this huge dabbing boom and I was like, okay, maybe, maybe we’re all gonna move over to concentrates at some point, but that seems to slowed down a bit now.
And you don’t really see so much, it was a weaponized.
Dabbing was weaponized. And, uh, the, the media portrayed it as like compared to heroin compared to, you know, injecting people are [00:23:00] dabbing
straight
marijuana is, you know, fear tactics. And then the whole vape band thing came in. And a lot of, a lot of, uh, of the state laws, uh, even like don’t allow the concentrates, like some, some of the medicinal places don’t don’t have concentrates, uh, until recently, until recently I know a few of them.
George: So a lot of, a lot of fuckery. I mean, I’m still, I’m kind of blown away that what has been, I think now three weeks or something maybe longer that Puffco have still not been shipping within the United States. Like, how is this even a thing? Like, it’s just astonishing to me that a company like them who have such a strong reputation, such a lot of money as well, you know, they were, they were wealthy operation.
Like how have they not been able to figure out a way around the basics kind of shocks me. [00:24:00]
Jerry: Yeah. You’d think, I mean, we still, I mean, who else are you going to look to? Really? I mean, if somebody’s going to figure it out, it is them, but when you look at the solutions. Once they couldn’t use the U S mail that left regional carriers and instantly coverage went to 50%.
Like you just can’t get to 50% of the people with that solution. So there’s half your market and the rest of the market that you’re going to serve as a big pain in the ass to serve with this, with this solution. So somebody will figure it out. Somebody will come with something, cause this looks like it’s going to be here a while, but, you know, yeah.
They’re, they’re, they’re, they’re kind of leading they’re they’re on the, they’re on the tip of the sphere for us, but pretty going up against like, you know, big tobacco type money and stuff like that. So there’s a lot of people ain’t going to listen to what we’ve got down.
George: No, absolutely. And that’s gotta be a tough, I mean, they’re literally just not making any sales except I guess, wholesale for the last like month or so.
And that’s gotta be tough, you know, and they’ve got bills to pay. They’ve got [00:25:00] staff, they’ve got manufacturing, you know, pretty good. The
Troy: coverage though, in terms of like wholesale distribution and they’re there in a lot, a lot of shops. I see a lot of puff goes in all the head shops here at least.
George: Oh yeah, absolutely.
We, we carry Puffco obviously. Um, uh, but you know, even, even where you now we’re arranging like freight shipping on pallets, um, through these like freight forwarders and stuff, which is something we do anyway for, for large shipments. That’s not a big deal for us, but again, you know, small businesses outside of the U S.
Are they going to deal with all that hassle for Puffco, you know, or are they going to find somebody else? I mean, the brand is really strong, but, but some companies are just going to say, I’m not going to deal with Puffco, you know, and that’s too much hassle. I’ll go with this Chinese company over here or something like that.
And that’s, that’s harsh because Puffco, they, they are the guys, you know, they, they revolutionized the game in terms of [00:26:00] concentrate devices. There’s no other brands that’s done what they’ve done for, for concentrates, you know, the pen best pen on the market. No doubt that the peak best of its kind best.
Best electronic dabber you know, easy. Um, prove me wrong on that.
Jerry: Nah, that’s one of our favorites too, man. I, I, I wouldn’t argue with anybody who said it’s their favorite?
Troy: Yeah. The peak pro is the best dabs for road trips, for sure. Like riding in a car. It was being driven by a different passenger. You know what I mean?
I’m not doing anything illegal here.
Jerry: Just driving around, holding it.
Troy: A friend of mine had the 3d chamber delivered like shortly before Puffco closed up. They’re shut down. And it got delivered by like a tactical tobacco delivery person, like a [00:27:00] military grade kind of thing. It was weird though. That is amazing. That’s what they have to go through to, they have to use like, uh, uh, confirmed adults, like courier service, you know,
Jerry: man, I’m telling you, we just don’t make any sense to me at all.
Are we thinking, man, what are we,
George: I think we need to decentralize what it is because am I, am I right in thinking that. The federal government legalized cannabis. All of that problem goes away because then you’ve got banks dealing with cannabis transactions and they’re no longer considered high risk. And then you, you, somebody will set up a ship.
Option FedEx or somebody will say, okay, you know, you can send it via this special vape service or whatever, but they don’t want to touch it right now because of the, the, the high risk [00:28:00] transactions. I am, I guess. I mean, is it that I think
Troy: legalization would certainly be a tipping point and it would, it would be a tidal wave of, of more changes.
Jerry: The problem for Puffco is that they’re getting caught in the e-cig Dragnet Dragnet. So I don’t know how this affects can legalization might not help them at all. They’ve got to differentiate themselves from me liquids and right now, anything that can heat up something that turns into an e-liquid is going to be called an e-cig and, uh, you know, dryer dryer, thankfully got spear, man.
