Peter Calfee grasps the importance of his product. Like others within the cannabis space, the stakes of success aren’t just financial, they’re personal. His company GoFire is building the first vaporizer with metered control consumption, with aims of laying the groundwork for the “Future of Alternative Medicine.” The SMART Cartridge allows the marijuana vape to deliver the most precise dosing thanks to a proprietary extrusion technology.
However, that’s not how GoFire started. Calfee and his partner John Woodbine received their first check of seed funding for GoFire on April 29th, 2015. Five days later Calfee was the passenger in a head-on collision, which left him bed-bound for months and with a broken back. Not exactly the best thing to happen to a company’s CEO in seed funding.
“My team would gather around my bed for daily meetings,” Calfee said. “John and I wrote our first patent physically in bed together, [which] continues to be a running joke within the company. Life and the company went on.”
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The accident left Calfee in physical pain. Like many in his situation, he was prescribed opiates that him in a “fog.” He turned to alternative medicine—which he still uses to this day—to manage the pain. Building a technology that provided a “safe, reliable method to consume and manage an array of alternative medicine” was a business methodology and personal matter.
An introduction to using alternative medicine to manage pain can lead to inexact result for newcomers and casual users alike. It can be frustrating, and have patients consuming too little or too much to produce the desired outcome. Furthermore, the formulas for managing different types of pain—like Calfee’s back pain—or quelling anxiety vary among people.
GoFire’s personal dosing app will allow patients to identify how multiple concentrates and extracts affect them. Their system aims to enable patients and caregivers alike to study the unique formulas of consumption—the potency of the bud, loose leaf or concentrate, how much was inhaled—then compare that against the desired outcome. That information will be relayed to partners and enhance product knowledge in the future.
“GoFire will enable plant-based research to identify the therapeutic effectiveness of alternative medicine,” Calfee said. “Which product formulas are best for pain management? Or, sleep? Our model will help patients, caregivers, clinicians and researchers find out.
“The GoFire Platform will target products and doses best suited to specific ailments, such as Cancer, Arthritis, Anxiety, Epilepsy, Parkinson’s, etc,” he added. “We will provide patients and caregivers with the ability to accurately recommend alternative treatments by tracking a patient’s use and effect. The end result is a personalized care plan, built for a specific condition, and optimized for the individual with the GoFire system.”
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GoFire is currently accepting applications to join their BETA community, and experience the “first intelligent vaporization device with personal dosing.” Interested parties can submit applications until the first week of September and the private testing will begin this fall. Participants will shape how GoFire products look, function, and feel, including the navigation and user experience moving forward.
“The GoFire ecosystem will move research on the therapeutic efficacy of plant-based-therapy forward,” Calfee said. “Unique feedback from clinical patients will drive product development insights, and optimize decision-making for the health and wellness industry.
“Evidence-based research and quantitative feedback will lock “feelings” in “formulas”, so the GoFire ecosystem can find products tailored to specific patient needs and disease states. The end result builds an analytical foundation for Alternative Health; all centered around GoFire.”
