Report ·
The Sherbinskis Handover
Mario Guzmán says he was pushed out of the brand that carries his name. He is right — and the buyers said so themselves, on the record, eight months ago, in an article that has since been deleted.
Updated 12 Sep with Bartholomew's response · PrimeTime has said nothing · USPTO · LASC · CA DCC · Wayback
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How to read this
- Documented
- A public record exists — USPTO filing, court docket, state licence, dated press release, or a dated post I read directly.
- Reported
- Stated by a named, credible industry figure or publication, but not verified against a primary record.
- Claimed
- One party's assertion about a contested fact. Recorded because it was said, not because it is established.
THE SHORT ANSWER
Guzmán was fired, and the buyer has already admitted it in print. A High Times interview published 30 January 2026 — now deleted from the site, recovered here from the Internet Archive — quotes PrimeTime co-founder Oleg Spektorov saying the company let go of essentially every Sherbinskis employee after the merger closed, "including … former CEO Mario Guzman," and then: "We weren't able to work out a good working relationship. So we ended up letting him go a few months later."
None of this happened this week. The deal closed in January 2023. Guzmán was out within months of that. Sherbinskis at the time was, by PrimeTime's account, carrying millions in debt, "sold repeatedly," and doing under $100,000 a month in California. PrimeTime structured it as a merger — giving up 18.5% of its own equity and absorbing roughly $10–11 million in debt and liability. That is why "I never sold a share" and "the brand was bought" are both true: the consideration was equity in PrimeTime and debt relief at the entity level, not a cheque to Guzmán for his stock.
Bartholomew's appointment was announced in January too. In the same interview, Spektorov said "We're bringing in Ryan Bartholomew from Doja as head of genetics," noting Bartholomew "had been involved with Sherbinskis in its early years." So the September videos are not a merger announcement. They are a three-year-old fact finally reaching the audience — and a founder choosing this moment to contest the story.
Guzmán is not claiming the trademark. Listen to what he actually says and his position is narrower — and far more defensible — than the argument the comment sections are having. He concedes the brand and claims the genetics: "I created Sherbinskis the brand, but they're not the owners of my genetics. They never have been. That's housed at Voice of the Plant" — a separate company he says he set up in 2020 for that purpose. And he confirms the deal himself: "In 2023, I did a merger with a company called Primetime."
The part that stays awkward is Bartholomew's. In 2023 he was the defendant in Zaftig, LLC v. Ryan Bartholomew — sued over the Doja marks by the entity that registered them, cross-claiming that he created the brand and the plaintiff held only a non-exclusive licence. That is Guzmán's argument, filed by Bartholomew, in the same year Guzmán was being let go. Guzmán makes the comparison himself, on camera: "funny coming from a guy that's losing his brand to bad partners, and now you're working with Primetime to do it with me."
HOW TO READ THE ENTRIES BELOW
Evidence key
Everything in the timeline carries one of three tags. Nothing is presented as settled unless a record backs it.
DOCUMENTED — A public record exists: USPTO filing, court docket, state license, dated press release, or dated post I read directly.
REPORTED — Stated by a named, credible industry figure or publication, but not something I could verify against a primary record.
CLAIMED — One party's assertion about a contested fact. Recorded because it was said, not because it is established.
THE DISPUTE
Two accounts of one transaction
Bartholomew's video went up first, around 5 September. Guzmán's answer came six days later, on the 11th. The buy-side column below is from neither of them — that is PrimeTime co-founder Oleg Spektorov, on the record to High Times, eight months earlier.
Mario Guzmán · @sherbinskis415
"I never sold a single share"
- "In 2023, I did a merger with a company called Primetime." He confirms the deal and the year.Documented
- "I created Sherbinskis the brand, but they're not the owners of my genetics. They never have been. That's housed at Voice of the Plant" — a company he says he founded in 2020 for exactly that purpose.Documented
- Promises he says were made and broken: scaling his genetics nationally, an executive role, an L.A. flagship store, bonuses. "They never had any intention to honor our deal."Claimed
- "I made multiple attempts to make this right and I was ignored and I was completely shut out. This is when I finally realized that I had to get my legal team involved."Documented
- To Bartholomew: "Posting a video in a lounge that I designed, talking about genetics that didn't come from me. Get my name out of your mouth… Ryan, we're not collaborators. We're not friends. You're working with the ops."Documented
Buy-side · PrimeTime Capital
"The brand was dying, and we let him go"
- Oleg Spektorov, co-founder, to High Times: "We pretty much let go of every single person that worked for Sherbinskis at the time" — including Guzmán.Documented
- "We weren't able to work out a good working relationship. So we ended up letting him go a few months later."Documented
- "They did very cool marketing… Reputationally, it was still one of the top brands. But operationally, they had done very poorly in California."Documented
- Deal terms on the record: 18.5% of PrimeTime's equity given up, $10–11m of debt and liability absorbed, closed January 2023.Documented
- Alien Labs' Ted, publicly: "Sherbinski sold his brand brother. You're listening to a spin made to make someone look bad."Reported
WHERE IT ACTUALLY BREAKS
One irreconcilable conflict, and one unanswerable quote
Set the videos against the January interview and most of this turns out to be two people describing the same events in different registers. Two things do not reconcile.
