A New Idea for a New Industry
Paper Planes is a SaaS AI intelligence data platform designed for the unique needs of the cannabis industry. It uses AI and machine learning to address sales and marketing and smart ordering for dispensaries. “I saw that there was a lot of need in the cannabis industry,” says Paper Planes co-founder Melissa Fernandez, “And it is a space that I feel passionate about.”
Since the cannabis space is developing and heavily-regulated, Paper Planes needed to be able work within the complexities of the ecosystem and adapt to new realities as they arose. The industry itself didn’t provide a secure foundation for Paper Planes to build its platform on; everything was subject to change.
Partnering with BlueSkyAI
The Paper Planes team spent a year defining what it wanted to bring to market. Then came the hard part: building it. They were introduced to BlueSkyAI founder Steve MacKinnon through a mutual contact and connected right away. “We met with Steve and it was just a really good match: how he treats his team members, how his team members act. They were really in line with our values, and that was important to us,” Melissa says.
The Paper Planes team soon learned that BlueSkyAI’s specialist squads were great compliments to its internal resources. “We are very good at product design,” Melissa says, “And we also created the requirements on the data side. And then they were able to take all of that and start building.
End-to-End Solutions
BlueSkyAI’s end-to-end capabilities proved to be a value add that Paper Planes hadn’t anticipated. “Soup to nuts expertise; you can’t say too much about that,” Melissa says “You go into the process not even understanding all the skill sets you need. Steve and his team have expertise across the board, and they gave us really great, super-talented people..”
BlueSkyAI squad members not only helped Paper Planes build its product, but also worked alongside them every step of the way to launch, including client and investor pitch meetings.
Paper Planes takes off
With BlueSkyAI’s help, the Paper Planes team were able to realize their vision and bring their product to launch in a space they feel passionate about.
“Partnering with Blue Sky, we were able to launch our MVP, so that’s huge,” Melissa says. “It's changed the game of where we are. It changes the conversations that we have with potential investors. We're able to get real-time feedback from our MVP client. We're in a completely different place than where we were. And that's Steve and the team. They brought us here.”
