Michaela Petrone  0:05  
Welcome to joint ventures, a podcast where we delve into the cannabis investment landscape through the lens of investors and operators who helped fuel the growth of the cannabis industry. Hi, everyone, and welcome to the first episode of joint ventures. During this episode, in an effort to get to know you're rotating hosts, Jordan tritt and Scott Berman, they will be interviewed by Serial podcast host and Guru Josh Wilson. Josh hosts uncensored advice for men, the deal scout and cre principles, all of which will be linked in our description. Let's get into the interview.

Josh Wilson  0:40  
Hey, good day, fellow dealmakers, podcasters people in the industry. My name is Josh and I'm a podcast host and investor in other shows. And as I was going through and working with some really cool people, they asked me Hey, Josh, we're building out a podcast show, would you mind coming onto our show and having a conversation with us. So I'm here to get the party started for a brand new podcast show in the cannabis industry. And I want to introduce you to two of the hosts who are going to be leading the journey for you guys through the space. And so with that, let me introduce you to the founders and, and host of the show, Scott and Jordan. So let's start with this guy's this is super cool. Let's start with Jordan. Jordan, why don't you tell us a little bit about who you are and why we're here. All right.

Jordan Tritt  1:23  
Thank you, Josh. Appreciate you joining the show. I met you six months ago, there was an instant connection. And I love the model that you have created in terms of combining podcasts with deals. So I said I want to be a part of this as well. So that's the quick background of how you and I ended up on this podcast together. So I'm based in Atlanta, Georgia, where I've been born and raised. I went to University of Michigan for undergraduate business school spent about 10 years in the private world a little bit in real estate, a lot around startups. And I was fortunate enough actually through my father in 2016, to be introduced to the exciting nascent industry of cannabis. So in 2016, I joined my father, David Friedman, and then shortly thereafter, Scott Berman, and we started a cannabis venture fund called the Panther Opportunity Fund. So we've been investing in the cannabis space for about six years, or now on our second fund called the Panther micro fund, and in 2020, out of a need across the portfolio as well as an opportunity within the industry at large, we started an advisory firm called the Panther group. So we are an advisory firm providing some business improvement and growth marketing solutions for the cannabis space. And we felt like as part of creating the ecosystem of cannabis, it'd be fun, interesting educational to start our own podcast and invite guests and investors, co investors, portfolio companies, experts in the space to join us in that conversation. So you're setting the tone, as you said, for the future of what's hopefully many, many podcast episodes with listeners over the next many years. Cool.

Josh Wilson  3:04  
Thank you for sharing that. Scott. Give us an idea about who is got in Why are you here.

Scott Berman  3:08  
Thank you very much, Josh, I appreciate all your help getting us to this point. So yes, Scott Berman here based in Philadelphia, PA. So I got involved in the cannabis space. About eight years ago. Prior to this, I co founded a digital advertising business, we specialized in politics and health care 2014, I got involved with the Marijuana Policy Project, which was helping get weed legalized in different states, they worked well. And I started to look ahead two years to 2016 and see what was going to happen next, I went out to California and started a business that did distribution. And while I was out in California raising money for this business, I was very fortunate to meet Jordan's father, Dr. Raimi trade, and he became a mentor and investor and a friend of mine 2017 I decided to get into this space full time. And he recommended I called Jordan and that's how I got involved in the Panther fund. It's been a incredibly cool journey. Over the last six years, we've studied probably 1000 Different companies, we've invested all over the space and 20 different sectors. And so we kind of look at the whole cannabis space from many different angles and try and decide what to invest in. As Jordan mentioned, we are super excited about the advisory firm. There's a lot of things that people need outside of the capital raising. And we're uniquely positioned to help cannabis companies on their growth trajectory. So we're really excited to be here. Thank you. Yeah,

Josh Wilson  4:32  
super cool. All right. So you both had experience outside of the cannabis industry, right? You weren't born into this. Let's start with Scott, stepping into the cannabis industry in that world. What attracted you and then you know, for a lot of investors out there, there might be a little bit of resistance or hesitancy about stepping into it. So what attracted you to the opportunity in the niche? And then what were maybe some of your concerns before diving in as an investor partner and getting, you know, getting into the weeds in it. Yeah.