We came out real clean and. You know that that’s, that’s the way, you know, that, that works good for all of us here in this little.
George: Yeah. Yeah. It’s still, you know, it’s, it’s not totally escaped the drag net because there are certainly over here in Europe. Anyway, I know, um, Germany and I think [00:29:00] France maybe have rules where the definition of a, of an east.
Fits the dry herb vape as well. And so, you know, you, you have to deal with a certain amount of extra customs stuff when, when you’re shipping to those countries. Um, which I think is the same issue that you guys have in the states. Basically the definition of a, of a e-cig or a vape was too broad, you know, include stuff that could never be used for tobacco, nicotine.
You know, like essentially, as far as I’m concerned, these are running with. Diffusers, you know, you are heating a natural herbal product. It’s emitting a sort of steam and you’re inhaling it the same as a, as an aroma therapy like oil burner or something. Uh, it’s very different from an e-cig. There’s no synthetic liquids.
There’s no high dose nicotine or any of that stuff. But, um, [00:30:00] you know, it’s the law considers them the same to me,
Troy: which of the law was, was put together from lobbyists and shit funded by big tobacco.
George: Yeah, totally.
Jerry: Hey, George, I want to switch gears a little bit. I want to talk about you.
George: Okay.
Jerry: You know, uh, how how’d you get going?
Like, what was your, what was your first vapor vapor hit or, you know, what were what’s in there to talk about? How’d you get started in all of this man. What was
Troy: your first week experience?
George: Oh, man, my first weed experience was in a car by the river Thames being driven by a boy, a literally professional boy, George.
And, um, a guy who I worked with, basically I used to, this is when I was like 16 or something. I used to work in a printing shop and the guy who was like, my manager was just best friends with this [00:31:00] boy, George lookalike guy. There’s a guy called Kevin who worked in a TV repair shop and on his weekends, uh, he would, he, he would take jobs as a boy George alike, and he often just go out for a night out, dressed as boy George and just get, you know, treated like a celebrity.
This was in the late nineties. So boy, George was still a relatively. You know, iconic figure, at least a breath in any way. And he was big in the sort of electronic dance music scene. At that time, it was like a big DJ, uh, at like the ministry of sound in London and stuff. So, you know, if you walked around to nightclubs with boy, George he’d get treated like royalty, you know, you’d get the bottles of champagne, the VIP, you know, the red rope and stuff.
So yeah, I was just out on a night with these guys and he pulled out this, uh, squidgy black. I don’t know if you guys have ever seen squidgy black, [00:32:00] it’s a type of hash that is really like squidgy it’s Moroccan. Um, you don’t have to heat it up or anything to crumble. It’s not like traditional Moroccan hash is often quite like solid and firm and you kind of maybe have to heat it a little bit to, to fluff it up and crumble it into your joint.
Um, but squidgy blank was just, you could pull it apart and just roll it up in a joint. And I was like, what is this? I’ve never touched any weed or anything like that. And, um, I was like, I’m not, you know, I don’t do drugs, you know, I’m, I’m just going to sit here while you guys, and of course they started taking it.
Uh, puffs on it. And, um, pretty soon the smell was failing the car. And I was like, oh man, that smells good, actually. And these guys seem like they’re having a good time, took a couple of totes on it. And I don’t think I ever looked back. It was like the following week. I was like asking people at my school.
Yeah. Hey, do you know [00:33:00] where I could get any weeds, any hash, anything like that? And it’s kind of been a lifelong obsession for me ever since I was involved in the cannabis legalization activism group. When I was at university, I was also involved in like student radio there. And it was like a few years later after I, I was.
Working, I had my own place and it just kind of occurred to me. Podcasts started coming out and I thought I can combine these two. I can do a podcast about weed. It was 2005 or something. And that’s what I did. And I use my old. You need nickname. People at universities call me dope fiend because I was like weed guy.
Remember dope. And that was me. So I caught myself dope. Fiend bought dope, fiend.co.uk, the website stuff that podcasting. And I did that until [00:34:00] 2013. And as part of that journey, I stopped smoking and started vaping. Um, I I’ve always had asthma, so smoking was no good for me anyway. And my dad’s had very serious smoking related illness, which eventually killed him, unfortunately, but that was a huge motivator to me.
I was just like, I can’t smoke, but I can’t give up weed and edibles. That just don’t quite do it for me. I need something else. And vapes came along right at that point. It’s like perfect timing. Uh, I tried a volcano out in Amsterdam and I was like, okay, this is what we were talking about. This is what I need in my life, you know, volcano.
