8 Key Drivers of Cannabis Industry Growth in 2020

The cannabis industry has been regarded, for good reason, as one of the fastest growing industries worldwide. And while the potential for this fledgling industry remains immense, it met some significant challenges in the second half of 2019. A problematic Q3 and Q4, which saw a significant correction for publicly traded cannabis companies, resulted in […]

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Team vs. Timing as a Predictor of Startup Success

I don’t love the title of this post. Because, it’s not either/or, as vs. implies. It’s both and more. However, on just about every panel I sit on, invariably, the question comes up, “What is the most important thing you look for when evaluating a company?”   Overwhelmingly panelists answer team. Team is essential for […]

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The Next Wave of Investor Wealth Creation in the Cannabis Industry

Investment in the cannabis industry continues to flow. According to the Viridian Deal Tracker, during the first 19 weeks of 2019, approximately $5.65B in equity and debt capital was invested in both public and private cannabis companies, an increase of +87% over the $3.01B for the same period in 2018. Not surprisingly, Cultivation & Retail […]

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The Pace of Social Change and What it Means for the Legalization of Cannabis

  One of my favorite slides in my investor deck is titled “The Pace of Social Change” which features a great graphic from Bloomberg, that is pictured above in edited form. While it’s common knowledge that government policy follows public opinion, it’s also often the case that federal laws don’t change until the states themselves […]

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How to Avoid Investor Disconnect When Pitching

  I recently was asked to judge a pitching competition for CannInvest NJ. The format was familiar; each participant was given eight minutes to pitch their business idea to a panel of judges and an audience of on-lookers. The judges gave feedback and voted to determine a winner. Most of the presentations missed the mark. […]

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Conscious Capitalism

In June of 2010, something really extraordinary happened in the world of Philanthropy. Bill Gates and Warren Buffet began recruiting for what is known as “The Giving Pledge.” As many of you know, the giving pledge is a promise made by the wealthiest individuals in the world, mostly billionaires, to give away the majority of […]

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Continual Partial Attention

We live in a connected world, and it is a wonderful world. Twenty years ago it would have been hard to fathom that every bit of information we need could be found by clicking an app on a mobile phone. This access to information is, of course, unlimited: trivia, a definition, personal background information, and […]

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Set the Context For Your Investors

I recently recorded a Podcast for Gavin McCully’s The Pitch Deck – Episode #53. Gavin offers a number of other great episodes.  Enjoy   Ep #53: Jeffrey Finkle, Angel Investor/Coach, ARC Angel Fund – Set the Context For Your Investors Joining me today on The Pitch Deckpodcast, our guest brings an amazing new perspective, which I don’t believe […]

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5 THINGS YOU CAN DO TODAY TO SAVE MONEY ON DILIGENCE LATER

A company whose board I serve recently decided to accept an offer to be acquired. About one third of the way through the due diligence period, I checked in with legal counsel to see where the legal bill stood and found out that we were already at $200k…..whaaaaat? This was close to the overall budget […]

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Pinpointing Problems Worth Solving (Part Three of Three)

In part two of this series I wrote about how I believe that founding CEOs who are deep domain experts are the best at getting to product-market fit in a capital efficient way. I profiled ServiceChannel’s CEO’s 30+ year history solving problems in the contractor and facility management space. In this post I will profile […]

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