Scott Berman  5:02  
So the first thing that attracted me was the early stage of it, and the ultimate potential that I saw right away. So my first trip was 2014, I went to a trade show in Denver, Colorado, and they had just legalized adult use. And I was actually blown away by what was happening, you know, I just could see that it was going to be a big industry right away. However, it was one state at a time. And so I thought about it. And then you know, we have time to really get into this and look at each state as it comes online. So we have a unique opportunity to get ahead of the regulations. As I mentioned, it all starts with politics with me, and I started seeing the politics unfold slowly. But surely, we now have 38 different medical states and each have a different role. And so I could see that things were going to change. And we could see where they were headed. The challenges that I saw right away were, truthfully the lack of professionalism in the industry, and the lack of really serious people. And, you know, that was an advantage and also a challenge, because we saw that if we could bring our business acumen, you know, we're entrepreneurs, we've started businesses, and we saw that, you know, if we could come into the space and help young folks, you know, get into it the right way that we can build good investments over time.

Josh Wilson  6:16  
Awesome. Now, Jordan, this is something that your your father has been in the industry for a while, this is a multi generational Venture Capital Group, a multigenerational fund. So you've you were working in real estate, but you saw the work that your father was doing, when you saw your father getting into the industry? What were your thoughts about dad getting into the world of cannabis and weed? And this what was going through your head? And what conversations were you having with your friends at university when you saw your dad doing this?

Jordan Tritt  6:45  
I'm going to skip the last question. I'm not going to answer that one at a coffee that it's been a while but in terms of what I thought of my father, I, you know, Scott, Scott knows this, I have a phenomenal relationship with my father, I'm blessed to have built this relationship. And we actually tried working together maybe 12 years ago, didn't work as well as it has the last five years. So I was actually very hesitant to join him. At the same time, I've always looked up to him and known that he is a visionary, and seemed to find himself a calculated risk taker. So when he encouraged me to go out to MJ biz in 2016, to check it out. You know, it was a obviously like, Okay, I'll go to Vegas, you know, no problem, spend a few days out there, see what's going on. So I met David Friedman, and we connected and then I met the so many great people. And, you know, I, as I mentioned, I'd been in early stage companies for 10 years, I had not necessarily develop the domain expertise in a particular industry. So I was excited about this potential, like Scott said, of a nascent industry that I could really make my mark in. And I just really, as I always say, I fell in love with the people, everyone is a immigrant, or pretty much everyone has come from some other background, and is very interested in passionate about the space and respect each other and feel like we're out here doing something like we're building it together. And, you know, we always use the same a rising tide raises all ships. And that's how we approach this space every single day is how do we build an ecosystem of like minded people, people that we respect that we trust, that complement each other? And how can we work together to support the industry and help these people who are certainly the ones we're trying to find who have the right intentions, provide that level of sophistication, bring our relationships and expertise into what they're doing and, and help them build it up? So that's what I saw when my father said, you know, come get into this space. And like I said, obviously, I trusted his vision of what was happening, and he had been in it for few years. So it was worth the risk for me for sure. Super cool.

Josh Wilson  8:54  
You mentioned MJ biz. Explain to us what that is.

Jordan Tritt  8:57  
Yeah, so MJ biz. And Scott. Interestingly, when he was giving his answer of how he got into the space, it was through trade shows. So this industry is about people. You know, it's very much a relationship driven thing. That's what Scott and I have developed and built together along with David and my father Ramy is a reputation that you know, when people ask, What about what do you know about Panther? What do you think about these guys? You know, it's really, really important to us to treat people the right way and have that reputation precede us. So, MJ biz was, you know, in still is, in a lot of ways, the preeminent trade show for the industry in terms of just bringing the different facets of the cannabis space together. There's definitely been, you know, smaller and more focused trade shows that have developed one of which that we've invested in, which I'm sure we'll talk about in a later show, but MJ biz is really the origin of bringing a lot of investors operators. Canna curious people together, always in Las Vegas always in the fall to winter time and It's a great opportunity for the industry to come together and people to build relationships.

