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In this episode of the Legacies Podcast, host Tom Ritchie sits down with Jonathan Carfield (CEO & Founder of AVEO), Keith Bao (Executive VP & Partner of AVEO), and Chris Sharanewych (VP of Sales & Business Development at ATG Pharma). The panel discusses the evolution of cannabis vape technology and packaging automation, tracing how both sectors transitioned from decentralized garage operations to global, highly regulated manufacturing systems.
Chris Sharanewych shares the origin story of ATG Pharma, explaining how the company adapted pharmaceutical-grade capsule and bottle filling systems to automate vape and tincture packaging. He recounts how introducing benchtop filling machines to early Canadian Licensed Producers (LPs) like Tilray transformed slow, manual pipette filling processes into rapid automated runs. Jonathan Carfield recounts his years spent living in Shenzhen, China, detailing how hands-on, factory-floor quality control of component suppliers—such as ceramic coil formulations and metal shops—is the only way to eliminate cartridge failure and heavy-metal leaching rates.
In the second half, the panel addresses current market shifts, particularly the consumer transition from 510 cartridges to disposable all-in-one (AIO) devices. They analyze the technical difficulties of filling dual-chamber and switchable vapes and the logistical challenges of international expansion into Europe. Finally, the guests address the critical environmental impact of disposable vapes, warning about the hazards of lithium battery waste and calling for stricter regulatory standards and sustainable hardware alternatives.
Tom Ritchie Says: Welcome to Legacies, everyone! Legacies is powered by AVEO, leaders in sustainable vape hardware. It just so happens that two of my guests this week are from AVEO—Jonathan Carfield and Keith Bao—and our third guest, Chris Shar, is from ATG Pharma, supplying cutting-edge packaging and filling automation to the global cannabis industry. Gentlemen, welcome to Legacies!
Chris Shar Says: Hey, Tom! Great to be here. Good to connect again with Keith and JC.
Keith Bao Says: Awesome to be here, Tom. Excited for the conversation!
Jonathan Carfield Says: Good to see you again, Tom. Joining you all the way from Bangkok at midnight!
Tom Ritchie Says: You’re an absolute trooper, JC! Let’s dive right in. This industry changes weekly, but the real bedrock is relationships and engineering the infrastructure while the plane is flying. Chris, let’s start with your origin story with ATG Pharma.
Chris Shar Says: Ironically, cannabis is the only industry I’ve ever known. During my second year at Queen’s University in Kingston, my housemate’s father stopped by on his way to Montreal. He had spent 15 years as an engineer in the pharmaceutical industry and was operating as a solopreneur in his garage building benchtop filling machinery under the name ATG Pharma. He told me, “I build a machine, then I have to sell it, then I build another one.” He had brilliant engineering but no marketing or business development strategy.
Chris Shar Says: I brought a youthful business perspective. In 2015, my co-founder and I loved cannabis and saw the Canadian LP wave emerging with Tweed, Tilray, and Aurora. I emailed the coordinator of the original Lift Expo asking if our pharmaceutical capsule and tincture filling machines would be relevant to cannabis. He said, “I think those guys really need it.” We scraped together money for a booth at Lift, and people were literally lined up with briefcases of cash wanting to automate their facilities.
Chris Shar Says: In 2017, I visited Tilray. They had eight technicians lined up at a table manually filling 30ml tincture bottles using hand pipettes on micro-scales. We wheeled in our benchtop automated machine and filled a full 100-bottle tray in 60 seconds. The operators’ jaws hit the floor. Fast forward to today: we have over 350 cannabis clients globally, three facilities, and we provide accessible automation starting at $30,000 to $40,000 so craft producers don’t need million-dollar industrial setups to achieve commercial throughput.
Tom Ritchie Says: Jonathan, you took a fascinating journey into vape hardware manufacturing. Take us back to the early Washington days.
Jonathan Carfield Says: Before cannabis, I worked in investment banking, hardware manufacturing for a Taiwanese computer company, enterprise software, and broadcast media in South Korea. When I returned to Washington state around 2013 and 2014, legalization was kicking off under Initiative 502 in Tacoma. We initially launched an ancillary distribution company in our garage, mirroring the Direct-Store-Delivery model used by Coca-Cola and Frito-Lay. We installed retail planograms and display cases in medical dispensaries, supplying bongs, grinders, rolling papers, and butane.
Jonathan Carfield Says: We grew from ten dispensaries to 350 retail locations across Washington and Oregon in twelve months because we were reliable and actually sent invoices on time. That reputation led producers to ask us to distribute their concentrates. When adult-use arrived, we became a licensed processor. Ten years ago, extractors started taking crude BHO and loading it into early nicotine e-cig pens. It leaked everywhere, burned the oil, and produced catastrophic failure rates. We lost fortunes in wasted oil dealing with middlemen and trading companies.
