(BizJournals) - A subscription-based startup that sends different strains of marijuana to its customers each month has recently debuted in California.

Dane Pieri launched San Francisco-based Marvina last November.

He said his company is like a "wine club for cannabis," in which each of its subscribers receive a monthly shipment of three or four different strains of marijuana with product descriptions, effects and flavor profiles. The subscription starts at $95 per month.

Pieri said he came up with the idea for his own business after seeing how intimidating it was for novice medical-marijuana patients to choose among the different strains at a dispensary.

"Everything is behind the counter and you have to talk to an expert, and for someone who's not super knowledgeable," he said. "It can be intimidating."

Marvina works with local marijuana dispensaries to deliver the boxes, and Pieri said it operates in full compliance with California's state and local marijuana laws. Its subscribers, of which there are currently "less than 100," are medical marijuana patients who must furnish proof that they are using marijuana for medicinal purposes.

The company is self-funded with "tens of thousands of dollars" to date, said Pieri, formerly head of product for San Francisco-based YellowDog Media. He said he'll likely appeal to angel investors for a seed-funding round this year, especially in light of PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel's recent investment in a Seattle-based marijuana startup through his investment firm, Founders Fund.

"I think it takes somebody like him to be a first-mover," Pieri said. "When somebody like him does that, it'll give other shy investors (the confidence) to do the same thing."

Though Marvina is currently only available in California, the company plans to eventually expand to other states such as Oregon, Colorado and Arizona.

Pieri is the son of entrepreneur Jules Pieri, co-founder and CEO of Massachusetts-based The Grommet, and Desmond Pieri, chief operating officer at Boston-based startup accelerator MassChallenge.

"I learned a lot about business listening to them at dinner, talking about Boston business and tech news, even when I was in middle school and high school," he said in an interview.

Pieri's co-founder is Derek Dahmer, who was previously a software engineer at Vistaprint's Boston office and launched his first company, test-prep startup Prepfly, in Boston.