Josh Wilson  10:05  
So Scott, you mentioned one of the things that you saw is you saw an opportunity, you saw that it was an early industry, like that had heavy regulations. But you saw things starting to move forward. And you saw you saw the upside potential in what could happen, right? How did you know to look at that, like, given your background, give us a little bit more depth of of the background, and how you saw opportunity, where some investors and some people may have missed it?

Scott Berman  10:31  
Yeah. So I mean, I'll start with what my background was advertising. And so I started to look, I had a booth at the MJ biz show, and I started to talk about digital advertising for cannabis companies. And the one thing I realized was that nobody had a good advertising plan, a lot of people had good cannabis I've met the best weed grower is 75 different times the best in the world. And so, you know, my comment was like, that's great. But you have to market and distribute and sell and advertise your product. And I quickly realized that nobody had sales reps, people didn't know how to advertise. And they didn't really know how to, you know, do anything except grow good weed. So you know, once the regulations got in, and competition heated up, like that was one area that was very obvious to me that that was needed, the more that I talked to people and dug into the space, the more I realized that there were so many other sectors that were the same way they were so early on. And because it's been an illicit illicit market for so many years, there's no infrastructure, there was no distribution, there was no software programs, lab testing. And what we saw in these new states was those things started to develop very quickly, you know, the state mandates lab testing, there's rules for delivery and distribution and advertising. And so we saw a lot of opportunity to get into those sectors, a lot of them on the ancillary side. And then we knew that it would happen again in the next state and the next state. So because it's federally illegal, and everything happens within that state, each state would have to come up from zero and build all of this infrastructure in order to have a vibrant program.

Josh Wilson  12:07  
So you saw that, and you said, this is an opportunity. And then you met the team over with Panthers seeing what they're doing, when you saw Panther? What what most attracted you to that group, and wanting to get involved with them?

Scott Berman  12:21  
Well, as you mentioned, ramy was an investor in my first startup. So we started that business in California, and we got to know him really well over a couple years, as Jordan said, he's a visionary. He's a super great guy. And he just like, you know, he was very important to me in my early evolution, and also David Friedman, or other partners, incredibly smart venture capital guy. And so you know, when I had the opportunity to invest some of my own money in the space, I wanted to learn, I wanted to learn how to and how to invest what to invest in, and really, you know, look at the future, and I thought those guys were the best guys to learn from. And then I was fortunate enough to meet Jordan max. And we became very close, you know, once we started working on the fun together, and then over like, the first couple years, we had meetings several times a week, and we looked at a lot of deals. And so looking at those deals, and comparing one to the other, I started to get a real good sense of, you know, what the space was evolving into what made a deal look good versus not.

Josh Wilson  13:20  
Jordan, you had a background, 10 years in the startup space where you work in across a bunch of different types of startups, you looked at the cannabis industry as a startup, right? When you saw it, the first what what were some of the first things that in terms of opportunity for growth potential, did you see in the newly evolving cannabis as an asset class? Like, what did you see?