Jonathan Carfield Says: I realized that no one understood how these devices were actually engineered. So my family and I packed our bags, moved to China, and literally camped out in Shenzhen factories. We didn’t just tour assembly lines—we audited the raw material vendors: the silicone moulders, the precision metal shops, and the ceramic formulation labs. We approached hardware with the Apple philosophy: hardware and software must be seamlessly integrated. In our world, the hardware is the vape device and the software is the cannabis extract.
Tom Ritchie Says: Keith, you have an inspiring personal entry into cannabis. How did you connect with Jonathan and step into leadership at AVEO?
Keith Bao Says: In 2015, I experienced a family tragedy and stepped away from tech startups to care for my 105-year-old grandmother. She was prescribed an exhausting cocktail of pharmaceuticals where each pill was prescribed to manage the adverse side effect of another pill. I researched natural alternatives and discovered medical cannabis. However, despite her legal rights, medical stigma prevented us from accessing it. I originally grew up wanting to be a Christian missionary—I had never smoked a joint or consumed alcohol—but I became an impassioned cannabis advocate before ever trying the plant.
Keith Bao Says: I began consulting with early Vancouver dispensaries and witnessed the explosion of concentrates and vape pens. In 2015 and 2016, vape failure rates averaged 30%. CCELL came along and brought failures down to 5%, which felt revolutionary. But then top extractors began switching to AVD because their failure rates were under 1%, capping was easier, and flavor retention was vastly superior. I reached out to Jonathan directly, and our shared commitment to patient safety and hardware integrity led to partnering on AVEO.
Tom Ritchie Says: Chris, as a Canadian automation manufacturer dealing with US tariffs and trade friction, does being Canadian help or hinder ATG Pharma globally?
Chris Shar Says: We work with roughly 60 Canadian producers and over 200 operators across the United States. While US trade politics create occasional friction, our Canadian identity is an enormous competitive advantage in Europe and Australia. Europe requires rigorous EU-GMP pharmaceutical compliance. Because Canada’s early regulatory framework mandated strict pharmaceutical-grade GMP standards, European and Australian clients trust Canadian automation engineering inherently. Our European business is growing 15% to 20% year-over-year.
Tom Ritchie Says: Jonathan, walk us through the hardware innovations that eliminated the infamous capping bottleneck.
Jonathan Carfield Says: Early 510 cartridges required operators to hand-twist tiny threaded mouthpieces onto filled cartridges one by one. It was an ergonomic nightmare that caused severe repetitive strain injuries. CCELL introduced an arbor-press fit, but you still had to press mouthpieces individually with high leverage. We engineered the Easy-Press system: pre-racked mouthpieces delivered in alignment trays that snap securely into place using minimal downward pressure, sealing a full 50-unit tray in a single stroke.
Tom Ritchie Says: Ontario Cannabis Store data revealed that vapes represent the single highest category of consumer product complaints, with over 22,000 return tickets logged in Ontario alone.
Keith Bao Says: Overseas factories manufacturing generic hardware in China cannot legally touch, test, or vaporize cannabis extracts. Cannabis oil viscosities and terpene fractions behave completely differently than thin nicotine e-liquids. A successful vape experience depends on three interlocking variables: first, medical-grade hardware engineered for specific oil viscosities; second, strict filling and capping SOPs to prevent premature vacuum release; and third, consumer education regarding battery voltage.
Keith Bao Says: If an extractor buys cheap unvetted hardware to save five cents a cartridge, they risk six-figure product recalls. Saving pennies on hardware is the most expensive mistake an LP can make. Through the Canadian Standards of Cannabis (C-SAC), we are working with leaders like Walker Patton at Woody Nelson to establish enforceable hardware testing benchmarks across Canada.
Tom Ritchie Says: Chris, with hardware evolving rapidly from 510s to dual-chamber switchable vapes and massive 3-gram devices, how does ATG keep up from a robotics standpoint?
Chris Shar Says: We view hardware customization as our greatest competitive advantage. We have dedicated mechanical engineers working directly with AVEO’s product design teams. When an LP requests a dual-chamber or switchable vape, we don’t force them to run cartridges through the machine twice. Our RoboCAP systems utilize synchronized dual-vessel heating lines with twin automated nozzles, dispensing two completely distinct extract formulations into adjacent chambers simultaneously without cross-contamination.
Tom Ritchie Says: All-in-one disposables are surging in retail sales, but they create catastrophic electronic waste. Are regulators going to step in?
