“People wanted discreet, affordable vapes that didn’t scream ‘vape.’ But we weren’t about to sink cash without proof,” says Marc Pitts, co-founder of Discount Vape Pen, recalling the calculated gamble that would set the course for one of the most quietly influential businesses in the American vaping industry.
Marc Pitts didn’t start his career with a trust fund or venture capital backing. He built his New Jersey-based vaping supplies business from a bedroom hustle, teaching himself web development from an HTML book and testing his first product on eBay. It’s a story that resonates with a particular kind of American ambition: practical, patient, and built on direct experience rather than borrowed blueprints.
Growing up in the suburbs of New Jersey, Marc Pitts didn’t own a computer until after high school graduation. When he enrolled in college in 2007 to study marketing, he expected something forward-looking. Instead, he found a curriculum that hadn’t kept pace with the internet economy. “The college program felt stuck in the past,” he told Resident Magazine. “There was very little about internet marketing or even mobile apps.” By his third year, he dropped out, convinced he could learn faster on his own.
That instinct proved right. In 2010 he picked up an HTML book, built his first website, and started experimenting with affiliate marketing. “That hands-on grind beat any classroom,” he later reflected.
By 2014, Pitts and his business partner spotted an opportunity in the emerging vaping industry. The USB thumb drive-style Ego CE-4 pen caught their attention, but they weren’t going to invest heavily without proof of demand. Rather than committing capital upfront, they listed a single product on their personal eBay account. Orders came flooding in immediately. Those first sales funded their inventory expansion and eventually their first retail location. “We saw the gap,” Pitts has said of that moment. “Orders flooded in immediately.”
Discount Vape Pen has grown from that single eBay listing into a full-scale online and retail operation serving hundreds of thousands of customers across the United States. The company keeps its prices accessible by maintaining direct relationships with manufacturers, cutting out middlemen who inflate costs, and offering same-day shipping on qualifying orders.
Growth, Marc Pitts will tell you, was never the result of aggressive forecasting. “Customer feedback drives it all,” he has said. “We listen on Reddit, at expos, and through reviews.” That community-first philosophy still runs deep at Discount Vape Pen. “People need to know its safety profile, how devices work, and what’s changing with regs,” Pitts has said. “Reddit’s huge for us.”
The business has not been without its tests. The American vaping industry has faced sustained regulatory pressure over the past decade, and Marc Pitts has navigated each turn with the same pragmatism that defined his early years. “Regs shift fast in this industry,” he has acknowledged. “We’re compliant-first.” In 2024, Discount Vape Pen stepped back entirely from nicotine products, refocusing on cannabis accessories including 510-thread batteries, cartridges, dry herb vaporizers, and hemp-derived THC products.
When asked what advice he’d give to entrepreneurs starting out today, Pitts keeps it simple. “Keep it lean and customer-obsessed,” he has said. “Validate every step. Hire for passion and embrace the grind.”
There is an honesty to the way Marc Pitts talks about building his business that feels out of step with the curated narratives of startup culture. No pivot decks. No angel rounds. Just a single eBay listing, a good instinct for what people wanted, and the discipline to build systems that could last.