Jordan Tritt  13:46  
Yeah, and actually, I just ordered yesterday, the book blue ocean strategy. So I think I'd read it before maybe or not. So like, as Scott really pointed out very well, this, everything starts from scratch, and you set it this is an entire industry, it's a whole startup industry. So someone like me, who's entrepreneurial and passionate about startups and wants to make a difference. And you have an entire industry that is going through the same evolution that an early stage company is but it's just like, compounded because it's happening, geographically dispersed regulatory barriers, advertising challenges, just on and on and on. It's like an entrepreneur's dream in terms of being able to find opportunities and to bring together a very valuable company that can solve challenges along the way. So it was the combination of the industry landscape as I talked about, before the people in the industry and you know, I think just in general, this, this entire blue ocean for the space and being able to, like develop a certain expertise, and then as we always say, rinse and repeat. So that's what really captured my attention and excitement. And as I'm sure we'll probably say many, many times, using the baseball analogy, we're still in the second inning of a nine inning game. So in terms of people who have said, Oh, you know, we missed the opportunity to invest in cannabis that was from 2014 to 2017. Like, it's very, very difficult for me to understand, as I live in this industry every day to try to get my, my head around this idea that the only opportunity to invest in the space was three years. I mean, we're still in a prohibition era from a federal perspective. So you know, as we always say, wouldn't you want to invest in alcohol in the 1930s? You know, I've seen the Jim Beam commercials, they're very few people who did that, you know, that's the opportunity that we have, and that we're bringing to a lot of willing and able early stage, you know, risk people who understand the risk, and want to be a part of a generational opportunity, you know, from the just a many facets

Josh Wilson  16:00  
for an industry that is young, disorganized, and fragmented, there's opportunity, right, for those who are kind of building out the ecosystem. So Scott, from your analytical guy, you're a political guy, like your superpower is to look at things from massive high level and to see how things are moving. Where do you think as we're going across, there's 38 states that are now saying, okay, it's okay for, you know, adult use, like, where do you see the US going? What about the world like, Where's, where's the industry going?

Scott Berman  16:32  
First of all, we see eventually, it's going to be federally legal. We don't know when, but it's definitely going to take more time. But what we see now is each state that turns to adult use, it changes the landscape. So the entire west coast of the United States became a different scene when California, Oregon, Washington, Nevada, Colorado, they all legalized adult use, and now, it's just completely you know, out in the open and everywhere, business is booming, we're now seeing a shift on the East Coast, we have Maine and Vermont, we now are about to have New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, maybe Maryland in a couple of months. And so we as each state turns on adult use, it becomes more regulated, normalized. And the total addressable market goes up a lot. And so we see that happening, you know, inevitably, the world is pretty interesting, too. In Germany, they're now accepting medical insurance for cannabis, which is a huge development, countries like Portugal, and others are really turning it on in different ways. So I think even the United Nations sort of declassified cannabis about a year ago. And so we see that, you know, the stigma, and the prohibition of cannabis is slowly slowly going away, we kind of wish it would speed up sometimes, but we know where we're headed. And you know, as investors, that actually is, the slowness is frustrating at times, but it's also a big opportunity for us, because we can see things unfolding in slow motion, like we know what's about to happen in New York and New Jersey, because we wants it happen in Oregon and Washington. So we can make bets accordingly and sort of think about where we're going to be in two and three years from now.

Josh Wilson  18:11  
Let's talk a little bit about the money side, right? Why, you know, when states go, let's legalize this opens opportunity for tax dollars, which one of you guys could could speak to some of the benefits for a state to say, hey, yeah, maybe we should legalize this, make it you know, taxable?

