For a decade, cannabis brands expanded like tech startups. They were fast and loud, maybe overestimated, perhaps a bit unsustainable. New states opened, investors flooded in, and expansion became the metric of legitimacy.
Jetty Extracts didn’t follow that script.
While many California operators rushed to plant flags across the country, Jetty stayed home. The brand focused on tightening operations, refining manufacturing, and building internal controls before stepping outside its home state. In an industry where growth is often confused with strength, restraint can look radical.
According to co-founder and Chief Product Officer Nate Ferguson, that restraint was intentional.
Building California Before Chasing the Map
Jetty operated exclusively in California for its first decade, despite opportunities to expand earlier.
“You know, we didn’t expand outside of California for the first 10 or 11 years in business. And, you know, we had a lot of opportunities to do so. It’s just we felt like we really wanted to get California as on rails as possible.”
Ferguson is quick to acknowledge that nothing in cannabis is ever fully “on rails,” but the goal was operational stability before geographic ambition.
California became the testing ground. Manufacturing processes were refined. Supply chains were tightened. Internal quality control became central to the brand’s identity. Only once that infrastructure felt solid did Jetty move outward.
Today, Jetty operates in California, Colorado, and New York. The company previously entered New Jersey but stepped back when manufacturing conditions didn’t align with its standards.
That kind of pullback isn’t common in a market where expansion is often framed as momentum.
Market Maturity Isn’t Universal
Ferguson sees clear differences among states, especially in consumer sophistication and pricing.
Colorado, with a longer recreational history, feels mature. Consumers understand solventless products, hash rosin, and terpene profiles. According to Ferguson, buyers there already know their way around premium cannabis.
New York is different.
“I think like the general consumer still is like, you know, live rosin live resin, I don’t know the difference, please explain it to me. So a lot of the new consumers that are in New York are just kind of getting educated on, you know, quality products, and seeing the value of premium products.”
The pricing gap is stark. In California and Colorado, a one-gram cartridge might run $30 to $40. In New York, Ferguson notes, that same product can reach $100 out the door.
At that price point, education isn’t optional. Consumers need to understand what they’re paying for.
New York, he says, feels like a second chance for many veterans in the space—a “do over” moment in a newly regulated market.
Control or Compromise
If Jetty’s expansion has been deliberate, its approach to manufacturing has been even more guarded.
In California, Jetty manufactures everything internally. The process is what Ferguson describes as “heavy touch,” particularly when it comes to hash washing, pressing, solventless vapes, and live resin products.
“There’s a lot of, I’d say, just kind of special recipes and IP that we have. And it’s really hard to train somebody to do it as well as we do it in California.”
That philosophy influenced Jetty’s move to New York. Rather than relying fully on co-manufacturers, the company secured its own license and is building out a facility in Albany to control sourcing and production from start to finish.
For Ferguson, co-manufacturing can work, but attention gets diluted when a facility is juggling dozens of brands.
“It’s hard when they’re dealing with 10, 20, 30 brands. It’s hard for your one brand to get that sort of attention.”
In Colorado, Jetty operates under a hybrid model with longtime industry partners. But wherever possible, control remains the priority.
For a vape brand, manufacturing isn’t backend logistics. Its identity.
Remembering the Medical Roots
Jetty’s long-game philosophy isn’t only operational. It’s cultural.
In 2014, roughly a year after launching, the company started giving free cannabis to cancer patients. The initiative became known as the Shelter Project.
“You know, it started out friends and family, you know, people that were just sick and needed it,” said Ferguson.
The program now operates in every state where Jetty does business: California, Colorado, and New York.
Ferguson acknowledges that compassion programs aren’t easy in today’s regulated market. Taxes are high. Margins are tight. Many brands are focused simply on survival.
“Compassion is always sort of an afterthought, is what I’ve seen.”
That reality doesn’t stop Jetty from prioritizing it. Through retailer partnerships—what the company calls depot locations—Jetty distributes donated products to patients in need.
For a brand operating in highly regulated adult-use markets, it’s a reminder that legalization didn’t erase cannabis’ medical foundation.
The Industry After the Gold Rush
Ferguson has been in cannabis for two decades. He ran retail during California’s medical era between 2009 and 2011, before federal enforcement shut down operations. He’s seen cycles of hype, capital floods, and collapse.
“We’ve been operating since 2013… And I’d say 90% of the brands that we started with are all out of business.”
His advice to new entrepreneurs is stripped of fantasy.
“It’s a hard industry to operate in… You’ve got to really just make sure you play the long game. You’re not just going to make a bunch of quick cash, put it in your pocket, and call it a day.”
And then the blunt version:
“Don’t expect to get rich off of cannabis, that’s for sure.”
In a market recalibrating after years of overextension, that mindset feels less like pessimism and more like survival.
Jetty didn’t chase every open state. It didn’t scale at breakneck speed. It didn’t treat compassion as marketing.
In an industry that burned through its first wave of gold rush optimism, patience may turn out to be the most disruptive strategy of all.
All photos courtesy of Jetty Extracts.
