The TribeTokes Story

A book about stress changed the plan

Degelis Pilla (Dege for short, it rhymes with beige) started her career in finance. Investment banking at J.P. Morgan. Equity research at Sands Capital, covering nearly $2 billion in global retail investments. A CFA charter. Spreadsheets were her first language.

Then she read Robert Sapolsky’s Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers and watched the National Geographic documentary Stress: Portrait of a Killer. What the research says chronic stress does to a body hit her hard enough that she left finance. (Most people finish that book and download a meditation app. She changed careers.)

Her lungs said no to smoking

After a run as COO at startups, including the influencer agency Instafluence (acquired by Maker Studios in 2015), Dege went looking for a gentler way to use cannabis. Smoking flower was rough on her lungs. Vaping extracts at lower temperatures worked.

The oil was the problem. Most carts on the market were cut with fillers, additives and artificial flavors, and the label rarely told you which. So she built a supply chain from scratch and launched a strain-specific vape line that was actually plant-based and actually potent.

A $10,000 check from her savings

TribeTokes launched in 2017 on a $10,000 check from Dege’s savings. No investors, no board, no outside money since. We kept it that way on purpose, because nobody can pressure a company they don’t own into cheaper ingredients.

That matters more than it sounds. Rolling Stone reported in 2019 that the terpenes we use to keep vape oil from crystallizing can cost as much per gram as the cannabinoid oil itself. Cheaper thinners exist. We don’t use them.

Two founders, one standard

Dege met Kymberly Byrnes (KymB to everyone) at a Women Grow event in New York. Kym had spent 20 years in Pilates, owned her own studios, and was already a known name in New York cannabis as Women Grow’s NY Ambassador. They wanted the same thing: clean products, and a community of people who care what goes into their bodies.

Kym became co-founder and, as Chief Experience Officer, runs the side of the business you actually talk to: customer experience and community. If you’ve ever emailed us a question, you’ve been in Kym’s world.

The year vapes went sideways

In 2019, a wave of lung injuries tied to illicit, bootleg carts made national news, and every vape brand got a hard second look. We were already a step ahead, with a QR code on every package that links straight to that batch’s lab results.

“TribeTokes noticed the potential for illegal cartridge manufacturers to add fillers without alerting customers first. That’s one reason why, even before the current crisis, the company put a QR code on all of its packaging, which leads customers to the product’s lab results.”

Rolling Stone, 2019

Same rule, bigger catalog

The lineup grew past vapes into gummies, THCa flower, tinctures, pain creams and pet CBD. The rule didn’t budge: never sell a product you wouldn’t give your own mother or sister.

Each batch is third-party lab tested, and the reports are public on our lab results page.

Inc. has noticed twice. In 2024 it named Dege to its Female Founders 250 for offering free and affordable CBD to patients and veterans. In 2026, TribeTokes made the Inc. 5000 list of America’s fastest-growing private companies at No. 2,888, with 108% three-year growth and still zero outside investment.

Welcome to the Tribe. ✌