The Problem: High Marketing Noise, Low Transparency
The legal cannabis industry is plagued by information asymmetry. Legacy directory platforms prioritize pay-to-play dispensary ad dollars rather than honest product quality. Batch quality fluctuates significantly week-to-week, dispensary menus are fragmented across incompatible POS systems, and passionate consumers are forced to hunt for batch drops across ephemeral Instagram stories and Discord servers.
Consumers needed an unbiased, data-driven hub: a platform that surfaces verified weekly drops from elite growers and extractors while powering transparent, community-vetted rankings that adapt in real time as product batches evolve.
Technical Architecture & Key Systems
I engineered TerpTier from scratch to provide a lightning-fast, resilient web experience:
Next.js 14 App Router & SSR
Leveraged Server Components for instant initial page loads and search engine indexing, coupled with client-side reactive filters for interactive menu exploration.
Relational Database & Prisma ORM
Modeled relational schemas spanning Brands, Cultivars, Batches, Drops, Dispensaries, and User Reviews in PostgreSQL hosted on Supabase, managed with strict TypeScript types via Prisma.
Community Review Engine
Built multi-dimensional scoring (terpene profile, cure, burn quality, overall value) with anti-bot rate limiting and reputation verification.
Dispensary Menu Ingestion
Engineered background ingestion workers that map live dispensary inventory to standardized producer and strain catalog entries.
The Terpmetrix Umbrella
TerpTier sits alongside Terpscoops under the Terpmetrix umbrella. By operating at the intersection of consumer hardware, full-stack software, and brand consulting, I leverage firsthand operational data to help partner brands optimize product packaging, launch digital showcase sites, and tell authentic stories to educated consumers.
