Weed Review Site: First Startup at 18
The Story
Boris studied economics at UC San Diego but dropped out at 18 to start companies. His first startup was a weed review site. He and his friends called dispensaries to get samples for review. It “kind of blew up.”
From weed reviews, Boris got interested in cannabis chemical testing and analysis. After several more startups, he joined a YC company in Palo Alto as their first hire.
Before all of this, his earliest coding came from selling Pokemon cards on eBay by customizing listing HTML, and from hacking his calculator during exams.
The through-line from weed reviews to Pokemon cards to Claude Code: Boris has always built things he personally wanted to use. Every product started as a personal itch. Every career move started from curiosity, not strategy.
Lesson for Creators
Formal credentials matter less than shipping real work. Nobody asked Boris about his economics degree (which he didn’t finish). They asked what he built. The best products and content come from solving your own pain points. If you’re building something you genuinely use yourself, you’re already doing market research.
Related
- Failed Pre-Med, Became a History Major — unconventional paths to success
- Early Hustles - Moonshine, Fake YouTube, and a $50 PDF — scrappy first businesses
- Quit Banking, Got Sued, Paid €15,000 — no credentials, just doing the work
- Permissionless Creation vs. Hollywood Gatekeepers — building without asking permission
- Economics Student Who Taught Himself to Code — Harry also self-taught coding and shipped products without formal credentials or a CS degree