Troy: Uh, and it was. That was your first experience with the vaporizer was the
George: volcano. I actually tried like some slightly chunkier devices before that there’s one called the blue meaning, which it was like, I’m pretty sure it was a UK made [00:35:00] devices, basically a soldering iron with a jam jar on top. There’s it’s very similar to like the old BC gumball machine.
Yes. Kind of like that. Yeah. Yeah. Um, but there was no temperature control on it. Um, so it would just eventually carbonized the, the wheat in there. You’d sort of sprinkle your weed on a little hot plate and suck through a weapon. You know, it was an, an isolated air path. The hits tasted. Electronics burning like, uh, like horrible robot farts or something.
And, you know, you’ve got kind of high from it, but part of it was probably from the off gassing plastic in the, in the body of the device and all that stuff. So, you know, I was interested in that, but it wasn’t, it wasn’t doing it for me. And then I got a VAT here. Which I was like, this looks cruel. It’s on, it’s on the like a high times from Paige has got like big glossy ads about Pierre.
They must be a great company. It must be [00:36:00] digital. It’s gotta be better than a volcano. And I was wrong, actually. It wasn’t, it was awful. It made a horrible noise when you use it when like,
um, so, uh, I, I got, I was all cane, as soon as I tried to volcano in Amsterdam at amnesia coffee shop, as soon as I got home, I was like, I’ve just got to fork out the cash for this volcano and get it. And then it was like a couple of years later, these guys in Ireland came up with a. Uh, gas panel. It’s portable.
They prize a butane gas power. Yeah. I liked originally the, I inhale actually was, it was really, but apple basically sued the
Jerry: that’s. Right?
George: Yeah. So, uh, yeah, but that, and that was like, when beauty, you talk about butane vapes now, and you think of a [00:37:00] Dynavap obviously also, or like a sticky break or something like that, but this was actually you’d fill the vape itself up with butane and then you’d click it, like, like you’re firing up an old heater or something, an old boiler or something to catch the pilot light, you know, click, click, and it got, and then you’d you’d hate it.
And the thing was, it was quite low dosage. Uh, again, it didn’t have any temperature groups. And so you’d be at stuck at like three 80 Fahrenheit or something like that. And then you just have to sit there and inhale from it. You wouldn’t get a big cloud of smoke. It was quite wispy vapor, and you’d just be inhaling from a flight half an hour, basically.
And then finally it kind of kicking you’d be like, oh, okay, now I’m serious behind, you know, Got it crept up on me, but I used to do that on bus rides, home from work in my night shift at a radio station in London. And you know, it’d be like 6:00 AM and they’d be, you [00:38:00] know, just a few sleepy people getting on the bus, go to work and I’d be up at the top of the back, hitting my eye, like, you know, with this very fate smell of cannabis paper, failing the bus and, you know, nobody was quite sure that could kind of smell it, but they didn’t really vapes didn’t exist.
And you know, there definitely wasn’t any smells that people would be like looking around and they’d be like, why is that weird little hissing noise? Why does it smell episode faintly of cannabis in this bus? And I’d be there like sheer laying in my chair. Hanging out. So yeah, that kept me going for a little while.
And then, um, it was the arises so low that kind of, that, that did it for me. I was like, okay, so you can have an electronic vape battery power, no need for this gas. Flavor’s incredible on that thing, the glass mouthpiece, I was like, okay, there is so much variation in this game, you know, it’s, it’s so different.
You can have that [00:39:00] wispy faint experience that kind of gets you to that cerebral level of high, but slowly, and you can have that intense flavor experience. That’s, you’ve, you’ve plant flavors in your here that you didn’t even know within that, you know, you never taste that smoking. And then you can have this volcano experience, like hitting your head around the side with like a 10 kilogram, like.
Uh, slap. Have
Troy: you tried the double Decker with the baller head with the B2 flowerpot, like doing the dab on top of, with the, with the bullet herb?
George: I actually haven’t, I’ve done it with the original V-Rod but not with the baller head actually. I need to do that. Oh my God. It’s yeah, that is, I can’t believe I haven’t tried that.
I really need to. Yeah,
Troy: I’m going to hit mine. I’m not going to do a double Decker right now because I don’t want to [00:40:00] knock myself out, but cheers. The B2 is, has been my, my desktop of choice.
George: Yeah, it’s a, it’s a big step up, you know, and to see them, you know, announcing we’re discontinuing the original weed-eater and the V rod.
Now we’re going all balls all the time. I think you can really pat yourself on the back for that one, Troy, because that’s basically your idea from the beginning, wasn’t it? I,
Troy: it, wasn’t my idea. The credit, the credit goes to Joey JXJS and community. He, he came to me with like, Hey, I did this thing. And, uh, I don’t want to, I don’t want to share it, but I think you should.
George: Yeah, but that, that is a great device. That the flowerpot, again, that’s up there that’s, that’s takes vaping to different levels. Doesn’t it like amazing whatever had you’re using basically, but especially with, with the new baller heads.
