Todd Mitchem hopes the stake he and his partners have in Colorado's booming marijuana industry will live up to his description of it: "the Google of cannabis."
Their company, Open Vape, manufactures a product similar to an e-cigarette. It's a pen that heats a cartridge filled with purified cannabis oil, allowing users a discreet alternative to smoking a marijuana cigarette.
Open Vape was established just as the pot industry was taking off—and it has paid off. In 2013 alone, Open Vape grew by 1,600 percent, and that was before the legalization of recreational pot sales in Colorado went into effect.