Jonathan Carfield Says: History repeats itself. When Washington first legalized, regulators tested for potency and mold while completely overlooking pesticides until an investigative news report exposed rampant contamination. Vape hardware is the current regulatory blind spot. Disposables are a dream for low-tier factories because consumers discard the entire lithium battery and circuit board after a single use, forcing repeat sales.
Keith Bao Says: Beyond environmental landfill waste, disposables are causing severe public safety crises. Municipal waste compactors and recycling facilities are experiencing catastrophic fires when crushed lithium batteries enter thermal runaway. Regular fire extinguishers cannot put out lithium battery fires, and sanitation workers have been severely injured. As fathers, we have a moral obligation to engineer sustainable, plant-based alternatives before government bans force the issue.
Tom Ritchie Says: Will the cannabis sector ever adopt refillable bottles and open pod systems like nicotine?
Jonathan Carfield Says: Open architecture 510 platforms are like the Windows of vaping—when consumers pair cartridges with cheap variable-voltage batteries cranked to 4.5 volts, they scorch the terpene profile and blame the extract brand. All-in-ones deliver a closed, optimized thermal curve. However, proprietary pod systems failed because consumers resent being locked into a single brand’s battery ecosystem.
Chris Shar Says: Mainstream consumer behavior prioritizes convenience. The massive consumer shift toward the compact “Elf Bar” form factor in nicotine is mirrored in cannabis. Consumers demand grab-and-go convenience without sticky syringes or messy refills. Our responsibility as equipment and hardware providers is to deliver that convenience using biodegradable bioplastics and recyclable components.
Jonathan Carfield Says: Fly-by-night factories that manufactured fidget spinners three years ago are now manufacturing cheap vape pens. When the EVALI pulmonary illness crisis struck in 2019, our business expanded dramatically because AVEO had spent years conducting third-party heavy metal leaching tests. We passed every state test because our ceramics and medical-grade metals were engineered without toxic shortcuts.
Jonathan Carfield Says: It took us four and a half years of rigorous engineering to develop AVEO Earth using hemp biocomposites. True innovation requires years of discipline before the market recognizes the need.
Tom Ritchie Says: As we wrap up, what has been the most profound moment in your cannabis career?
Keith Bao Says: In 2016, I provided Rick Simpson Oil to a young father in his late 30s battling terminal cancer. His chemotherapy had left him severely nauseous and incapacitated. The oil restored his appetite, eliminated his nausea, and allowed him to spend his final months fully lucid and communicating with his wife and young toddler. Knowing we gave that family precious quality time before he passed away cemented my dedication to this plant. I’ve since supported over 50,000 patients.
Chris Shar Says: Walking onto the Lift Expo floor at age 20 and realizing automation could revolutionize commercial production for an entire industry. Years later, having the global president of CCELL fly to our headquarters because AVEO and ATG’s pre-racked Easy-Press system was outperforming them proved that collaborative innovation can transform a market.
Jonathan Carfield Says: Cannabis saved my wife’s life when conventional medicine failed and medical bills were mounting. Seeing her reclaim her health is the driving force behind everything we build at AVEO. We demand safe, medical-grade hardware because real families rely on this medicine every single day.
Tom Ritchie Says: Chris, Keith, Jonathan—your dedication to safety, engineering precision, and human impact embodies the authentic spirit of Legacies. Thank you for joining me!
Jonathan Carfield Says: Thank you, Tom. It’s an absolute pleasure.
Keith Bao Says: Thanks so much, Tom. Appreciate you!
Chris Shar Says: Thanks, Tom and everyone! Super fun conversation.
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Founder & CEO
Jonathan Carfield is the founder and CEO of AVEO, specializing in cannabis vape hardware manufacturing and supply chain operations.
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Vapor Device Manufacturer
AVEO (AVEO Vapor Devices) is a manufacturer of vapor hardware and devices specializing in cannabis vape technology. The company develops...
Learn More About Partner ↗In the early days of legalization, laboratory staff filled vape cartridges and tincture bottles manually using pipettes and scales, which was slow and inaccurate. Benchtop automation systems, like those from ATG Pharma, allow operators to fill and cap trays of 100 cartridges in under a minute, ensuring consistent volumes and reducing labor costs.
Heavy metals and impurities can leach into cannabis oil if heating coils, metal housings, or silicone seals are constructed from low-grade materials. To prevent this, hardware designers like AVEO must inspect the source component manufacturers—including ceramic formulation and metal shops—rather than just the final assembly factories.
Disposable all-in-one (AIO) vapes contain built-in lithium-ion batteries. When consumers throw them in the trash instead of recycling them, it leads to significant environmental waste and fire hazards in landfills. The industry is currently facing pressure to adopt biodegradable plastics, recyclable battery cartridges, and active collection programs.