Conflict · how long he stayed
Spektorov, January 2026: Guzmán "remained involved briefly after the merger… we ended up letting him go a few months later."
Guzmán, September 2026: "After the merger, I spent a year and a half advocating for our combined business. I actually closed one of the only licensing deals that they did in that time, which was in Florida."
A few months versus eighteen months, with a named closed deal attached. Both cannot be true, and the Florida licence is checkable. This is the fact that decides whose account of the whole period holds.
Answered · the text exchange
Guzmán said Bartholomew contacted him earlier this year, eventually told him he was working with PrimeTime, was warned off, and replied: "Sherb, times are tough… I need the money."
Until this afternoon that was single-sourced and uncorroborated, and it was the most damaging line in either video. Bartholomew has now confirmed the substance of it himself, in his own response — he says he called Guzmán before the deal to tell him he was going to work with PrimeTime, and that "I'm telling you I need the money, brother." He puts it forward as evidence he behaved honourably. It is also the first corroboration of the one exchange nobody else could reach.
Correction · what Bartholomew said
He does not claim Doja Pak bought Sherbinskis. His words: "the company is under new ownership, you know, they're bringing in some new energy" — ownership unattributed — and "I'm going to be working as head of genetics for the Sherbinskis company moving forward."
His lower third reads RYAN | HEAD OF GENETICS, not owner. The "Doja now owns Sherbinskis" framing came from the retelling, not from him. It matches the January article exactly.
THE RESPONSE
Bartholomew answers, and corroborates the one line nobody could check
Posted to @doja.pak at 4:30pm Eastern on 12 September 2026, captioned "This will be my only response." Three minutes and eighteen seconds, filmed outdoors, no lower third. This is Ryan Bartholomew speaking for himself. PrimeTime Capital still has not said anything, and nothing below should be read as the company's position.
He says he called first — and confirms the money line himself. Bartholomew's account is that when PrimeTime approached him, before the Sherbinskis deal, he reached out to Guzmán directly, told him he was about to start working with them, and offered to mediate: "I'm doing it out of respect for the brand." He also says, in his own telling, "I'm telling you I need the money, brother." That is the quote Guzmán attributed to him in a private message — the most damaging line in either video, and until this afternoon uncorroborated. Bartholomew volunteers it as proof he behaved honourably.Documented
He says the friendship was never what Guzmán is describing. "I never thought you were my friend. Let's just be honest. I was never confused thinking, Mario's my friend. Like, I knew what it was." He describes being talked down to for years — Guzmán calling him mi hijo, his son — and says he let it go.Claimed
He claims he carried the brand when others would not. Four to five years repping Sherbinskis, he says, through a stretch when "Mario and the rest of the Cookie fam turned their backs on you and stopped working with you" and "Connected wasn't fucking with you," and he stayed neutral through it. This is a claim about a period the public record does not cover.Claimed
He says he was turned down in 2023. That PrimeTime's partners asked Guzmán to do a Doja collab that year, off the back of Bartholomew's MVP of the Year, and Guzmán said no — "that's beneath me."Claimed
He rejects the framing outright. "It's not cool for you to go online and spell out a narrative that's false and act like other people are the ones that are being deceitful. I never betrayed you." And on where each of them ended up: "You're the one that made the decisions to get you into the position that you're in today. I didn't make those decisions. I made different decisions, which is why I'm where I'm at today."Claimed
He offers to sit down. "If you want to, you know, sit down like men and talk about shit, we can do that. If you want to go online and try to air me out online, we can do that." It closes with "Hope you have a good day, brother."
THE CAPTION
The caption does more work than the video
He wrote it out underneath. It is the part of the response that contains actual numbers, and it is where he answers the ownership question without being asked.
"If you raise nearly $20 million for a company you have to give something up to do that." This is the most useful sentence anyone has produced in the whole dispute. Bartholomew says Sherbinskis raised close to $20 million before PrimeTime, then "blew through all of that raised money" and ran up nearly $10 million in debt on top of it. If that is even roughly right, Guzmán's stake was diluted by his own funding rounds years before any merger — which is exactly how "I never sold a single share" and "I do not control my brand" end up both being true, with no villain required in the middle.Claimed
"None of the previous groups were ever able to do" it. Previous groups, plural. That is Bartholomew independently corroborating Spektorov's "sold repeatedly" — the ownership of Sherbinskis changed hands more than once before PrimeTime, and nobody in public has named those parties.Claimed
He disputes the genetics claim without making it. "I'm not going to start trying to discredit anyone or share what I know about who really created the genetics that he claims, but there's a lot more to the story than what is being told." Guzmán's entire position narrows to the genetics — it is the one thing he says he still owns. Bartholomew is signalling he contests it and choosing not to say more.Claimed
On his own role: "I didn't get paid to be the face of a brand, I get paid to provide genetics because that's what I actually do." Consistent with the head-of-genetics title and with him never claiming ownership.Documented
On the merger being two failing companies: "Boutiq is probably the biggest vape company in the world — how could a failing company merge with another failing company?" Boutiq is PrimeTime's retail vape brand, which lines up with the January interview. The superlative is his.Claimed
And the closer, which tells you how he is reading the week: "I appreciate the free promotion, a lot of you dudes don't have any motion unless you're putting my face on your feed."
