Building a Dream from a Basement

So, there’s this guy, Feliks Khaykin, right? Back in 2014, he was just a 23-year-old kicking it in his mom’s basement in Jersey. No biggie, except he had $400 and a vision. Fast forward to now, and that vision turned into a $4 million payday. Yeah, you read that right.

From Basement to Booming Business

Feliks started DankStop, a direct-to-consumer online shop for cannabis accessories. Not exactly mainstream back then. “Cannabis was a big taboo,” he told Newsweek. But the guy saw the cultural shift on the horizon and decided to provide a slick, professional shopping experience.

Growing Pains and Gains

DankStop hit the ground running in April 2014. The company scaled up fast, diving into warehouse logistics and even launching private label brands. By 2020, these guys were raking in a cool $5 million each year. Not bad, huh?

But life’s never that smooth. Google threw a monkey wrench when it changed its algorithm. Overnight, their traffic tanked—from $600k to $100k a month. Ouch. Khaykin called it devastating.

Reinvention and Resilience

Faced with adversity, Khaykin didn’t crumble. Instead, he got creative. DankStop transformed into a third-party marketplace where brands could list products and fulfill orders themselves. “It was a survival move that became our new model,” he said.

This change caught the eye of High Tide, a Canadian cannabis giant. They were looking to expand and offered to buy DankStop for $4 million. Aggressive but strategic, and Khaykin took the deal.

The Cannabis Gold Rush

Let’s face it—North America’s legal cannabis sector is booming. It went from a mere billion-dollar industry in 2015 to projections of $355 billion by 2033. So, Khaykin’s timing couldn’t have been better.

The Legacy Continues

But Feliks isn’t calling it quits. During his DankStop days, he and his team developed custom software to streamline operations. That software became a new venture: CrowdShip, a dropshipping automation platform that’s now used by cannabis retailers across North America.

A New Chapter

Recently, Khaykin launched yet another eCommerce solution. It’s just been two weeks, and he’s already onto the next big thing. “DankStop was the beginning,” Feliks said. “But the real legacy is the software we built along the way.”

And there you have it—a young guy from Jersey making waves and setting standards. Not bad for a basement bandit, huh?