Jordan Tritt  18:29  
Yeah, you know, I'll start and then we'll add it in. So you know, I'm a numbers guy. So that's always speaks to me. And I'll back into your question. But I think about, you know, five years ago when I was first pitching the fund, and we had our investor deck, and one of the things we put on there from just a deal standpoint was that the deal sizes had gotten to 100 million in acquisitions or valuations of businesses. Here we are five years later, which in cannabis years is like somewhere between 10 and 30 years, depending on your math, but it accelerates very quickly. And we see billion dollar deals in plant touching businesses and ancillary. So there's no question that the dollars in this industry are becoming more and more significant. Well, when you talk about the state level, I don't have my notes in front of me, so to speak, but I know Colorado has generated lots of money from a tax perspective, I think, somewhere between a billion and you know, a billion plus dollars into their state government. from a tax perspective. That's very interesting. Obviously, everyone's lifted COVID The last few years, is it wasn't as much of a focus the last few years for these states because they've been getting tons of stimulus money from the federal government. So this idea of needing to support their own, you know, their own budget has become less of a focus, but that will come into play. And then the last thing I'll mention and then I'm sure Scott will have something to add is that we always talk about this issue. So when you talk about tax right Have a new typically, you know, in terms of like, you know, promoting commerce, jobs, etc that's usually a Republican initiative. And then you've got other aspects of the industry that are appealed to the Democrats as well. So this is not one of the few if any issues that is not a red or blue issue. But really you have both sides of the aisle that can get around this industry, for one reason or another. I think economics again, appeals usually to the Republicans, and then more of the social justice and prison reform and different things like that appeal to the Democrats, Scott. Yeah. And

Scott Berman  20:36  
obviously, as Jordan said, it's red and blue. And depending on which you are, you still have to balance your budget if you're the governor of the state, right. So it helps every state, you know, in terms of budget, and there's roads and schools that are paid for, you know, I think in maybe it was Illinois, where they recorded more tax revenue from cannabis than alcohol recently, which is amazing. And you know, there's this other benefit of jobs, which also provides a boost to the local economy. I believe cannabis is one of the fastest growing job markets in the United States in terms of adding jobs, I think we're about 500,000 jobs nationally, or something like that, that provides more tax revenue for the state that provides more income for individuals. And so now you have more people working in the space, more tax revenue coming in. And so it's really a win win for everybody.

Josh Wilson  21:25  
So as an investor, right, there's taking a look at this industry, and you're like, wow, it's kind of scary. It's kind of exciting. It's we're on the verge of something big 38 states are saying, Yes, what's gonna happen with the rest of the country with the rest of the world? What if the government comes in and just says, Nope, you know, so like, as you're seeing this, what, what are some of the greatest concerns from an investor perspective that you guys, and you know, between your fund and your LPs, that you conversations that you guys, let us in behind the scenes? What kind of concerns are investors asking before investing in the space?

Scott Berman  21:59  
Yeah, so I think that some of the concerns are definitely around regulations, there's really very, very little chance of things going backwards in terms of the laws, however, there are it is slow. And there are laws that are affecting the balance sheet and the profitability of many companies. And we were just talking about taxes, there's a pretty onerous tax law called 280 E, which is greatly affecting the profitability of many companies. So we'd love to get that fixed. There's also very strange banking rules, which I won't dive into. It's very complicated, but the banking in cannabis is not easy. And so that is a challenge to for raising money. It's also a challenge for operating your business. Many cannabis businesses get their bank account shut down, many of them can't really borrow in normal ways. And that's a challenge too. So I think that investors look at it and think, Well, with all these problems in the space, like one of these gonna get fixed, and we don't want to get into it until they are, I think the other effect is that big institutions are not able to get into the space, it's really hard to list your company on public markets. And so it's not normal. in those respects. However, we do see all of that changing, we just don't know when Yeah,

Jordan Tritt  23:09  
I can add just one or two things to that as well. I think the as we talked about the maturity of the space is something that is definitely a deterrent for investors, some people have gotten into investments, they've made one off, investments gotten burned for any variety of reasons, and they look at it and say this is not an industry that I can be successful on. And that's where the opportunity for a fund, an active fund, like us, a group that has its own ecosystem, you know, we are those, you know, the in the trenches eyes in the years ahead of the game, having you know, 1000s of conversations a year and making sure that we understand, like Scott said, where things are heading, and you know, being able to shine the flashlight and say this guy's you should come this way, don't go that way, etc. So, I think it's scary because of that, but at the same time, if you do it properly, that calculated risk thing that my father talked about, and that's what we've implemented in terms of how we operate and how we invest. So Jordan,