One line that is going to get quoted wrong.
Arguing that Guzmán should want the business to succeed, Bartholomew says: "I know you still own a piece of the brand." Read one way that is an insider saying the founder still holds equity. Read the other way — the way it sits in the sentence, next to "you should want the brand to do well" — it is the ordinary thing you say to a man whose name is on the door. A piece of it is still his in the sense that everyone means when they say that.
Nothing supports the first reading. Spektorov's on-record account is that Guzmán was let go a few months after close. No assignment, no filing and no company statement shows a retained stake, and people close to the business describe him as fully out. His own caption points the other way too — if you raise twenty million dollars, you give something up. One ambiguous clause in an argument is not evidence of a cap table. I am recording it because he said it, not because it establishes anything.Claimed
What he does not do is claim ownership. Nowhere in three minutes does he say Doja Pak bought Sherbinskis, and nowhere does he speak for PrimeTime. He is describing a job he took from people he calls his friends, and the version of events he is contesting is Guzmán's, not the register's.
THE PAPER TRAIL
Who has actually owned these names
This is the part no one in the comment sections has checked. Neither founder's personal name appears anywhere on the register. Both brands were registered by holding entities — and in Doja's case, by the entity that later sued the founder.
SHERBINSKIS family — USPTO register
| Filed | Serial | Mark | Registrant | Covers |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 Apr 2016 | 86962271 | SHERBINSKI'S | LMS International, LLC | Apparel |
| 20 Dec 2016 | 87275013 | SHERBINSKIS | LMS International, LLC | Apparel, rolling papers · reg. 6113856, 28 Jul 2020 · first use claimed 1 Jun 2011 |
| 21 Dec 2016 | 87276845 | SHERBINSKIS | LMS International | Medical cannabis information |
| 30 Dec 2016 | 87285678 | SHERBINSKIS | LMS International | Apparel |
| 1 Jan 2017 | 87286742 | SHERBINSKIS | LMS International | Online cannabis resources |
| 2 Feb 2018 | — | S (logo) | Aphaea, LLC | Vaporizer batteries |
| 29 Jul 2019 | — | GELATO | Aphaea, LLC | Hemp pre-rolls, flower |
| 6 Jan 2020 | 88748416 | SHERBINSKIS | Aphaea, LLC | Hemp cigarettes |
| 16 Nov 2021 | — | S (logo) | Aphaea, LLC | Apparel |
| 13 May 2026 | 99821896 | SHERBINSKIS | Aphaea, LLC | Classes 5 / 34 / 35 — vapes, flower, prerolls, concentrates, retail. Counsel: Hannah Strassburger, Feuerstein Kulick LLP |
The last row is the interesting one. On 13 May 2026 Aphaea filed a brand-new SHERBINSKIS application covering the whole business — vapes, flower, prerolls, concentrates, retail — through Feuerstein Kulick, a firm whose cannabis practice runs on debt finance and lender-side work. Earlier filings used different counsel. Three years after close, that looks like PrimeTime pulling the mark under its own institutional lawyers ahead of the multi-state and international push Spektorov described. It says something about how the brand is run now. It does not say a second deal happened.
DOJA family — USPTO register
| Filed | Serial | Mark | Registrant | Covers |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nov 2020 | 90348775 | DOJA EXCLUSIVE | Zaftig, LLC | Apparel, stickers, rolling trays |
| Nov 2020 | — | DARWIN FARMS | Zaftig, LLC | Apparel, stickers |
| Nov 2020 | — | EVOLVED EXTRACTS | Zaftig, LLC | Apparel, stickers |
| 26 Jan 2021 | 90490370 | DOJA PAK | Zaftig, LLC | Clothing, footwear, headwear |
| 26 Jan 2021 | 90976039 | DOJA PAK | Zaftig, LLC | Retail store services |
| 26 Jan 2021 | 90976038 | DOJA PAK | Zaftig, LLC | Cannabis agricultural education |
| 28 Jan 2021 | 90494888 | DOJA PAK | Zaftig, LLC | Stickers, decals |
| 28 Jan 2021 | 90976156 | DOJA PAK | Zaftig, LLC | Rolling papers, trays · reg. 6630728 |
| Feb 2023 | — | DOJA | Zaftig, LLC | Stickers, lighters, trays |
TIMELINE
Thirty years, two brands, one structure
Dates are as recorded in the underlying source. Social posts are stamped in Eastern time.
