In this episode we are joined by special guest, Jason, who worked in Washington D.C. for a House Appropriations Chairman and focused on financial services and trade issues. During his career in D.C., he was an integral member of two lobbying groups that advocated for safe and fair trade issues and economic investment in American cities.  He is still heavily involved in the political world and currently manages a program that focuses on developing unique financial products to support the development of infrastructure and investment in cities.

In this episode, we are joined with the guru of the golden coast Hirsh Jain! Hirsh is the founder of Ananda Strategy, a consultancy that works with many of California's leading cannabis brands and retailers and has helped its clients operationalize some of the most successful cannabis facilities in the state.

In this action packed episode we try to further understand the California cannabis landscape and as always we look at both sides of the coin, the challenges and the catalysts.  Many of us understand the California cannabis market is ‘fragmented,’ but what does this truly mean from an investment perspective?  What are some of the major risks and challenges facing the cannabis investment landscape in California? How is a dialed in professional like Hirsh navigating the state and helping his clients avoid possible pit falls? What are the upcoming catalysts and how can we appropriately position our portfolios to win in this state? 

Find out the answers to these questions and more in this episode. As always, if you have any comments or questions feel free to contact us at [email protected].  We love hearing from you and so do our guests.  Please feel free to contact Hirsh at [email protected] if you have any specific questions regarding California.

Connect with Hirsh:

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/hirsh-jain-b896b080/ 

Ananda Strategy - http://anandastrategy.com/

Joining us today is Abner Kurtin who is CEO, Chairman and Co-Founder of Ascend Wellness Holdings (AWH). Abner’s background is as an investor – starting at the highly regarded Baupost and moving on to starting his own hedge fund. He raised $50M to invest in the cannabis space before switching gears and Co-Founding Ascend in 2018.

In only 3 years Ascend has become a top player in IL with an eye to repeating the model in NY, NJ and Mass (the company is also in MI and OH).

In this episode we discuss:

- Abner’s Investment Background: What he learned working at Baupost

- Raising $50M to Invest in Cannabis: The 3 Key Factors Abner looked for in each deal

- Why Investing in MSOs like Grassroots, GTI, Pharmacann made sense

- Starting Ascend – Being opportunistic in MA and IL

- How AWH became a top player in IL alongside GTI, Cresco & Verano

- The importance of being scaled and vertical in every market

- NJ: How AWH got started and why NJ will be the story of 2022

- What to look forward to in NY and how the state is progressing

- Is slow uplisting a risk or opportunity to the cannabis space?

- Why is capital allocation so important in this industry?

- The Future of Ascend: Acquiring, Merging or Selling the company

Thank you to Abner for joining us for this jam-packed interview

You can find more information on AWH including past earnings calls at: https://awholdings.com/investors/

In this mega-episode our good friend Nick Gastevich joins us for the Q2 2021 quarterly review of Cresco, Curaleaf, Green Thumb, Trulieve and Verano (in that order).

We do a deep dive into profitability, cash flow, brands, valuation and how we see the strengths and weaknesses of each company.

As the cannabis market trades poorly we discuss how valuations between these top tier companies have diverged and where we see the most opportunity.

Thanks to Nick for another great and extensive review

Connect with Nick:

Twitter - https://twitter.com/CannaVestments

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicholas-gastevich-75841346/

Family Office Website - https://www.vginvests.com/ 

In this end of August market update we discuss negative market chatter we are hearing. We try to answer - "How long can this go on? And how bad can it get?" 

The simple answer is that we don't know - but we think through some of the bear cases for our sector. We also discuss how to win as an investor in a down market. The theme of the episode is that investors are spoiled for choice right now but need a strong stomach and a longer time horizon to take advantage of it.

In this update we cover several earnings update, thoughts on MMEN/Tilray and general ideas about the state of the market.

In this episode we discuss why we believe the market has swung back to "Golden Opportunity" territory and the dynamics behind the shift.

In particular we dig into Trulieve and Verano and explain why we think these two names are have fallen to very attractive multiples based on 2022 EBITDA.

In this episode we ask - what is wrong with cannabis stocks? Why is it despite all the good news, earnings and fundamental progress occurring the cannabis sector continues to bleed red? Should investors be worried that something is wrong or excited about the opportunity this presents?

In this episode we discuss:

- Earnings season and how stocks seem numb

- The set up: how we got here

- Human psychology of winning and losing

- Investing vs playing at the casino

- Taking advantage of market inefficiencies 

- Risk factors: what should investors be worried about?

Resources:

Florida Deals - https://flcannabisdeals.org/cannabis-deals-florida/ 

Part 2/2 - In this episode we are joined by fan favourite Nick Gastevich aka CannaVestments to do a deep dive into 7 of our favourite up and coming mid and small cap MSOs. Part 2 has smaller cap companies with potentially more upside but also additional execution risk.

In part 2 of this analysis we go over:

Our Picks for #4-7:

4) Pharmacann (private)

5) Vireo / Goodness Growth

6) Jushi

7) Cansortium

- Ranking: Why we feel this way

- Origins: Genesis of each company and the progress that has been made

- Value: Current valuation and where we see future upside potential

- Capital Structure: Shares outstanding, debt and cash on hand

- Footprint: Core states today and future growth states

- M&A: Past and future prospects

- Risks and Challenges with each company

Thanks to Nick for joining us for this epic 2 part series

Connect with Nick:

Twitter - https://twitter.com/CannaVestments

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicholas-gastevich-75841346/

Family Office Website - https://www.vginvests.com/ 

In this episode we are joined by fan favourite Nick Gastevich aka CannaVestments to do a deep dive into 7 of our favourite up and coming mid and small cap MSOs. We also go over market sentiment, reactions to Schumers bill and why it is worthwhile to look at mid cap MSOs.

In part 1 of this analysis we go over:

Our Top 3 Picks:

1) AYR Wellness

2) Ascend Wellness

3) Columbia Care

- Ranking: Why we feel this way

- Origins: Genesis of each company and the progress that has been made

- Value: Current valuation and where we see future upside potential

- Capital Structure: Shares outstanding, debt and cash on hand

- Footprint: Core states today and future growth states

- M&A: Past and future prospects

- Risks and Challenges with each company

Coming next week - part 2 of our analysis where we review picks #4-7

Connect with Nick:

Twitter - https://twitter.com/CannaVestments

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicholas-gastevich-75841346/

Family Office Website - https://www.vginvests.com/ 

In this episode we are once again joined with a special guest, Chris Murray.  Chris and Abi discuss a wide array of topics that affect the social stigma in cannabis along with potential factors which are affecting other sectors and could spill over to cannabis.

First we briefly touch on Sha'carri Richardson's recent disqualification in the upcoming Tokyo Olympics after testing positive for THC.

Followed by a look into ESG, Environmental, Social and Governance, which refers to the three key factors when measuring the sustainability and ethical impact of a company.  ESG is affecting many other industries including meat, agriculture, metals refining, crypto mining and others.  We discuss if this is something cannabis investors should be concerned about.

Lastly, we look back on Tilray and discuss how a restricted cap combined with retail demand on a large US exchange created a perfect storm for the price to shoot to the moon.

As always, we hope you enjoyed this episode.