Josh Wilson  24:12  
you spend a lot of time working with the limited partners and people investing into the fund and and having those kind of one on one conversations. When someone's coming to you with money. What does the perfect investor perfect LP look like? Do they have you know, are they coming from a massive background in cannabis? Are they you know, pure, like real estate or technology? Like what does your cap stack look like? Essentially,

Jordan Tritt  24:36  
so actually, I was talking we attend a lot of family office conferences. I was fortunate enough to go to Opal Newport Rhode Island ever been there? What a beautiful place and I was talking to a another fund a fin tech fund and we were comparing our strategies in terms of how we approach fundraising is very interesting because this is a guy who his main LP base are institutions and law larger banks endowments, and then he looks to family offices to round out the, the lower, I don't know what you would call it but a different aspect of the LP base, we have developed more of like a ground up, right, Scott talked about the challenges and federal illegality. So the institutions and banks aren't in this space. So that's a big opportunity for LPS who are willing to get in. So historically, we've had a lot of high net worth individuals who have come and joined us, they put money into the fund. And then we have a structure where alongside the fund will go co invest through single purpose vehicles, SPV structures, we'd like people who are looking at the space in a long term way, but at the same time, looking to maximize their bets when they see something that really resonates with them, or that they have experience with personally. So that's some of the aspects. Again, I alluded to the family offices, we're seeing a lot of interest from Ras registered investment advisors. These are people who are managing money on behalf of clients. And we all know this is around July 2022, August 2022, there's a lot happening in the macro economic environment, rising interest rates, potential recession, all this stuff. So there's a real challenge and opportunity for people who have a fiduciary responsibility, managing people's money to find opportunities that can combat some of the headwinds that are happening from a macroeconomic standpoint, and what they look for, right, these guys are managing people's money is a calculated risk, right? Yes, you know, cannabis is interesting, they've been hearing about it for a few years, maybe it's just coming into their backyard, maybe it's been in their backyard for few years, but they've seen the ups and downs. Either way, there's a timing piece here where there's a significant interest to start getting into the space. But people are only willing to do that if they can work alongside a group that they understand the strategy, they understand the active investment philosophy, that's going to mitigate risk on a day to day basis, a group that's been there, done that seen some of these things, scrape their knees, you know, know what to expect, can see around the corner, that's the type of group that are IPAs and family offices where it's, yes, they want the upside, but they also want to protect the downside. So those are the people that are ideal for us, because they appreciate our methodology. And what we've developed in the space

Josh Wilson  27:28  
Scott, you came in, because someone invested in you. So now flipping that script, Scott, when you're looking at a founder, who has the best weed ever, right, you've met 75 of them who have the best way in the world, right? If you grow it, they will come maybe not right? When you're looking at a founder, because some one invested in you. And it took you to a whole new levels. And now you're on the opposite. You're on the other side of the table now making investments in founders, what do you look for in a founder? And then in the opportunity?

Scott Berman  27:57  
Yeah, it's a great question. I mean, the first thing is, what have they done before? What's their background? What kind of businesses have they had an exit? Have? They started a company before? That's super important? The second thing is who do they surrounded themselves with? Who is the team? Who's you know, the CEO? Oh, and who's their chief marketing officer. And so we kind of look at who they've surrounded themselves with? And what their sensibilities are, are they coachable? That's a big deal. Are they trustworthy? Are they genuine? Are they responsive? And then when you dig into, you know, the numbers and look at are they sensible? Do they, you know, this is where Jordan really is, excels is like looking at these projections and saying, you know, this is reasonable or not, or this is achievable or not. And so we kind of look at it from both sides, like, are they the right team? Do they have the right stuff? And what is the plan? What is also the timing of the plan and the geography and the plan? So when and where are they going to launch their business? And what are they looking at four or five years down the road? And do they have a plan for exit, you know, that's something that we always want to look at is like a long term plan so that investors can get their money back and more.

Josh Wilson  29:06  
Let's talk exits, which one of you guys want to talk about maybe some success stories in the industry where you all saw it happening and celebrating, but then also for the investors you like, if you would have been a part of that. That's what you could have had? What are some success stories and exits in the industry?