Origins · 1990s – 2015
Ryan Bartholomew starts working with cannabis at 16Documented
Northern California. High Times later dates the beginning of his involvement to roughly 1998–99.
Mario Guzmán licenses as a realtor at 20, moves to the Bay AreaDocumented
Raised in Sacramento and Roseville; played high-school football alongside Tedy Bruschi. When the property market turned he began growing in a garage to cover bills, then moved into the Prop 215 / SB 420 dispensary supply world full time.
Earliest "first use in commerce" date later claimed for the SHERBINSKIS markDocumented
Asserted in serial 87275013. This is the register's own account of when the brand began trading.
Bartholomew attends his first High Times Medical Cannabis Cup in San FranciscoDocumented
Described in the 2021 High Times profile as the networking moment that set up everything after it.
First Prop 215 cultivation operation in Sacramento; partnership with breeder Rusty beginsDocumented
Sherbinskis' own site dates the brand to this yearDocumented
"Founders of the world-famous Gelato strains, based in Los Angeles, CA. Est. in 2014." Sunset Sherbert and the Gelato line — Bacio, Mochi, Gello, Acai Berry, Pink Panties — come out of this period. Guzmán's strains have since been name-checked in over 300 hip-hop records.
The brands incorporate · 2016 – 2019
LMS International, LLC registers five SHERBINSKIS marksDocumented
The first time the name is claimed as property, it is claimed by a company — not by Mario Guzmán as an individual. Everything downstream follows from this.
Prop 64 passes; Bartholomew begins formalising Doja as a brandDocumented
Aphaea, LLC appears on the register with the Sherbinskis "S" logoDocumented
A second corporate vehicle now sits behind the brand. Aphaea goes on to hold the GELATO mark and every subsequent SHERBINSKIS filing; its Brandfolder account manages Sherbinskis California and Sherbinskis Arizona assets.
Bartholomew relocates to Los Angeles; Doja's expansion acceleratesDocumented
Will Htun is named CEO and co-founder of SherbinskisDocumented
In the vaporizer launch release, Guzmán is "Mr. Sherbinski, founder and master cultivator" and Htun is "CEO and Co-Founder." Guzmán has therefore not been the sole principal since at least 2018 — nearly eight years before the video in which he says he was removed. This is the single most load-bearing fact in the dispute.
ComplexCon exhibit, 510 cartridge launch, apparel lineDocumented
The lifestyle-brand build-out — the phase that requires outside capital.
New York Times profiles Sherbinskis; flagship dispensary opens on FairfaxDocumented
NYT piece in spring; the Los Angeles flagship opens 25 November 2019. Peak brand equity.
Aphaea, LLC files the GELATO markDocumented
The crown jewel of the catalogue is registered to the holding company, not the breeder.
Doja's own ownership fight · 2020 – 2024
Aphaea files SHERBINSKIS for hemp cigarettesDocumented
Doja moves into seed production and genetic development with RustyDocumented
Zaftig, LLC registers the entire Doja portfolio — and DARWIN FARMSDocumented
DOJA EXCLUSIVE, DARWIN FARMS and EVOLVED EXTRACTS in November 2020; five DOJA PAK marks across 26–28 January 2021; DOJA in February 2023. Fourteen marks in total, none in Bartholomew's name. Zaftig also holds the Doja Exclusive California retail licence.
High Times runs "Top of The Dealer Pyramid"Documented
Establishes the Doja model: curation and distribution rather than cultivation, reviewing roughly a hundred packs to select one or two. Names Wizard Trees, Deep East, Connected and Darwin Farms as partners.
PrimeTime Capital builds up in CaliforniaDocumented
Founders Oleg Spektorov and Anthony Messina move from Massachusetts to California in 2018. By 2021 the company has gone from vape manufacturing into terpene formulation and wholesale flower distribution, founded the Boutiq retail brand, and reports roughly $120 million in parent-company revenue. "Our specialty is product development," Spektorov says — hardware, packaging, and what goes inside the vape.
Sherbinskis partners with Final Bell for CanadaDocumented
First expansion outside California and Michigan. Guzmán speaks for the brand as founder. Launch product: Orange Sherbs live resin AIO.
Sherbinskis is distressed — and PrimeTime opens talksDocumented
By PrimeTime's account the brand is carrying millions in debt, has been "sold repeatedly," is struggling operationally and is largely absent from California shelves — doing under $100,000 a month in the state. "Only a select group of people knew about their inability to operate," Spektorov says; the global reputation was intact. PrimeTime is one of several interested parties.
The merger closes — and Guzmán is let go within monthsDocumented
Structured as a merger, not a straight acquisition: "We gave up eighteen-and-a-half percent of our equity, and we paid off a lot of debt and took on the liability." Total exposure roughly $10–11 million. Then: "We pretty much let go of every single person that worked for Sherbinskis at the time" — executive leadership, project managers, and former CEO Mario Guzmán, who stayed on briefly. "We weren't able to work out a good working relationship. So we ended up letting him go a few months later." This is the event the September 2026 videos are about. It happened three and a half years earlier.