Troy: Yeah. The baller heads are the next level. [00:41:00] I’m excited for. For the immediate advancement.
Now, like now that this technology has been like ripped, open and available, I’m excited for the next wave of balls, our ball like performance, whether it’s Paul’s or not to combine with the dabs and make them both tuneable what, what would, what would, what are you looking for? What do you, what do you think the, the industry needs?
What do we need to take dry herbs to the next level?
George: I mean, I think you’re right. It’s having that functionality. For high dosage and microdosing. Cause you can, you, you forget sometimes that you can use these, you can use a flowerpot or a hot rods for, for microdosing as well, really low dose. And you get such a great result from that as well.
Um, so it’s not just the heavy hitter kind of covers all the bases. It’s just, it’s hard not to use it as a heavy hitter when [00:42:00] it’s so damn good at it. But, um, I think if you had that kind of functionality, but in a way that is less, like it’s kind of, it’s kind of daunting as a device. If you’re not a kind of hardcore vape, enthusiastic, because you’ve got this always on heat element that is extremely hot and it’s kind of exposed and you know, you’ve got these wires that kind of get in the way and get all over the place.
And then you’ve also thrown into them. A big piece of glass with a load of water in it. And you know, it’s, there’s a lot that can go wrong there. And then you’ve got burning hot little balls in there as well. You know, it works so well, but it’s it’s sounds like an accident waiting to happen. So yeah, trying to.
Home that into something that is [00:43:00] more market friendly, I guess, like, you know, a bit more like a taffee bowle something that is, is all housed nicely inside and it, you know, or just feels a little bit more likely your average soccer mom could use it quite happily and wouldn’t be scared by it. You know, I guess that’s the next step for me.
It’s bringing what are some vape nerds have been loving for the last five years into a format that everyday consumers can happily use it and not be scared of it basically.
Troy: Packageable marketable. Some of that can
George: sit on a shelf. Exactly. Yeah. Yes. Something where it’s all it’s I guess it’s like what Puffco did to the Regan blowtorch, you know, this is something that, you know, Dabas absolutely swear by our courts, banger glass rig, and a blow torch, you know, and it’s hard [00:44:00] to argue that that gives you the best dab experience.
You know, it is pretty incredible, but again, you know, you’ve got to make sure you’ve got the right temperature, you know, pissing about with a blowtorch. You know, it’s not something you can do, you know, in public easily. Um, so, you know, they’ve put it all in a neat package with the Puffco peak pro and I guess maybe it’s not quite the same, but it pretty damn close.
I’m pretty sure. Give them a few more years and they’ll probably make it better than a regular blowtorch. So if we can do that too, to heavyweight dry out vaping, I think, you know, that that is the future to me.
Troy: The high rod came closer to
George: yes, you’re absolutely right there. The hot rod is very, very close to that.
Yeah, definitely. Um, it’s still an exposed, heating element, but you know, it’s very nicely done and neatly tucked away behind that little heat shields and stuff. [00:45:00] I do like that. Yeah.
Jerry: Yeah. I, to say, when you can, when you can make a vape pen in form and function, but it’s working off dry herb instead of liquid, you’ve done it.
I mean, look them, the market is shown is what they. And want the fucking vape pen they want, and it’s all about convenience and hit and power and speed. They don’t want to fuck around. They just want to hit it and get high. And then we go off to the races and so that’s what they want. And so as soon as we create, you know, this, that hits like a, like a, like a pen then, you know?
Yeah.
George: Yeah. I mean, I guess we, we had it’s few years ago with the grasshopper, but it didn’t quite deliver on the promise. I mean, it’s still a phenomenal thing. If you can keep it working it’s for the, for the vape museum, isn’t it, it’s one of those for the vape museum. That’s what I think, you know, it’s just shows you how ahead of the game they were that nobody else has come up with something that is even close to that [00:46:00] in terms of the size and the, and the power that it delivers.
It’s very,
Troy: very powerful, very powerful little convection heater for its size. Uh, the V leaf. It was also pretty impressive for what it does, but yet it doesn’t, it’s not quite
George: the same. No, not that. I mean, to me, the grasshopper is like, uh, like a tiny minute basically, but in a pen, a real pen size, you know, so that’s really impressive that the downsides, obviously it’s really hot.
So, you know, you don’t get any cooling on that. Mouthpiece basically is harsh. So then you end up using it with water and then it’s like, what’s the point in having a pen size?
Troy: I bought that X-Max V3 pro that’s a pen shape, a little convection, and it’s actually mouth friendly on like the grasshopper, which is like a soldering iron tip to your lips.
The X max is comfortable and gets.
