????詹姆斯?蒙西斯說：每天全球有十億煙民在吞云吐霧，使香煙成為史上最成功的消費品。一個多世紀以來，那標志性的白色小短棍一直是“吸煙”的同義詞。所以，蒙西斯認為，如果能在煙草業有所建樹，意義重大。

????蒙西斯說：“煙草行業規模巨大，而且實質上就是一臺印鈔機。因此，引入將人們的興趣從煙草業轉移的新產品不符合煙草行業的利益。蒙西斯是位于舊金山的煙草新創企業Ploom的聯席創始人兼首席執行官。但電子香煙的出現和大熱只是吸煙者渴望新產品的一個指標，電子香煙已經發展成為20億美元的產業。蒙西斯認為，吸煙正在經歷自工業革命以來第一個真正的創新階段。正因為如此，Ploom公司沒有做眼下便利店柜臺中常見的尖頭部發光的白色電子模擬香煙。是否有更令人愉悅、更健康、更高科技的方式來吸食煙草和其他物質？蒙西斯認為答案是肯定的。

????蒙西斯和Ploom另一位聯席創始人亞當?鮑文不同于傳統的煙草公司高管。Ploom不是脫胎于美國東南部的某片煙草田，而是誕生于斯坦福大學（Stanford University）的聯合設計計劃（Joint Design Program）。2007年創辦Ploom公司前，蒙西斯和鮑文都是斯坦福的學生。Ploom公司的兩款產品名為modelTwo和Pax，能加熱、而不是燃燒煙草，用戶可以吸入產生的蒸汽，以此取代煙霧。Pax是Ploom公司推出的散煙葉蒸發器。這款產品儼然已成為一種文化現象，得到名人的叫好，還被《紳士季刊》（GQ）和《快公司》（Fast Company）等雜志稱為“最佳新產品”——其中很重要的一個原因是，Pax不僅能蒸發煙草，還能蒸發大麻，可謂是吸食大麻者的高科技配件。（Ploom不宣傳、也不建議使用該公司產品蒸發煙草以外的其它物質。蒙西斯說：“用戶使用Pax吸食煙草以外的物質將無法享受保修服務。”）

????modelTwo和Pax時髦、現代的極簡主義設計使他們不僅是吸煙工具，同時也是高科技小配件，這也是Ploom與傳統煙草配件制造商和電子香煙零售商的區別所在。蒙西斯說：“我們本質上是一家高科技公司，”調侃公司產品的極簡主義設計使得Ploom悄悄流行開來，尤其是在年輕人中。對于在贊美iPhone、貶低萬寶路牛仔（Marlboro Man）的文化中成長起來的新一代煙民，Pax這樣的設備具有吸引力完全可以理解。

????雖然Ploom暫未透露具體的銷售數字，但宣稱已經開始盈利。而且，這家公司在2011年還獲得了一筆來自日本煙草國際公司的小額投資，駱駝和云絲頓香煙就是后者旗下的品牌。隨著Ploom聲名鵲起，不少中國制假企業將目標瞄準了售價高達250美元Pax。和硅谷其它知名公司一樣，為了將仿制品趕出市場，Ploom現在正在忙著打假。

????雖然Pax不經意間成功吸引到了大麻癮君子的注意，但蒙西斯聲稱公司目前全部的精力都在煙草行業。他說：“如果消費者發現我們的產品在別的領域確實有用，那么我很榮幸，這是Ploom的福氣。但我們沒有任何計劃進入或參與煙草以外的行業。”

????One billion smokers light up around the world each and every day, making the cigarette -- the iconic white stick synonymous with the word "smoking" for more than a century -- the most successful consumer product in history, James Monsees says. So if you can make a significant impact on the business of smoking, he reasons, the implications are massive.

????"The tobacco industry is huge and it basically prints money, so it hasn't been in its interest to introduce a new product that would shift interest away from that money-printing business," says Monsees, co-founder and CEO of the San Francisco-based smoking startup Ploom. But the advent and exploding popularity of electronic cigarettes, or e-cigarettes -- now a $2 billion industry -- is just one indicator of the smoking consumer's appetite for something new. Smoking is undergoing its first real phase of innovation since the industrial revolution, Monsees believes. Which is why his company is looking beyond the electronic, glow-tipped, white stick imitations now common behind convenience store counters. Is there a more enjoyable, healthier, technology-driven way of consuming tobacco and other substances? Monsees thinks so.

????Monsees and co-founder Adam Bowen are a different breed of tobacco company executive. Ploom evolved not out of a tobacco field in the southeastern United States but Stanford University's Joint Design Program, where Monsees and Bowen were students before incorporating the company in 2007. Its products -- small, pocketable vaporizers known as the "modelTwo" and "Pax" -- heat tobacco without actually combusting it, providing a vapor the user can then inhale in place of smoke. The Pax, Ploom's loose-leaf vaporizor, has become something of a cultural phenomenon, scoring celebrity shout-outs and "best new product" accolades from the likes of GQ and Fast Company magazines -- not least because it can vaporize not only tobacco but marijuana as well, making it a high-tech accessory for the pot-smoking set. (Ploom doesn't advertise or advise any use for its products beyond tobacco consumption. "With Pax it will actually void your warranty," Monsees says.)

????The sleek, modern, minimalist design of both modelTwo and Pax make them as much a high-tech gadget as a smoking implement, a quality that sets Ploom apart from both traditional tobacco accessory makers and e-cigarette retailers. "We're a tech company at our core," Monsees says, teasing at the quality that has made Ploom a quiet phenomenon, particularly among younger adults. For a new generation of smokers that came of age in a culture that glamorized the iPhone while actively seeking to deglamorize the Marlboro Man, a device like Pax holds understandable appeal.

????While the company doesn't disclose sales figures, it claims profitability, and its success earned the company a 2011 minority investment from global tobacco titan Japan Tobacco International, purveyor of Camel and Winston brand cigarettes. Ploom now fights off Chinese counterfeiters selling knockoffs of the $250 Pax, just as much larger and more recognizable Silicon Valley outfits battle to keep cheap facsimiles of their gadgets out of the marketplace.

????Though Pax in particular has found a good deal of traction with consumers more interested in consuming marijuana, the company is 100% focused on the tobacco market, Monsees says. "If some of our consumers want to use our products for other purposes because they work, that's flattering and I'll take it as a complement," he says. "But we don't design or market our products for use with anything other than tobacco."