The rebuild, and the numbers turnDocumented
"When we came in, the quality was bad all around — the products, the flower, the genetics. We had to change everything." By 2024 PrimeTime reports Sherbinskis at over $1 million a month in California. The brand is licensed in Arizona, New York, Florida and Canada, with the UK, Germany and Australia in development. New product includes Quattro, a four-coil dual-tank vape Messina calls "the Ferrari of vapes."
Zaftig, LLC sues Ryan BartholomewDocumented
LA Superior Court, case 23STCV06365. Five causes of action including trademark infringement and false advertising. Bartholomew cross-complains that he created the Doja mark and that Zaftig held only a non-exclusive licence. The core question is who first lawfully used the mark commercially — complicated by California not recognising cannabis trademarks until 2018.
Judge Randolph Hammock denies Bartholomew's motion to quashDocumented
Bartholomew had called Zaftig's subpoena to Crown Genetics, LLC "a fishing expedition which makes no effort to limit itself." The court orders Crown Genetics to produce records from 1 January 2018 forward. No sanctions.
The case settlesReported
Per Alien Labs' Ted on X: "A trademark dispute that was settled." Terms are not public. Bartholomew keeps operating as Doja Pak, so the settlement evidently went his way or close to it.
Guzmán is appointed Global Head of Genetics at B NobleDocumented
He also founds Voice of the Plant and relocates to New York after legalisation there. Worth noting the title: the exact role Bartholomew is now taking at Sherbinskis is one Guzmán already held elsewhere.
The year it turns · 2025 – Sep 2026
Bartholomew, in Honeysuckle: "You've got to select your partners carefully"Documented
The interview never mentions the Zaftig litigation. It emphasises trust and transparency in choosing who you go into business with.
High Times publishes the whole thing — including Bartholomew's appointmentDocumented
Rolando García's interview with Spektorov and Messina runs under the headline "Sherbinskis Was Dying. PrimeTime Took the Risk." It lays out the debt, the merger terms, the firings and the rebuild on the record. It also contains the line the industry apparently missed for seven months: "We're bringing in Ryan Bartholomew from Doja as head of genetics" — with the note that Bartholomew "had been involved with Sherbinskis in its early years." Also disclosed: a live-resin partnership with Casa Flor and a genetics licensing deal with Sens Seeds. The Internet Archive captures the page three times that day. It is the only substantive journalism that exists on this deal, and it is no longer on the site.
The feud surfaces publicly for the first time — six months earlyDocumented
A post attributed to TheBlacklistxyz: "So now it's Doja vs Sherbinski. Lawsuits. Former friendships. Unanswered calls. And a legacy brand sitting in the middle like a custody battle nobody wants to admit is happening. Ryan from Doja and Mario from Sherbinski used to be friends." This is the fact that reframes everything: the September videos are not a sudden rupture, they are the end of a process that was already visible in March.
Doja Pak launches into Germany and the UKDocumented
Partnership with CP Medical; distribution via Bloomwell in Germany and Mamedica in the UK; GACP cultivation in Thailand; processing at Blossom Pharma in Portugal. Doja is expanding into regulated pharmaceutical frameworks — the profile of a brand with real capital behind it.
Aphaea re-papers SHERBINSKIS through a cannabis debt-finance firmDocumented
Serial 99821896: a fresh application across classes 5, 34 and 35 covering vapes, flower, prerolls, concentrates and retail — the whole business, not a gap-fill. Counsel of record is Hannah Strassburger of Feuerstein Kulick LLP, a firm known for lender-side and opportunity-fund cannabis work. Four months before the announcement.
The same reporter publishes "Beware of the Chads"Documented
Rolando García again — the byline on the January PrimeTime interview. Berner's term for investors who "arrive with contracts and agendas and no feel for the plant," on a new wave of institutional money and what the last one did to MedMen, Flow Kana, Canopy and High Times itself, framed around "what the term sheets did, and what the founders who kept control did differently." Six days before the videos, from the writer who had told the buy-side version in January.
Sherbinskis × Doja product is already moving at wholesaleDocumented
Imperial Club posts the Sherbinskis × Doja Pak vapes on 8 September. A wholesale listing on 9 September offers Sherbinski × Doja 2g AIO live resin, 50-piece and 100-piece tiers. Co-branded product was in distribution the same week the videos went up — and a product does not get manufactured, packaged and placed with wholesalers in a week. Whatever was agreed between these two companies was agreed a long time before any of this reached an audience.
The story breaks on XDocumented
Terpadelics: "What's everyone's take on the Doja/Sherbinski beef?" — laying out the role reversal in two lines. The Vault Network: "Went to Instagram for 10 seconds and couldn't believe my eyes." Roughly 5,100 views within hours.
