Digging Into 5 Questions With Harrison Baum CEO/Founder: Daily High Club

I love the premise of the Daily High Club. That is to say there is nothing like it on the East Coast that is anything like what Harrison Baum has achieved from virtually nothing. Seven hundred dollars is what it took to start a company that has far exceeded everyone’s expectations. Mine included. A wonderful and enlightening surprise that made my day. Success in small ways. The iChing teaches this. Listen to your passion and follow it, as Harrison has done so well. Thank you Harrison for teaching me this lesson.

Warren Bobrow=WB: Please tell me how you discovered the plant? Who introduced you? How old were you? Where did you grow up? Now?

Harrison Baum=HB: I had just graduated high school, and spent years before that believing weed was the “devil’s lettuce”. One of my friends asked me to try it and I suddenly questioned everything I was taught in health class. So I did try it when I was 19. I swore it didn’t work, but the next day I woke up after sleeping 13 hours and was made fun of by my friends for dipping Oreos in garlic sauce – so I guess it did work. I wasn’t cool enough to have much access to it freshman year of college but sophomore/junior year is when I started becoming a regular user.  A friend from high school initially introduced me, but in college I befriended a daily toker who was a professional athlete and 4.0 triple major student. When I saw him being successful and using cannabis to manage stress, that’s when it clicked for me that it shouldn’t be considered “bad”. Before then I was taught to believe that the plant was something negative since my parents didn’t like it and I didn’t know otherwise. I grew up on the east coast in Montgomery County, Maryland, then moved to the west coast and now live in Los Angeles, California.

WB: Please tell me about what you do? What obstacles do you face?  Stigmas? 

HB: I’m the CEO and Founder of Daily High Club, the world’s most popular smoking subscription box company and online headshop. We love to make unique glass designs! I started the company with just $700 and we’ve sold over 500,000 bongs with no outside funding. In 2015, I put together a scrappy website and posted the “one dollar smoking subscription” idea on Reddit for feedback. I got my first few hundred subscribers overnight and walked out of my day job. We’ve since grown our social media to over 600K+ social followers and have secured high profile collaborations including Tommy Chong, Cypress Hill’s B-Real, Chanel West Coast, and others. 

We’re expanding beyond our popular Subscription Box to also house an online headshop. We are a direct-to-consumer brand that takes customer service and community seriously. We have an A on the Better Business Bureau and go above and beyond to take care of our customers. Just like any brand – sometimes we don’t always do the right thing, but what sets us apart is that we always MAKE it right for them.

We also take pride in the diversity of brands in our Subscription box. We feature different ones every single month, giving our audience a great variety of new products to try and monthly staples. Some of our most popular boxes have featured partners in the community like B-Real, Erick Khan, Zairilla Bacon, Koala Puffs, and more! This helps foster a much tighter relationship with our community because they can smoke out of glass designed by legends made just for them. 

Every day there is a new obstacle to overcome. In addition to shipping extremely fragile items, we face massive challenges regarding payment processing, banking, and social media. We are considered “high risk” so have to deal with exorbitant fees and unreliable banks. We also cannot do any paid advertising on social media due to this and have to market in ways that a lot of other people don’t.

Additionally, Daily High Club got its start on the East Coast where it’s more conservative. Discretion is key! We moved the company out to California to avoid the stigma. Fortunately on the west coast, the attitude is much different.

WB: What is your six and twelve month goal? What markets do you want to enter? Why?

HB: Our six month goal is to sustain what we have now as it has been extremely tough operating with COVID and there is still so much work to be done. With people being stuck at home and really stressed, they are turning to cannabis to help and coming to us for guidance. However, fulfilling shipments has been extremely difficult, especially as we adhere to social distancing guidelines. At the end of the day, I hope that we can make people a little happier during all of this. 

Our 12 month goal would be to get even more in touch with the community. We recently teamed up with Weldon Angelos and MISSION [GREEN] to provide funds to those who are arbitrarily incarcerated and still affected by outdated laws. Our company has joined the fight to free prisoners by creating a Limited Edition “Mission Green” Dank Tank Bong and we are donating $10 to the cause for every piece sold. 

We also want to get more involved with the community virtually. With the current climate, it is hard to bring people together physically. Community is our number one value as a brand and we want to exemplify that in a time where we need it most. 

The team is also exploring interactive opportunities! For our June pack with MacDizzle 420 and Koala Puffs, we partnered with PHILTER Labs to create an augmented reality experience for subscribers. With the PHILTER Labs app, we brought the front of our custom glass to life so everyone can sesh together safely at home.  

There’s an endless amount of opportunity! As we expand our glass collection to include other brands, we would like to explore a higher-end market. We believe we can serve everyone’s smoking needs! The team would also like to showcase talented artists and glassblowers for consumers looking for a more exclusive and higher-end experience.

We love the plant and want to help people enjoy it too. It’s really that simple! We want to continue building on our goals and mission to create a community-based product that is accessible and affordable. 

WB: Do you cook? Who taught you?  Food memory?

HB: I have recently been into cooking omelettes and like to think I got pretty decent at it. YouTube has been my primary source of my culinary information. One of my favorite food memories would be when I once typed my phone number into the microwave and ANNIHILATED a pop tart. I probably shouldn’t be allowed to cook, but I like to try.

WB: What is your passion?

HB: Daily High Club and my entrepreneurial adventures are my passion! I genuinely love doing what I do. I love being able to bring people happiness, especially during such a stressful time in the world. I have loved business since I was a kid. I originally got my start selling paper airplanes in the first grade. I then took it to the next level building empires in Rollercoaster Tycoon. Then in college, I fixed phones to help pay my tuition and built a small business off of that, fixing over 1,000 iPhones from my apartment. I had some experience already with servicing customers with fragile glass products. Daily High Club was my next major step in my entrepreneurial journey – and it won’t be my last. My Instagram account is @highceo in case you’re interested in following along!