Cannabis Investing Network

In this episode we talk about how we can "sharpen our swords" and focus on improving our investing abilities. We talk about mistakes we've made (and re-made), what we've learned and some of the easiest ways to work on your cannabis IQ, investing knowledge and research capabilities in order to (hopefully) reach better outcomes.

In this episode we’re joined by Sayshu Medicherla (@Sayshu_MM), the Founder/CIO of MM Fund.  He has extensive experience investing professionally across a variety of asset classes and strategies including public equities, venture capital, private equity, and credit. We cover two major topics today:

First, we discuss different ways to approach investing in cannabis and why it’s important to ‘know what you own’ and understand that the people you’re following throughout various media outlets may not necessarily have the same investment style as you.  Sayshu also provides his insights on how he views investing through an institutional lens and how risk comes in various forms whether it’s liquidity, valuation, narrative shifts etc. We also discuss how he thinks about valuations in both a public and private market context.

Second, we discuss the evolving brand story in US cannabis. The story so far has been one of ‘if you can grow weed, you can sell weed’ and the top operators have proven they can run profitable businesses.  However, as we look out a couple years, we look at what we feel will be the next battleground for cannabis companies, the battle of the brands.  Sayshu explains why he thinks this is a relevant topic for investors today, and how he’s trying to understand the brand strategies of the top companies.

As always, if you have any questions, please feel free to email us. If you have any questions for Sayshu please feel free to DM him on twitter @Sayshu_MM.

In this episode we are joined by George Archos who is CEO, Chairman and Co-Founder of Verano Holdings. 

In this interview we discuss:

- Background: How George got started in the restaurant industry

- What makes a restaurant successful and why its a good training ground for the cannabis industry

- Verano Orgins: How the company got started by winning an IL cultivation license

- Expansion Years: Building the base of assets rapidly over 3 years in MD, OH, NJ and NV

- Importance of Culture: How George brought in highly motivated people from the restaurant industry to win in cannabis

- 2018: Consolidation, Raising Capital and a false start in Florida

- Legislative Change: Why George is focused on State level changes over Federal

- The Harvest Merger: How this transformational M&A side tracked the company and hurt their footprint

- First Mover Advantage: Why Verano staked its name on high quality indoor flower

- Florida: Why Altmed was a great fit and why they choose to avoid participating in Florida's price war

- M&A: Why Verano was so aggressive in AZ and PA to expand the footprint

- Financial Performance: What happened to EBITDA margins from Q1 to Q2 and what we can expect longer term

- Running Lean: Why 2008 was a key learning lesson that influence's the company to this day

- The Future: Expanding the footprint, functioning like CPG

- Buying vs Building Brands: Where the company is focusing its energy today

Thanks to George for joining in for this in depth interview!

Connect with George on Twitter: https://twitter.com/georgearchos 

In this episode we discuss the importance of admitting "I don't know" when it comes to investing in this sector. 

We discuss how "I don't know" can be helpful for:

- Taking a more cautious approach to building your portfolio

- Federal change, the SAFE act and NDAA news

- Selecting which markets are attractive

- Evaluating headlines and social media

- Managing your cash position 

- Buying individual stocks vs the MSOS ETF

We also discuss having a CIN meet-up at the upcoming MJ Biz conference in October

The theme of this episode was inspired by a recent episode of Howard Mark's podcast the Memo which you can listen to here:

https://www.oaktreecapital.com/insights/podcasts/the-rewind-us-and-them

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.