Both videos are mirrored to XDocumented
Posted with "Plz make your own opinions. We are waiting to fully see Dojas response." Bartholomew's clip, filmed against a Sherbinskis backdrop with a RYAN | HEAD OF GENETICS lower third, is 45 seconds and says only that "the company is under new ownership." Guzmán's runs nearly four minutes and is a point-by-point rebuttal ending with "We're in New York. We're coming for you head on."
The industry splits into two readingsReported
Against Guzmán: Alien Labs' Ted ("Sherbinski sold his brand brother"), Golden State Labs ("Mario been pushed out of Sherbinski's for a while now"), and a reading that he lost the IP long ago and is unhappy with a deal he made. For Guzmán: that a founder's blessing matters more than the cap table, and that Bartholomew of all people should recognise the shape of this. Terpadelics, who started the thread, later softens: "Multiple sides claims and premises in the air. Need to see what else has come out."
The High Times piece is goneDocumented
hightimes.com/business/sherbinskis-primetime/ now returns 404. It is absent from the site's Business category listing and from its internal search for "Sherbinskis," which still returns articles from 2018 through 2023. The Wayback Machine holds three captures, all from 30 January 2026, and none since — so there is no archival record of when it came down, only that it was live on publication day and is not live now. Given that it is the only place PrimeTime's account of firing Guzmán appears, its removal is itself part of the story.
Bartholomew responds — and PrimeTime still does notDocumented
4:30pm Eastern, 12 September. A three-minute video to @doja.pak captioned "This will be my only response." He confirms he called Guzmán before the deal, says in his own words that he needed the money, and disputes that the two were ever really friends. PrimeTime Capital has said nothing, the Doja Pak X account has been dormant since June 2025, and no trade publication has covered the dispute. The company silence is still consistent with a deal carrying confidentiality terms — which would explain why the answer came from a named individual rather than the business.
THE MIRROR
Same structure, three years apart
Set the two disputes side by side and the reason this landed so hard becomes obvious. It is not that Bartholomew did something unusual. It is that it happened to him first.
| — | Zaftig v. Bartholomew · 2023 | Sherbinskis · 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| The name | Doja / Doja Pak | Sherbinskis / Gelato |
| The face | Ryan Bartholomew | Mario Guzmán |
| Registered to | Zaftig, LLC (also Darwin Farms) | Aphaea, LLC (earlier LMS International) |
| Founder's position | Not on the register | Not on the register |
| Founder's argument | "I created the mark; they hold a non-exclusive licence" | "I never sold a share; I was pushed out" |
| Corporate argument | Trademark infringement, false advertising | The brand was failing and was bought |
| Went public via | Court filing, then social | Social only, so far |
| Outcome | Settled; Bartholomew still runs Doja | Removed Jan–mid 2023; brand rebuilt without him |
| Timing | Filed March 2023 | Merger closed January 2023 — the two men were losing, and keeping, their brands in the same season |
THE RELATIONSHIP
Where these two were already entangled
This is not two strangers colliding. Doja's catalogue has run on Guzmán's genetics for the better part of a decade.
Genetics
RS-11, Doja's signature cultivar and the one it is best known for internationally, is Sunset Sherbert × OZ Kush, pheno #11. Sunset Sherbert is Guzmán's. Doja's flagship strain is a descendant of the Sherbinskis line.
Peach Tree — Gelonade × Gelato 41 × Afternoon Pineapple — carries Gelato 41 (Bacio), also from the Sherbinskis lineage.
Distribution
Doja operated as a curation and distribution platform, carrying flower from Connected, Alien Labs, Cookies and Sherbinski's among others. The commercial relationship predates the current fight by years.
Co-branded product
Sherbinskis × Doja infused minis, 5-packs, in G41, Gushers and Gelonade live-diamond configurations, listed on Weedmaps and stocked across California and San Diego retailers.
Most recently a 2g AIO live resin vape, in wholesale distribution the week of 8 September 2026 — the same week the videos went up.
WHAT IS STILL MISSING
Nobody can close this out yet, and here is why
These are the gaps. Some of them are gaps because the answer is not public. Some are gaps because the only people who know are not talking.
The deleted article is the loudest thing in this story.
It is the only reported account of the deal that exists. It has PrimeTime saying, on the record, that they fired the founder. And it is gone from a site that still carries Sherbinskis coverage going back to 2018. A takedown, a legal letter, or a website migration would all leave the same 404 behind — but they are not the same event, and right now there is no way to tell which one happened.
Somebody got 18.5% of PrimeTime, and it may not have been Guzmán.
That equity went to the Sherbinskis side. If it reached him, "I never sold a share" is true but incomplete. If it did not — because he had already been diluted, or because the brand had been "sold repeatedly" before PrimeTime ever showed up — then he watched his own name change hands and got nothing for it.