Jordan Tritt  29:21  
Yeah, so some of them we've experienced ourselves and then others we've seen around us and have been formed our going after new markets. So starting off in this industry, the first one that my father had back in 2014 15, was all investing in ancillary businesses. So Scott talked about the new markets that come up, and as those new markets are starting, you could either be starting literally from scratch and building, you know, recreating the infrastructure that maybe you've set up in another state or the first time operator, or you could have some sort of software technology or packaging business and when a new market opens up, that's just The larger customer base for you. So for us having come from the startup world and the general operating world, we were most comfortable stepping into the space from an ancillary perspective. So based on that the exits we've had thus far have been companies that have been on the ancillary side software technology companies, and that had been acquired typically in all stock deals, and either merged into a larger company that's doing multiple things, and looking to tack on a particular segment that haven't been serving, or, you know, sometimes roll ups where you're bringing together a few different companies and accessing the public markets. So that's, you know, some of the exits that we've seen in terms of what's been around us, Scott. And I remember him talking and seeing the evolution of the medical dispensaries in Pennsylvania and some of the exits that these guys had four or 567 times multiples in a matter of a couple of years. That's, again, what we see if done the right way with with all the criteria that Scott mentioned, you know, that we can invest with groups at the right time and see an exit in, say, two to four years at a very nice multiple. And that's, again, really informed how we're approaching space. Now, how are deploying capital geographies that were focused on the flip, we just had a webinar a little bit ago with one of our clients that's only in medical states, but that these medical states are poised to transition to adult use, and usually the bump in terms of revenue, because you don't need to go through the process of only accepting medical patients, you can have anyone from any state come into your store, buy your product, you know, there's usually anywhere from a two to three times bump in revenue, you know, out of the same asset once that happens. So the timing of that on a state by state level is what we look to utilize in order to achieve positive exits for investors.

Josh Wilson  31:51  
Scott, as you're looking at ancillary businesses in the cannabis industry, right, it's not just flour, it's not just weed. There's all sorts of business opportunities in the industry, what are some of the ones that I might not be thinking about, or that our audience might not have even thought of?

Scott Berman  32:07  
Yeah, there's so many, I mean, what you know Fintech is one very important part of it. lab testing is regulated by state, and it's really big advertising, Jordan mentioned trade shows MJ unpacked is our investment there. So that's a good one, we've invested in a company that helps get mold out of cannabis for the grower, you know, which is important to improve the quality of it, then there's point of sale platforms, their seed to sale platforms, because everything needs to be tracked by the state. We love analytics and data as well. So there's data companies that try and help understand the consumer and help grow the customer base, you know, so there's just, you know, I could keep going, but there's a lot of angles.

Josh Wilson  32:48  
It's not just the actual plant, there's a whole business, from packaging, from manufacturing to shipping. There's a massive industry that surrounds it in a group. And you said, some of it is kind of exciting, because it's fragmented, and it's ready for someone to innovate. It's ready for someone to take the helm and run with it. And your guy's opinion, you know, I'll go let's start with Jordan. Jordan, what do you think the future? I know, you can't you don't have a magic eight ball or anything like that. But what do you think is the future of what you guys are doing in the space? Like, where do you want to see it go?