George: Yeah, totally. Yeah, [00:47:00] absolutely. That’s another one that I was kind of, you know, a little bit hesitant about when I first saw it. And I think it’s because I was building it up too much in my head. I was like, this is a heat on demand device that is, you know, in this beautiful little size with this great display Olin display and.
The, the only, uh, th the thing I w I was building it up too much, I was thinking this is going to be like a tiny mic. Uh, but it takes a little bit longer to, to heat up each time, you know? So you’re talking like, I guess, 15, 20 seconds for each heater where the tiny mine, it’s like three seconds or less basically.
And same with the, with the tafee bowl. So I’m used to the taffy bowl and the tiny minute, and then the X max B3 pro comes along. And I was like, Hmm. I mean, it’d be better if it was faster. But then what I forgot about is the price. You know, this is such an affordable thing. This isn’t an [00:48:00] entry-level. But you’re talking the very latest technology in portable vaporizers at that price, like a hundred dollars or something.
It’s incredible. You know, what an incredible thing to, I mean, for patients for just regular consumers, you know, you, you’ve just opened up a whole new world of function to them and yeah, I’m, I’m totally on board with it now, especially with the glass mouthpiece that. Improves the flavor,
Troy: or even just the water pipe adapter, which I found works as a mouthpiece, just as nicely as the mouthpiece.
George: Really good. And those guys X, max X vape, um, top green, whatever, they seem to have multiple names, but they, they have really driven, you know, affordable, portable vapes over the last, I guess. Five years plus, or something you think about the story? Um, the original X max [00:49:00] one or something it was called, I think wasn’t it.
That was really great. Um, you know, it was, it was kind of flower me with the market leaders of, of Chinese vapes at the time. And then these guys came along and blew them out of the water. And I don’t think anybody else really has touched them since in terms of Chinese portable, like low costs, but really high quality vapes, you know, nobody else builds them to that standard in China.
There’s a lot of low cost vapes, but they’re mostly quite poorly made and yeah, these are all
Troy: great. You’re right. They, they they’ve had a great lineup for the last couple of years with the starry, uh, the fog, uh, the ex the V2 and the, the it’s still out there and still popular, uh, and the aria, uh, which Tommy Chong even picked up and put his name on.
So Tommy Chong has a version of the. Wow.
George: Wow. That’s cool. I didn’t know that. Yeah. Yeah. It’s doing well [00:50:00] over there. Those guys, I think, um, you know, that, that is a real, um, it kind of really drew a line in the sand, uh, against, you know, oh yeah. There is very cool. Was a little skinned version.
Jerry: They now have very clear convection and conduction vapes, drawn lines in the sand of which side.
And there they’re both real respectable performers and very affordable on either side of the line. So they’re really, you know, they’re kind of nailing it. I mean, if you want to look at, uh, And at a vape company’s line of a manufacturing line, but you look at stores and vehicle and they thought that fucker through, and they’re hitting very specific things.
And you can go from fucking waking up in the morning to bed at night, using nothing but stores and vehicle. And they’ve got it for you and X max. Isn’t doing that, but they’re there. Their lineup is really cool how they’re hitting different things with w with their vapes, even though they don’t even really have a desktop vaping.
So
George: no. I’d like to see [00:51:00] what they do with a desktop, but maybe they just kind of think like was victim our expertise here. And also it’s the volume, isn’t it? The volume of units that you can shift in, in low cost, portable devices, it just dwarfs desktops. It’s got to be said like, uh, even the, the best selling desktops in the world, you know, and never going to come close to a mid selling portable vaporizer in terms of numbers.
So they can just crank those out in their factory and sell them all day long. Especially at those prices. It really makes it, so if you think of companies like, say for example, Now, how do they compete with this? Um, you know, they, they used to have a clear place in the market, but, um, is there room for, for somebody like a DaVinci and more when you’ve got things like the X max V3 pro coming in at like under a hundred dollars, you know, how does, how does somebody like the [00:52:00] Vinci compete with that?
Um, yeah, totally does, but it’s, you know, it’s great for the consumer and it’s great for us vape geeks. We get to use this excellent technology at a really good price.
Jerry: Hey, I got a question for you that I think you’ll, you’ll knock out of the park. It will be a lot of fun. We’re going to, we’re going to start.
We did this on our a Q and a one night and somebody sent it in and we may have messed up the names of the topics, but it’s basically one, one vape for each category. Um, what would you keep? In other words, exactly the same. Just don’t touch it. It’s it’s perfect. Uh, which one needs an update? What would you do to it?
And which one do you just wish were never made? Why is it they’re just going
George: okay. Um, let me think, uh, the
Troy: vape, the vape version of fuck. Marry. Kill.
George: Yeah. Yeah.