Bartholomew has now pointed at the answer without documenting it: a raise of nearly $20 million, then roughly $10 million of debt on top, then "previous groups," plural, who could not fix it. Dilution across several rounds and several owners would explain every part of this — the technically accurate "I never sold a single share," the loss of control, and why no assignment appears on the register. It is a claim in an Instagram caption, not a filing. The cap table is still unpublished, and it is still the document that settles this.
There are owners between Guzmán and PrimeTime that nobody names.
"Sold repeatedly" is Spektorov's phrase, not mine, and Bartholomew has now said "previous groups" independently. LMS International and Aphaea are two vehicles on the register; Will Htun was CEO and co-founder from at least 2018. Whatever happened to Guzmán's stake most likely happened in that stretch — years before the merger everyone is arguing about. Two people on the buy side have now gestured at those owners. Neither has named one.
The trigger is the missing beat.
He was let go in 2023. Bartholomew's appointment was announced in January. So why did this surface in September? A product hitting shelves, a contract running out, or a man simply reaching his limit. Something moved, and none of the public record says what.
Guzmán's whole claim rests on Voice of the Plant, and the register is silent on it.
There is no trademark under that name. That is not damning — the register does not record who owns genetics. Breeder contracts and seed-licensing paperwork do, and none of that is public. Bartholomew has now said he knows "who really created the genetics that he claims" and is choosing not to say. Either he produces that or it stays where it is, which is nowhere.
The Florida deal decides the only real contradiction.
He says he closed one, eighteen months in. Spektorov says he was gone within a few months. Sherbinskis is licensed in Florida. Whichever way that date falls, one of these accounts does not survive it.
Nobody has confirmed a case is actually filed.
"I had to get my legal team involved," and a reference to lawsuits back in March. That is a long way from a docket number.
And there are two PrimeTimes.
PrimeTime Capital — Spektorov and Messina, Massachusetts to California in 2018, parent of Boutiq. And a PrimeTime Holdings that raised C$29.9m in convertible debentures in 2021 under a different CEO, also with a Venice retail brand called BOUTIQ. Almost certainly the same group. "Almost certainly" is doing work there, and it matters more than it looks if a public listing is involved.
SOURCES
Everything above, traced
- @doja.pak — Ryan Bartholomew's response video and full caption, 12 Sep 2026, 4:30pm ET - Terpadelics — both videos mirrored, 11 Sep 2026 - Terpadelics — the thread that broke it, with industry replies - GRINGO_CTM / TheBlacklistxyz — "Doja vs Sherbinski," 12 Mar 2026 - USPTO — SHERBINSKIS register (Justia) - USPTO — serial 99821896, filed 13 May 2026 - USPTO — Aphaea, LLC portfolio - USPTO — Zaftig, LLC portfolio (incl. DARWIN FARMS) - LASC 23STCV06365 — Zaftig, LLC v. Ryan Bartholomew, ruling of 12 Dec 2023 - CA DCC — Doja Exclusive, licensee Zaftig LLC, C9-0000200-LIC - PR Newswire — Will Htun named CEO & co-founder, 4 Dec 2018 - Business Wire — Final Bell × Sherbinskis, 10 May 2022 - High Times — Top of The Dealer Pyramid, 6 Jul 2021 - High Times — Doja Pak takes on Europe, 20 Apr 2026 - High Times — "Beware of the Chads," 5 Sep 2026 - High Times — Rolando García, "Sherbinskis Was Dying. PrimeTime Took the Risk.", 30 Jan 2026 (deleted from site; Wayback capture) - Wayback CDX index — three captures, all 30 Jan 2026, none since - Honeysuckle — Ryan Bartholomew interview, 20 May 2025 - Honeysuckle — Mario Guzmán, Gelato and B Noble - Forbes — Five Questions with Mario Guzmán, 23 Dec 2019 - Gentleman Toker — Doja Pak genetics and partners - Feuerstein Kulick — cannabis and debt finance practice - PrimeTime Holdings — C$29.9m private placement - Sherbinskis.com — current site copy, no founder named Put together 12 September 2026 from public records, dated posts, and the High Times interview that is no longer on High Times. Every PrimeTime quote is Oleg Spektorov or Anthony Messina talking to Rolando García for that piece, 30 January 2026. Everything from Guzmán and Bartholomew is what they say in their own videos, checked against the audio. None of this is legal advice, and my read of the trademark register is a read, not a ruling on who owns what.
Right of reply
Ryan Bartholomew answered publicly on 12 September, on his own account and in his own name, and his response is on this page in full. He is not PrimeTime, and nothing he says should be read as the company's position. I have not put any of this to PrimeTime, Sherbinskis, High Times or Rolando García yet. I intend to, and anything they say goes on this page. Worth saying plainly: if this merger came with confidentiality or non-disparagement terms — and a named individual answering while the company stays quiet fits that — the people best placed to settle it may not be allowed to.
