About
Proof started in 2022 in a 4,200 sq ft greenhouse outside Bend. It wasn’t founded to be a brand. It was founded because the founders — a plant chemist and a third-generation Oregon farmer — were tired of buying cannabis with no idea what was actually in the bag.
01 · The origin
In 2021 Elena and Marcus walked into a Portland dispensary, picked up a $60 eighth, asked the budtender for the COA, and were told the store didn’t share lab results with customers. They left empty-handed.
The next month they leased the greenhouse. The plant chemist and the farmer split the work: Marcus on the grow, Elena on the lab. The brand promise — document everything, claim only what we can prove — was on the first whiteboard they put up.
Four years in, Proof has shipped 147 lots. Every one is archived. Every one is searchable. Every one carries two test results.
The founding promise, unchanged since lot 22-A01
If we put a number on the bag, the buyer can verify it. If we make a claim, two labs agreed. If we don’t know something, we say so.
02 · The founders
Co-founder · Head of Cultivation
Third-generation Oregon farmer. Hood River.
Marcus grew up on his grandfather’s pear orchard outside Hood River. He spent twelve years running specialty cut-flower operations in the Willamette Valley before transitioning to cannabis in 2020. He runs the Proof greenhouse with the same input-rigor he used on flowers headed for European wholesale — calibrated nutrient delivery, weekly tissue testing, no synthetic plant growth regulators ever.
marcus@proof.co
Co-founder · Head of Quality
PhD plant chemistry, UC Davis. Mexico City · Bend.
Elena holds a PhD in plant secondary metabolism from UC Davis and spent six years at a Sacramento contract lab running cannabinoid and terpene assays before moving to Bend in 2022. She built the Proof internal quality system, the dual-lab attestation protocol, and the digital COA architecture. She publishes a monthly technical note on the Proof blog — in English and Spanish — on whatever the lab learned that month.
elena@proof.co
03 · The cultivation
Natural light supplemented by LED only in deep winter. Lower energy footprint and a different terpene profile than indoor-only operations. Yields per square foot are lower; the trade-off is worth it.
We don’t use the word “organic” because the USDA doesn’t certify cannabis. We use what works: clean inputs, weekly tissue analysis, microbial biocontrol over synthetic pesticides. The COA confirms.
Industry standard is 5–7 days. We cure for at least 14, often 21–28 depending on strain. Moisture comes down slowly; terpenes hold. The pack tells you the cure duration to the day.
04 · The first four years
2022 · Q1
4,200 sq ft on a south-facing slope. First clones in soil six weeks later.
2022 · Q4
Boundary OG F1, three pounds, sold to one Bend retailer. Both lab results published online the day it shipped.
2023 · Q3
Greenleaf Labs and Cascadia Analytical confirmed. Re-test rule (1.0% THCa divergence) written into the SOP.
2024 · Q2
Wholesale only, no DTC. Two new retailers added per quarter. Wait-list closed since June 2024.
2025 · Q4
Every lot ever shipped, searchable by QR code, lot number, or strain. The archive now goes back four years and 147 lots.
2026 · Q1
Fourth-generation in-house stability. Consistency batch to batch is now within instrument tolerance.
05 · For partners
Proof is sold through dispensaries that carry the panel-forward case into the buying conversation. We don’t pay for shelf placement. We don’t run promotions. We don’t discount.
In return, we ask three things of every retail partner:
Email retailers@proof.co with your dispensary name, license number, and the city you operate in. We’ll send back the partner brief, our current wait-list status, and the next available release window for new accounts.
Current wait-list · 14 retailers · opening Q3 2026
From Bend, Oregon
Read this season’s panels, or write to us directly. The two of us read every email.