Jerry: There you go. [00:53:00] Update and forget,
George: update and forget. Okay. Um, or forget,
Troy: update and keep, so
George: fuck. Yeah. I might go with forget first because I can already list like several, to be honest, I’m trying to think of one that really stands out.
Um, I mean to me, I think it actually, they, they is DaVinci is in my head at the moment because I’ve just been talking about them and I’ve got to say, they just brought out the updated version of the IQ two it’s now got USB-C charging. And I just think there was no need to, I mean, not that there was no need to update that.
It’s just that who cares, you know, as far as I’m concerned, I wasn’t looking for a USB-C charging version of the DaVinci IQ to, I don’t think the DaVinci IQ two was that outstanding to begin with kind of [00:54:00] underwhelming, to be honest, I would rather have an X max B3 pro, and I would forget the DaVinci IQ too, to be honest, that that can go well, they already, I
Jerry: forgot the IQ original one.
So now, which one of the other two are you going to forget to see are the two? Which
George: one? Definitely. We don’t need that. Okay. I’ll be curious. Think,
Troy: yeah,
George: let’s just DaVinci please. Kind of, you know, put, put in a little bit more thought and let’s have something cool. That’s USBC charging, not just the same device you just brought out a couple of years ago.
You know, I want to see some, some innovation from those guys and, uh, I wasn’t impressed by that, to be honest. So what are the other ones I’ve done? Forget what am I going to keep? Keep an update, keep an update. Okay. So updates. I’m going to say they pick sale cloudy, [00:55:00] and I know that there is, there is this new audio.
That you can get, essentially the device is the same. So, I mean, it’s cool. I like the look of that new body. I, I, I want one, but I want a fully upgraded, they sound cloud evo to me, that was the best. Desktop for so many years. Um, and I feel like it’s only just recently in the last couple of years that it’s, these, these things, like the flower pot, the hot rods, these kind of devices are, you know, pushing it out of the way.
And I think they sale needs to step it up again and say, okay, all right, you got. Here’s what we’ll do now, because in a way, vape back sale, the design of the vape, exhale in a way answers what I was saying before that the, you know, these, [00:56:00] these heavy hitting vapes are a little bit of a scary proposition for your average consumer, the vape sale.
It kind of houses all that shit inside it. So then it’s not so scary. And it puts in a nice all glass pathway, so that you’ve got a really lovely, pure flavor experience, hot air vaping, hot air damping. You know, there’s not much of that going around actually. So I’d like to see that brought up to the current day.
I love
Jerry: that one. I
George: love that. So the next one is, what am I going to keep exactly as it is, um, I mean, I’m going, I’m trying to not be so totally obvious, but I think it’s, it’s just going to be obvious, uh, what I’m going to say here, because I love it so much. It’s the taffy bowl. You’re going to keep the cup official.
You’re keeping the cup, I’m keeping the car. I love [00:57:00] the cup because I can also just put in my stubby STAM and not use the cup. And yeah. I mean, that’s the tough thing bowl for me. I’m keeping it exactly how it is. It works for me. I love it. I think more people need to get on board with it. That’s something I’d accepted a USB-C upgrade from, but it doesn’t need it.
Cause it’s, it’s so good as it is. So yeah, I’m happy to keep it. That’s
Jerry: awesome, dude. I love that. I love that. Yeah. It comes with a quick charger, so kinda answers a little bit of that already. So I love it that you pick that, man. Those are, those are, those are great answers, man. And some that I’ve played with too.
George: Yes, it’s a great question. Actually. I love that. I’m going to have to ask my employees that
Troy: I want to, I want to pull on the, on the cloud Evo, Petra, Tetra. Gotcha.
George: Yeah. Yeah. I couldn’t remember that. We can, let’s
Jerry: talk about that shit
George: for a minute. Yeah. I [00:58:00] mean, I love the look of that. I think it looks like a crazy sort of spaceship kind of design and, um, you know, it just makes me want one just so I can have it on my shelf basically.
Um, I, I kind of, to me, vaping sale is synonymous with sailboat, so I’m kind of waiting to see what his vape, exhale post Seibo you know? Um, so I mean, uh, I feel like this is just step one. I do think there’s more coming down the road. Uh, I’m excited to see what’s there. I know they’ve tried a few different areas.
They’ve kind of put their toe out of dry herb vaping and they’ve been, you know, they made that little cant system thing, um, the, the stone stone. Yeah. And that was it. And then they they’ve done like other sort of camp [00:59:00] based stuff. But for me, that was such a revolutionary device when it came out and it was born of the vape community, you know, um, say he was on, on FC stone monkey, wasn’t he for four years before.
He put that together. And the, and the rest of the team are all from FC as well. I think the rest of the guys, the original fade pack sale team, and it’s, it became one of the most invested in vaporizer companies at one point, you know, it seems like everybody owns a piece of, but, um, you know, it just felt like Seibo was always kind of steering the ship there and it was his kind of enthusiasm and energy that was driving things.