How this was put together
Put together 12 September 2026 from public records, dated posts, and the High Times interview that is no longer on High Times. Every PrimeTime quote is Oleg Spektorov or Anthony Messina talking to Rolando García for that piece, 30 January 2026. Everything from Guzmán and Bartholomew is what they say in their own videos. None of this is legal advice, and my read of the trademark register is a read, not a ruling on who owns what.
Questions people actually ask
Who owns Sherbinskis?
PrimeTime. Sherbinskis merged into PrimeTime in a deal that closed in January 2023, and PrimeTime has run the brand since. The SHERBINSKIS trademarks are still registered to Aphaea, LLC, the company that held them before the deal, and the USPTO register shows no transfer out of it. Mario Guzmán, the founder many people search for as “Mario Sherbinski,” was let go a few months after the merger, by PrimeTime’s own account. He doesn’t claim the trademarks. He says he still owns the genetics, through a separate company, Voice of the Plant.
What is the Sherbinskis and Doja Pak drama about?
Mario Guzmán, the Sherbinskis founder known as Mr. Sherbinski, says he was pushed out of the brand that carries his name after it merged into PrimeTime in a deal that closed in January 2023. PrimeTime’s own co-founder told High Times they let him go a few months later. Ryan Bartholomew, who founded Doja Pak and was brought in by PrimeTime as head of genetics, answered on 12 September 2026 and denies betraying him. Doja Pak did not buy Sherbinskis.
Did Doja Pak buy Sherbinskis?
No. Sherbinskis merged with PrimeTime Capital in a deal that closed in January 2023. Ryan Bartholomew, who founded Doja Pak, was brought in as head of genetics — an appointment PrimeTime announced in January 2026. Bartholomew does not claim Doja bought the brand; his own words are that "the company is under new ownership," and in his 12 September response he describes himself as someone who took a job with friends, not as an owner.
Was Mario Guzmán pushed out of Sherbinskis?
Yes, and the buyer said so on the record. PrimeTime co-founder Oleg Spektorov told High Times in January 2026 that the company let go of essentially every Sherbinskis employee after the merger, including former CEO Mario Guzmán: "We weren't able to work out a good working relationship. So we ended up letting him go a few months later."
Did Mario Guzmán sell Sherbinskis?
Both "I never sold a share" and "the brand was bought" can be true. PrimeTime structured the deal as a merger — giving up 18.5% of its own equity and absorbing roughly $10–11 million in debt and liability — rather than buying Guzmán's stock. The trademarks remain registered to Aphaea, LLC, with no assignment recorded out of it. Ryan Bartholomew adds a second explanation in his 12 September caption: that Sherbinskis raised close to $20 million before the merger, and "if you raise nearly $20 million for a company you have to give something up to do that." Dilution across funding rounds would mean Guzmán lost control without ever selling a share. That figure is his claim, not a filing.
Does Mario Guzmán still own part of Sherbinskis?
Nothing on the record says he does. PrimeTime co-founder Oleg Spektorov said the company let Guzmán go a few months after the merger closed, no assignment or filing shows a retained stake, and people close to the business describe him as fully out. In his 12 September 2026 video Ryan Bartholomew does tell him "I know you still own a piece of the brand" — but that sits inside an argument that Guzmán should want the brand to do well, and it reads as easily as sentiment about a man's own name as it does as a statement about equity. It is not confirmation of anything.
What did Ryan Bartholomew say in response?
He posted a three-minute video to @doja.pak on 12 September 2026, captioned "This will be my only response." He says he carried the Sherbinskis brand for four to five years, that he called Guzmán before the PrimeTime deal to tell him he was taking the work and to offer to mediate, that he told Guzmán he needed the money, and that the two were never really friends. He denies betraying him and disputes the account Guzmán gave publicly. In the caption he goes further, saying Sherbinskis raised nearly $20 million and ran up around $10 million in debt on top of it before PrimeTime stepped in, that "previous groups" had failed to fix it, and that he knows "who really created the genetics" Guzmán claims but will not say. He does not claim Doja Pak bought Sherbinskis, and he is speaking for himself — not for PrimeTime Capital.
Who owns Sherbinskis and its trademarks?
Aphaea, LLC holds the current SHERBINSKIS registrations; earlier marks were registered by LMS International, LLC. Mario Guzmán's personal name does not appear on the register. A fresh full-scope application was filed by Aphaea on 13 May 2026.
What is Mario Guzmán actually claiming?
Not the trademark. He concedes the brand and claims the genetics, which he says are housed at Voice of the Plant, a separate company he founded in 2020. That is a narrower and more defensible position than the one being argued on his behalf online.
Why was the High Times article deleted?
Unknown, and it is the biggest open question in the story. The piece — Rolando García's interview with PrimeTime, published 30 January 2026 — now returns a 404, while the site still hosts Sherbinskis coverage from 2018 onward. It survives in three Internet Archive captures, all from publication day. It is the only place PrimeTime's account of firing Guzmán appears.
Brands in this report that I've reviewed: Doja Pak x Higher Vibrations Co..