Before Will Brophy joined Nabis, the cannabis industry’s top licensed wholesaling platform, as its chief operating officer, he worked with more traditional forms of supply chain distribution. Now, Brophy—who has been with the West Coast–based organization for more than six years—is embedded in Nabis’s eastern expansion and the development of a major facility right here in Rochester.
Brophy—a Rochester-area native who grew up and attended high school in Geneva—recently returned home following a decade spent traveling between Brooklyn and Oakland, California. After a more than ten-year absence, Brophy still speaks fondly of the community that raised him.
“I love how accessible nature is here—being just minutes away from lakes, parks, and trails—as does my Australian shepherd, Watson,” Brophy says. “Not to mention the rolling hills and charming small towns—that’s a huge draw for me.”
But it’s not just the vibrant natural surroundings that brought Brophy—and Nabis—back to Rochester. Rather, the area’s existing infrastructure combined with its relatively affordable housing costs and supportive local community as well as the proximity to Buffalo and Syracuse make the city an ideal location for the company’s Upstate New York leg.
“Cannabis is an infrastructurally intensive business, so our Rochester facility is a repurposed Kodak manufacturing plant,” says Brophy. “We were able to come in and really take advantage of a lot of the great assets that are already here in the city.” In addition to the Rochester plant, Nabis recently opened a second New York–based facility in the Bronx. This location primarily serves the downstate region.
Nabis nurtures its reputation as a trusted cannabis wholesaler across California, Nevada, and New York by differentiating its expanding product line from competitors. “We’ve got a whole suite of supply chain solutions and offerings,” says Brophy. “Our marketplace is one of our [unique features] in that it lets retailers purchase products directly. We also have very robust analytics offerings which set us apart as well.”
And it’s not just retailers and consumers who benefit from Nabis’s diverse offerings; the company’s more than 400 brand representatives also reap the rewards. Unlike other cannabis wholesalers, Nabis doesn’t operate under a traditional distribution model. Instead of purchasing products and reselling—a common industry practice—brands manage their own sales while Nabis handles the analytics.
“Nabis is really trying to take on the role of providing access to choice so an end consumer can pick the products that resonate the most with them. We believe we’ve helped create a more egalitarian [cannabis] market. What wins out in the market ultimately depends on the consumers’ needs,” says Brophy. “We are here to help facilitate the supply chain, and we believe that what’s going to destigmatize cannabis the most is if people have a choice.”
When it comes to state regulations around cannabis, there is no status quo, as industry guidelines continue to evolve. “We do the best we can to try to anticipate some of these [regulatory] changes, but the metaphor we like to think of is, ‘We are whitewater rafting in an ever-flowing river.’ It would be great if everything was going to stay the same, but it’s not. It’s up to us to figure out how to navigate most effectively,” says Brophy. “Luckily, we are not a company that tends to rest on its laurels.”
Another industry obstacle is the acquisition of financial support. “You have to buy a lot of assets to stay afloat, and you’ve got to sell a lot too,” says Brophy. “Doing that in the cannabis space where there’s a lot of regulation regarding how—and from whom—you can take capital is certainly challenging.”
Nabis founders Vince C. Ning and Jun S. Lee started the company after the two software engineers identified a critical problem in the supply chain. “They were driving product around in an SUV when they realized that everything was just operating off of Google Sheets with no true technology platform,” says Brophy. “They went out to build [a platform] and, along the way, they realized they had to build the distribution foundation that sat underneath it.”
Since its 2018 birth in an SUV, Nabis has ballooned into an industry leader with no plans to curtail its rapid growth. “Over the coming years, we’re going to build in the states we’re in and expand to more states as well as rounding out our product offerings and figuring out all the ways we can support our brands, both in the markets we’re in and those we plan to be in,” says Brophy.
While further expansion remains on the horizon, Nabis is focused on pouring its energy into building an even bigger “community of people who care about the plant, the industry, and the end consumer,” says Brophy. “We are asking ourselves every day, every week, how do we get a little bit better?”
When Brophy isn’t busy working on the Nabis enterprise, he can be found around town soaking up Rochester’s eclectic culture—golfing, gardening, biking along the picturesque Erie Canal, spending time with family, or rooting for the Buffalo Bills.
Currently, there are several open positions on Nabis’s Rochester team. Brophy recommends that interested readers visit the company’s website, nabis.com, for more information.
This article originally appeared in the January/February 2026 issue of (585).
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