And so I’m just really interested to see what life is like for vapeXhale without Seibo and aren’t they going to come out with it and improve the Eva? Is there, is there a portable device on their horizon, you know, or is it going to [01:00:00] kind of fade away? Like we’ve seen so many other vape brands, um, who knows.
Jerry: I’m looking forward to, to the Petra myself. I’m sure they’ve done something to the inside, whether it’s making the heater more reliable, more consistent, or the electronic, um, there there’s there’s room for improvement in there that we won’t see. You know what I’m saying? We’ll just look down the center and go same shit going on.
Beautiful airpath and, and okay. They added hand. And whatever, but, um, fuck man, that’s all we got all last year. Everything was just an update, update, update, update, update. Everybody’s updating their shit. Nobody’s coming out with anything new. So I stopped holding, holding people’s fire to that, that, you know, their feet to that fire.
But I do want something new and especially from these guys you’re right, man. Cause that was heavy innovation back in the day. And we all keep saying, we just want this. You know what I mean? Now it looks to be maybe even bigger.
George: Yeah. That’s really went that way. [01:01:00] No, you’re absolutely right. Yeah. Yeah. It’s kind of, you know, it’s bigger and it’s like more garish.
It’s like, Hey, here I am. Instead of something like the bowl, we were just talking about how it can just sit unobtrusively on your side table or whatever. And then along comes back saying, Hey, look at me, I’m there.
But you know, the time is right because, uh, since COVID and the. Uh, we, uh, vaping have seen a big increase in sales of desktop devices kind of felt like they were dying out at one point. And then suddenly they’re back on the map, you know, and then there’s all the developments in technology like the bowle or the B2 and the hot rod and all this stuff, you know, suddenly there’s a reason to have a desktop again, and, you know, there’s room for, for vape pack sale.
I think in that market, I’d love to see something new from [01:02:00] them, something really new, you know,
And I want to see what saber is going to do as well. Now he’s not with vape. Exhale. Is he, is he still in the cannabis space? You know, is he going to come up with something else? Is he going to, you know, give birth to some other great new technology or service or something?
Troy: Creating some really good Instagram rentals.
Jerry: Yeah. Right. He’s uh, he’s doing some other stuff. I know he’s doing some, some coaching and things, but, uh, yeah, that’s a good point, man. I’d be curious to see, I mean, he’s still, you know, invested in, in vape exhale. So, I mean, it’s not like he’s, he’s not there, but as far as like running the show. Yeah. It’s different now.
So I don’t know. We’ll see what he does, man. That’s a good, cool. Yeah, I thought about that.
George: Yeah. He’s a cool guy. I remember going up there, uh, to San Francisco back in 2012, I think it [01:03:00] was, uh, which must’ve been that the Eva was just about to launch because he had the, uh, the, we, we had the original vape exhale cloud.
We’d had that for some time. And then the Evo was like on IndyGoGo or something. And it was just about to launch and, and yeah. Flew into, uh, San Francisco to meet him and to try and test there kind of signed some distribution agreements and stuff. Awesome. Yeah, it was very cool. That was a big milestone for my kind of company and for the teens to, to have the confidence of.
You know, very impressive new device and the company behind it for them to say, Hey, yeah, you guys are going to be our exclusive distributor for Europe, the middle east and Africa. I was like, wow, okay. We, we get to actually do this for a living. You know, this is going to be my job, you know, gonna [01:04:00] be a hundred percent vape nerd now for, from now until, you know, God-willing, uh, the rest of my bags and, and that’s, that’s how it’s played out.
And saber and vapexhale were a big part of that. So they’ll always be, tend to place in my heart for them. Absolutely.
Troy: That’s wonderful. That’s that’s so great to hear, puff it up. Was my bake sale to puff, puff it up was, was my big connection. Uh, that, that made it possible for me to take the leap and new this.
George: Oh, that’s awesome yeah, that’s a cool company as well. Didn’t they didn’t, they kind of closed down for a bit recently and then pop back up. Yeah.
Troy: Well, they, they, they closed down when the. Vape ban happened. And then they, they sold their company, transferred the brand over to, uh, green lane or [01:05:00] vapor.com
George: right
Troy: now.
There’s now I have, now I have no,
George: right? Yeah. It’s a shame. I mean, I’ve seen a couple of other companies go that way at green lanes becoming a bit of a massive, uh, conglomerate. Isn’t it, it’s just absorbing everything and it’s, they haven’t made it to the UK yet, but I’m sure that government for us.
Jerry: Right, right.
They’re looking over the
George: channel. Yeah. Yeah.
Jerry: Did you tell us what you were doing before?
