About

Why this exists

The dispensary counter is a strange place. The person on your side of the glass is making a real decision about their body. The person on the other side has thirty seconds and a sales target. Terpenology is what would happen if you took those thirty seconds and stretched them out, with better information, on your own time, before you ever walk in.

It started as a personal tool. A patient in my family was tired of guessing. We were tired of strain names that meant nothing, terpene profiles that meant something but only to people who already knew, and product packaging that felt designed for anyone except the person actually using it. So I built the thing I wished existed. Then I kept building it.

Who it is for

Medical patients, primarily. People managing pain, anxiety, sleep, nausea, neuropathy, inflammation, or any of the conditions cannabis can sometimes help with. People who want to walk into a dispensary already knowing what to ask for, and walk out confident in what they bought.

It is also for the curious and the careful. Wellness-focused users who want to understand what they are putting in their body. Caregivers helping a parent or partner. Anyone who has ever read a strain name like "Stargazer Haze" and thought, what does that actually mean for me.

What I believe

• Honest information beats clever marketing.If a strain is sedating, the app should say sedating. If we do not know, the app should say we do not know. There is no version of this where bending the truth helps a patient.
• Your data is yours.We do not sell it. We do not rent it. We do not use it to advertise to you. The health information you enter exists to make the app better for you, full stop. The privacy policy says it plainly because it means it plainly.
• Software should respect the people who use it.No dark patterns. No upsell modals during a serious moment. No fake urgency. The companion will redirect medical questions to your dispensary pharmacist, every single time, because that is who is actually qualified to answer them.
• Built carefully, on purpose.This is a small studio. One person, mostly. That is a feature, not a bug. The trade-off is fewer features shipped per week. The benefit is that every feature gets the full attention of someone who cares.

Who built it

Hi, I’m Ross. I work at the intersection of technology, education, and community. I have spent years building tools and experiences for people who deserve thoughtful design and refused to settle for anything less. Terpenology pulls on all of that.

I built this with patients in mind because patients in my own life needed it. I believe healing of the body and healing of the soul belong in the same conversation. Tools like this sit somewhere in the middle. The plant has been in conversation with human beings for thousands of years. We are just trying to be honest about what it actually does, and trust people to make good decisions when they have good information.

If you have feedback, a story, or a strain you want me to look at, I would love to hear it. Email hello@shortpointfive.com and a real human will read it.