Sunset Connect is a San Francisco cannabis manufacturer and distributor founded by Ali Jamalian and run as Kiffen LLC. It works out of a Bryant Street facility in SoMa, holds California license C11-0001253-LIC and puts its weight behind one product: the Fulton 5'er, a single one-gram indoor pre-roll.
That focus shows up in the numbers. Headset ranked Sunset Connect No. 25 among California pre-roll brands for August 2026, with more than $500,000 in monthly sales across 154 licensed dispensaries.
From a Sunset District crew to a SoMa factory
The crew started as friends from freshman year at the University of San Francisco. Jamalian was born in Iran and raised in Germany before moving to the city for college. High Times says the team went official in 2014 after growing together for years, and around that time it brought cuts of classic cultivars to medical dispensaries. In the Sunset District, the operation was already known as The Sunset Connect.
Those cuts included White Widow, the 1995 Cannabis Cup winner, and Sunset Sherbet, which High Times says Mr. Sherbinski and Jigga created in a Sunset District garage around 2010. The name, the cultivars and the neighborhood all came from the same few blocks on the west side of the city.
Licensed in 2020 through San Francisco's equity program
San Francisco's Office of Cannabis issues local cannabis business permits and runs the city's Equity Program. The office limits permit applications to three groups: verified Equity Applicants, Equity Incubators and preexisting cannabis businesses. Equity Applicants must be verified by the office before they apply, and they can get free technical assistance. SF Weekly noted in 2020 that the program reaches past retail into distribution, manufacturing and delivery.
Jamalian built Sunset Connect through that pathway. Leaf Nation reported that the company received its state license in July 2020, and The Bold Italic put the facility build-out at 27 months. The Bold Italic also wrote that the program gave the company mentorship and lower entry fees. SF Weekly called Sunset Connect the city's first equity-owned manufacturer and distributor.
The company calls itself San Francisco's first 100% social equity-owned cannabis brand. On its Weedmaps brand page, it says it holds three of the city's equity operator licenses, and the listing shows state manufacturing license DCC-10004117.
Launch day at Barbary Coast
The first drops hit San Francisco shelves in October 2020. SF Weekly reported a debut at Barbary Coast on Mission Street on October 2, where the product sat on an equity display shelf alongside Emerald Sky and Gift of Doja. Leaf Nation named Mission Cannabis Club, Barbary Coast and BASA as the first stores to carry it.
The early catalog was broad. Leaf Nation's 2020 profile listed whole flower, bud pre-rolls, solventless hash-infused pre-rolls and gummies, with cultivars including Lava Dawg, Strawpicanna, Jungle Cake and Dosi-Pie. SF Weekly placed the operation in a former photo studio on Bryant Street, and Leaf Nation put it near Oracle Park.
Muni transfers, 100-gram batches and 25,000 joints a week
The look is pure San Francisco. The Sunset script uses the same curving letterforms as the 1975 Muni logo, and the packaging borrows the design of the city's old paper bus transfer tickets. High Times walked through that design in a May 2024 feature, and The Bold Italic described the same Muni transfer look in 2021.
Production runs on small numbers repeated at scale. Jamalian told High Times that batch size, 100 grams, is critical, and the magazine reported sales of about 25,000 pre-rolls each week. The 2024 line included hash-infused dogwalkers and trim pre-rolls that retailed at $5. Jamalian also planned to bring back Dosi-Pie, a Velvet Pie and Do-Si-Dos cross, as flower.
High Times described the facility as a former lambskin condom factory that later became a photography studio. The same feature named Sam Joo as the staffer handling compliance and production. In 2022 the SF Standard identified Jason Deming as director of manufacturing.
The Fulton 5'er lineup in 2026
The pitch has narrowed to one thing done well. The company site describes Fulton 5'ers as single one-gram indoor pre-rolls "built for people who actually smoke," and its pre-roll page also lists Dogwalkers and collaborations. The Weedmaps menu runs through Fulton 5'er strain names including:
- Doobie Nights, Doob Nation and Strawberry Jack
- Magic John Stoned, Tio Franky and Willie Haze
- Runtz N' Roses, Z-Line Pie and Sunset Popsicle
- 49'ers George Zkittlz Edition and Original Danksy
Headset's August 2026 data puts Doobie Nights, Doob Nation and Strawberry Jack at the top of a 23-SKU catalog. The average Sunset Connect item sold for $4.26 that month, and pre-rolls made up 100% of the brand's tracked sales. Weedmaps also lists Mookie Mints one-gram joints and a seven-gram Blackberry Horchata Big Buds flower bag.
Jamalian at City Hall and the budtender bar
Jamalian has spent years inside city cannabis policy. The SF Standard identified him as chair of San Francisco's Cannabis Oversight Committee in 2022, and High Times described him as a committee member in 2024. In April 2022 he told the SF Standard that the prior quarter was "a bloodbath" and that what little profit the company made went to tax payments.
He keeps the brand close to the people who sell it. High Times reported in 2024 that he puts on a monthly gathering for budtenders at a Sunset District bar. In 2021 The Bold Italic described a Legend Series micro-incubation program for local figures entering the industry, with collaborations featuring rapper San Quinn and Black C of RBL Posse, plus a partnership with United Playaz and Rudy Corpuz.
Where Sunset Connect sells in 2026
Headset tracks Sunset Connect in California, where it counted 154 licensed dispensaries carrying the brand in August 2026. The Weedmaps retailer list runs well past the Bay Area, into Desert Kush and Off the Charts in Indio, Higher Ground in San Bernardino and Moreno Valley, and The Cake House in Riverside. The company site runs a shop finder for San Francisco and California stores, plus a merch shop.
For adults 21 and over.