George: Um, I don’t think I did. I was, I was working in radio actually. I was doing the podcast on my, uh, home time and I was a producer of late night radio phoneins um, as a, as a professional job. Yeah. So, um, you know, I was the guy through the glass who kind of puts through the [01:06:00] calls and mans the desk and calls the guests and all that kind of stuff.
Um, and it was your typical sort of, uh, late nights. Um, so it was interesting, you know, it’s no, no night was boring. But, um, it wasn’t really in keeping with my beliefs and my personality and stuff. And, um, yeah, I just found I couldn’t do it anymore. I had a kind of, um, uh, a turning point where I was just like, I just cannot do this anymore.
I can’t, I can’t take this any longer. And, um, I decided to quit. Um, I did some studying and I’m still running vape themes on the side as a little side business and never really took it that seriously kind of thought, maybe I’m going to find another profession. Um, and then I suddenly had this kind of moment of clarity and I was like, hang on a [01:07:00] minute.
If I just devoted all my energy to vape themes, did it properly, you know, just th there is a gap in the market for a company that provides these devices where the people actually know what they’re talking about and where they’ll treat you well, if it goes wrong, you know, you’re not just going to say, oh, pick up the phone and speak to someone in China.
They’ll deal with your warranty claim. You know, you, you open welcome them with open arms, say, I’m sorry to hear that, you know, we’ll take care of you, uh, and do it, you know, do it properly. Um, and, and that’s what I did. Yeah. So. I’m glad I’ve never looked back. It works out. And I think anybody who’s thinking of doing anything like that, setting up a business, I’d say, you know, don’t, you don’t have to spend too much money.
You don’t have to go crazy with advertising. You don’t have to hire a PR agency. Just do what you’re supposed to [01:08:00] do as well as it can be done. Devote all your energy to making sure that your customers are happy and they’ll come back. You know, they’ll help. They’ll have such a happy experience. We’re delivering joy to people.
We’re delivering literally joy to people. They’re using these devices that they get from us. And they’re sitting there in this beautiful bathe of warm happiness thinking, oh, this is phenomenal. This is amazing. You know, I’ve got this thing. It’s just improved my life, you know? And, and we’re part of that.
They’ll always associate that experience. With sightseeing with me, with the guys who they’ve spoken to on the phone or emailed with. Um, and I’m, I’m proud of that, you know, that’s, that’s how it should be, I think. Uh, and that’s how I intend to keep doing it.
Troy: I love it. That was inspirational.
Jerry: Yeah, dude, I’m just play that back every day, man.
George: I’m going to do my own, uh, [01:09:00] improvement course or something. Uh, you know, $5,000 in YouTube could be, uh, a vapefiend.
Troy: It’s funny. I got confused. I thought I thought, uh, uh, that Jerry didn’t ask that question because that was actually one of the questions was, was how to. How’d it get started. And how, how do you make your business so unique, but you already answered that one.
That was amazing
George: that across all these off his donors, you send them the list, Jerry.
Jerry: Okay. Well, that’s it. Give us your legs, say your links and we’re done
Troy: not for real yet. Tell, tell everyone where, where we can find you in your content for, for those not
George: aware. Okay. Yeah. Well, we’re on, uh, Instagram vapefiend.
Um, and I’ve also got George vapefiend on there. I don’t really do a lot of posting, uh, on that one, to be honest, our Instagram’s handled by Delia. Um, but I’m, uh, filming content with Delia all the [01:10:00] time, uh, for that. So there’s loads of stuff on there. I’ve still got dopefiend.co.uk. And we did a series of podcasts over the lockdowns dope fiend quarantines, which are up there.
So you can have a listen to that. Hear how all of us olds 40 year olds plus stoners handled, uh, locked down. Um, and, uh, yet there’s loads of other content on there as well. And of course, vapefiend.co.uk is, um, it’s, it’s our little, uh, Haven of peace in this very, very crazy world. Um, I’m just privileged to be able to get up every day and go to work in a place where, where I feel like it’s, uh, it’s just, uh, a break from insanity, just a peaceful little Oasis in a, in a storm of chaos.
And I love every minute of it. I’m totally devoted to. Cannabis and vaporizers and the [01:11:00] community that surrounds that. Um, and I’m just grateful to be here. And, um, and, uh, yeah, grateful to you guys for, for inviting me on to hang out like this I’ve really enjoyed myself. We must do this again sometime.
Jerry: We’d love that.
Absolutely, man, thanks for spending time with us. And so it’s been great to hang with
George: you. It’s a pleasure.
Troy: All right, George. Well, thank you for, for spending the morning or your evening with us and having this wonderful conversation. I can’t wait to catch up with you again.
George: Thank you so much, guys. It’s been a pleasure.
Take it easy. All right. Good night, brother. Peace.[01:12:00]