BREAKING: Cannabis Brand Operating in Zero States Announces Expansion Into 19 More

Los Angeles-based company secures 12% royalties from licensed operators despite having no products, customers, or evidence anyone has ever asked for its weed.

LOS ANGELES, CA — A cannabis lifestyle brand that currently operates in zero states announced Tuesday that it has secured licensing agreements in 19 additional markets, positioning itself as one of the fastest-growing cannabis companies in the country without ever growing, manufacturing, distributing, or selling a single gram of cannabis.

The company, HYPESTATE™, describes itself as a premium, culture-forward, vertically agnostic cannabis ecosystem built to disrupt the consumer experience.

According to its website, which consists primarily of animated typography and photographs of people wearing sunglasses indoors, HYPESTATE is already recognized as a leading national cannabis brand.

The company currently has no retail presence, no manufacturing operations, no consumer sales, and no independently verifiable customers.

It does, however, have a Chief Brand Officer, a Director of Strategic Partnerships, three regional licensing executives, and a guy named Trevor who handles the Instagram.

"We're not interested in being another cannabis company," explained HYPESTATE founder and CEO Chase Sterling, who previously worked in commercial real estate and briefly owned a CBD vending machine. "We're building something much bigger than cannabis. We're building a brand."

Sterling confirmed the company has already signed multiple licensing agreements requiring state-licensed operators to pay a 12% royalty on gross sales in exchange for access to the HYPESTATE name, logo, packaging templates, and a 43-page brand standards document.

The document reportedly contains 39 pages explaining acceptable uses of the company logo, three pages of lifestyle photography, and one page instructing manufacturers to "make sure the weed is fire."

Local Operators Excited to Pay Someone Else for Their Own Products

Under HYPESTATE's licensing model, local cannabis operators are responsible for providing the cultivation facilities, genetics, raw materials, extraction equipment, manufacturing labor, testing, packaging, regulatory compliance, distribution, retail relationships, and customers.

HYPESTATE provides the brand.

"We really believe in the partnership," said one Missouri cultivator who recently signed a five-year licensing agreement. "They bring national brand recognition, and we bring literally everything else."

When asked how many Missouri consumers were familiar with HYPESTATE before the agreement, the operator acknowledged the number was probably zero.

"But that's why we're excited to introduce them to the market."

The operator also confirmed that HYPESTATE had requested an additional 3% marketing contribution to support national brand awareness.

When asked what the marketing budget would be spent on, HYPESTATE representatives reportedly presented a mockup of a hoodie.

Company Claims Strong National Demand Despite Nobody Having Heard of It

HYPESTATE executives insist that the company's value extends far beyond its current market presence.

"We've built tremendous brand equity," Sterling said. "We have almost 8,000 Instagram followers, and our creative director knows someone at Cookies."

The company's national expansion presentation includes a slide titled "PROVEN CONSUMER DEMAND," featuring a screenshot of an Instagram comment reading "🔥🔥🔥" beneath a photograph of an unreleased product.

The comment was left by the company's Director of Strategic Partnerships.

Another slide highlights HYPESTATE's "strong retail relationships," which reportedly consist of business cards collected at MJBizCon and a dispensary owner in Oklahoma who once replied "sounds cool" to an unsolicited LinkedIn message.

Despite the lack of actual sales data, HYPESTATE estimates its brand is capable of generating $40 million in annual retail revenue by 2028.

The projection assumes that every licensed operator successfully manufactures, markets, distributes, and sells its products.

"We're very confident in those numbers," Sterling said. "Our partners are extremely motivated to make this work because they're the ones who have to pay for everything."

Brand's Proprietary Genetics Reportedly Available at Most Hydroponic Stores

As part of its licensing package, HYPESTATE promises access to an exclusive portfolio of proprietary cannabis genetics.

According to internal materials reviewed by Boof du Jour, the company's flagship strains include Gelato 41, Runtz, Wedding Cake, and a proprietary phenotype called Super Runtz Gelato Cake.

When asked what made the genetics proprietary, Sterling explained that the company had renamed them.

"That's intellectual property," he said.

HYPESTATE also provides licensed manufacturers with detailed standard operating procedures to ensure a consistent consumer experience across state lines.

One SOP reportedly instructs cultivation partners to "grow premium flower."

Another advises extraction partners to "maximize terpene expression."

A third reminds operators that all products must "hit different."

"Consistency is everything," Sterling explained. "Whether someone buys HYPESTATE in Missouri, Michigan, or Massachusetts, we want them to experience the same logo."

Industry Experts Praise Company's Asset-Light Business Model

Cannabis industry consultants have praised HYPESTATE's approach as an innovative solution to the financial challenges facing multistate operators.

"Traditional cannabis companies waste enormous amounts of money on things like facilities, employees, and cannabis," said independent industry consultant Brandon Wells, whose LinkedIn profile identifies him as a Cannabis Growth Architect.

"HYPESTATE has eliminated all of that overhead while retaining the most important part of the business: getting paid."

Wells described the company's 12% royalty structure as particularly attractive because it allows HYPESTATE to participate in the financial upside of cannabis sales without assuming the operational burden of producing anything consumers actually want.

"That's scalability," he said.

Wells has never worked in a dispensary.

Company Announces Plans to Become First Billion-Dollar Cannabis Brand Without Selling Cannabis

HYPESTATE has reportedly begun raising $25 million in Series A funding to support additional licensing expansion, influencer partnerships, executive compensation, and the development of a second logo.

The company is also exploring international markets, including Germany, Thailand, and Canada, where it hopes to replicate its success of convincing licensed operators to manufacture cannabis products under a name nobody recognizes.

Sterling remains optimistic.

"We're building the Nike of cannabis," he told investors during a recent presentation.

When reminded that Nike actually manufactures and sells products people want, Sterling clarified that HYPESTATE is more focused on the licensing side of the business.

"We don't want to be Nike," he said. "We want to be the company that charges Nike 12% to put our name on their shoes."

At press time, HYPESTATE announced it had secured another six licensing agreements, bringing its total projected market presence to 25 states.

The company remains available in zero.

Its latest investor deck now values the business at $85 million.