Claybourne Co. is an Inland Empire cannabis company that grows indoor flower in Perris, California, and sells it as jars, Flyers pre-rolls and vapes. Nick Ortega, Jonathan Griffith and Brent Barnes started it in 2017. Headset ranked it No. 5 among California flower brands and No. 7 in pre-rolls for July 2026.
That's a long way from white-label product. Headset now tracks Claybourne in three U.S. states and three Canadian provinces.
Three founders and a white-label start
Ortega runs the company as co-founder and CEO. He holds a mechanical engineering degree from Cal Poly Pomona and an MBA from UC Irvine, and he worked as a global product manager at Dover Corporation before cannabis. Barnes, co-founder and VP of cultivation, came from ornamental plant breeding. Griffith completes the founding trio.
Barnes told Pipp Horticulture's cultivation podcast in June 2023 that Claybourne launched with white-label product before it built its own cultivation. The show titled the episode "Always on the Gas." The founders self-funded the business with $3 million before outside money arrived.
The $17.5 million build-out in Perris
In October 2021 Claybourne closed a $17.5 million oversubscribed raise: a $10 million Series A led by Green Acre Capital, a $5 million working-capital line from Bespoke Financial and $2.5 million in equipment financing.
The money went to a 45,000-square-foot cultivation facility in Perris, proprietary genetics, the Flyers pre-roll and Eagle Extracts concentrate lines, and expansion into states with open markets. Headset had Claybourne as the No. 3 flower brand in California by retail sales for 2021 through that October, and No. 12 overall.
Three-tier racks and 30 cultivars
By 2023 the company ran two grow facilities, an original single-story building and a newer multi-tier one on Pipp Horticulture racking. Flowering rooms run roughly 2,100 square feet, and three tiers push canopy past 3,500 square feet per room, with 5.5 feet of growing space per tier.
Plants sit in 3-gallon peat moss pots on drip irrigation under LEDs, with a Thrive controller and Lennox HVAC units running the climate. Barnes kept more than 30 cultivars in rotation, cycled mother plants every four to six weeks and pulled fresh mother stock from tissue culture every three months.
Gold Cuts, Private Stock and the Power line
The menu splits by genetics. Gold Cuts are cultivars Claybourne bred and selected in-house, and Private Stock carries heritage varieties. Barnes named The Judge, a GMO selection that finishes in under 70 days, alongside ChemD, Blue Dream and Mimosa. He also said the brand reached more than 60% of California retail locations.
The Power line pairs flower with kief. The Power Pack launched on May 24, 2019, with an eighth of smalls and a gram of kief in a reusable pouch, and Power Stacks combine 2.5 grams of ground flower with a gram of kief. Claybourne also packed a 1-ounce Top Shelf jar.
Frosted Flyers head north
Flyers started as an indoor-flower pre-roll line. Frosted Flyers add liquid diamonds to the flower. CONBUD's Lower East Side store in New York City listed a Wedding Cake Frosted Flyers five-pack of 0.5-gram joints at $50, tested at 39% THC.
Canopy Growth took the brand to Canada under an exclusive licensing agreement. On November 20, 2024, it launched Claybourne Frosted Flyers in Blue Dream, Strawberry Cough, Pineapple Express, Grape Gasolina and Banana OG, sold as three-packs of 0.5-gram joints plus a five-joint variety pack.
Canopy listed the single-strain packs at 42–48% THC. Ortega, by then president and CEO, said the launch gave Canadian adult-use consumers products they "can't find elsewhere."
Rodeo riders and skaters as ambassadors
Claybourne skipped the usual influencer playbook in March 2022. Its ambassador roster included rodeo competitor Eli Necochea, freestyle motocross rider Colby Raha, skateboarder Collin "Provider" Provost, BMX rider Hobie Doan, chain-stitch embroidery artist Bill Farrelly and stained-glass artist Madison Hahn.
HVAC entrepreneur and motorcycle racer Chris Gil and barber and Harley-Davidson racer Clayton Braun rounded it out, with Joey daRoza directing the program. Ortega framed it as building an approachable cannabis brand that meets customers where they are.
Six markets and 587 stores in 2026
Headset tracked Claybourne in 587 licensed dispensaries in its August 4, 2026 snapshot, 423 of them in California, with sales in Alberta, British Columbia, California, Nevada, New York and Ontario. July 2026 sales ran 12.9% ahead of July 2025 across 548 SKUs, and vapes ranked No. 18 in California.
Pre-rolls made up 58.2% of July sales, flower 28.1% and vapes 13.7%. Frosted Flyers held the top four product spots, led by a 2.5-gram variety five-pack, and Mule Fuel eighths ranked fifth. In Oakland, NUG lists Claybourne among the brands on its dispensary shelves.
For adults 21 and over.