Jordan Tritt  33:20  
Yeah. And actually, as you were asking that question, I was hoping you guys something similar, or anything to share one of the thoughts I wanted to say earlier, which is the one of the most interesting things about this industry, it's probably the only industry I'm aware of, is you have two different aspects of it not I mean, we've talked about ancillary and plant touching, but even within the plant touching, you have a industry that is like a CPG industry, right, where it's often compared to alcohol, or tobacco. And then you have a pharmaceutical or a medicinal side of it, which is compared to biotech, psychedelics, alternative medicine, there's real, you know, research out there, obviously, tons of anecdotal, but more and more over time research that shows the actual medicinal benefits of cannabis and different variations, form factors, etc. So one thing that's going to happen in this space, and like you said, on the crystal ball, so I don't know how it's going to shake out, but there is going to be this dichotomy of people who use this for recreational adult use, relaxation, feeling better, etc. And then, you know, some aspect of that that is truly, you know, research based, and we understand the real benefits, and that's where Scott's background coming from, you know, pharma, and, you know, health care is, you know, been, you know, he's got the best of both worlds because he's got the healthcare and the data side, right. So that's why advertising it's like, okay, all of those are going to continue to advance in this space. And that's really, you know, again, I talked about the blue ocean that informs you know, how we approach this because we are unwilling to just say, Okay, we are going to bet on the real estate aspect or this aspect or another aspect, we believe in the industry at large. And if we can be a participant in the industry at large that no matter what it's still growing at 30% a year, you know, because the market exists, it's just a matter of regulatory, let alone, newer younger customers and patients and stuff that are coming online, this industry is going to continue to explode, it's just a matter of being smart and spreading the investments around different criteria so that you're insulated from one particular niche that may go through some sort of contraction or may not exist down the road. So you have to be really, really smart about how you put that into place. And then the other thing that I'll mention is just, you know, we really look at companies that are creating technology that is starting in the cannabis world, cannabis is the highest value crop there is, but then has application outside of cannabis. And, you know, we'll go into those in later episodes. But this idea of, you know, being a part of something and investing in things that have, you know, real world, real world applicability, but are getting there Proving Ground in cannabis that's very interesting to us, and is a focus and will continue to be for a long time,

Josh Wilson  36:15  
Scott, as we were talking, Jordan said, Dan, I had this on my brain, I wish you would have asked me that. And I'm so glad you asked me that question. Is there anything going on in your brain that you're like, Man, I hope Josh asked me this question during this interview?

Scott Berman  36:26  
Well, I think one thing that I like to think about, and it's really exciting to be part of the advocacy, and it's the change in mentality of this country, in general, that we're helping every day like the acceptance of cannabis as medicine, and the availability of it, and the social justice around it. I mean, for far too long, we've been putting people in jail for cannabis, and now they're getting jobs and working in legal cannabis markets. And that's really exciting. So we're seeing this huge shift in, you know, the stigma, really, it started in 1970. And it was really stupid, if I may say so. And now we're fixing that. And we're opening up medicine to millions of people, we're opening up the recreational side to millions of people. And so I'm super excited about that, you know, every single time we invest in a new state, it creates jobs and new customers, and people have access to this, that where they didn't before. And so that's really exciting. I mean, we're not done yet. But we've come a long way. And so I think in the future, not only is this going to get a lot bigger as an industry dollar wise, but there's also just a lot more people that are going to have access and enjoy it. Super cool.

Josh Wilson  37:33  
So this being the first episode, the intro episode to your podcast, that you guys are co hosting. Scott, from your perspective, what are some of the episodes and interviews on topics that you'd like to discuss? So for the audience listening in who might be experts in the industry or an investor, and they want to talk with you? What are some of the topics that you want to cover in the next 50? Episodes?

Scott Berman  37:55  
Yeah, we were really excited, we have a lot of really good people in our world, and we can't wait to introduce them to everybody, certainly a lot of investors, a lot of we're very close to a lot of venture venture groups in the space who are looking at deals and investing their own capital into the space. You know, we're talking to people who have studied very closely, these different sectors of cannabis, we're excited to bring you portfolio companies that we've invested in that are doing really cool things. And just like, you know, people that are really genuine and smart and interested in growing the business, there's just a lot of people and we can't wait to bring it all out.

Josh Wilson  38:30  
And then Jordan, as for this intro episode, you know, you touched that you guys have an investment arm, and you because you saw that there was a need for an advisory service, give us an idea of what that synergy looks like between VC group and advisory group. And then from this podcast, where do you want to see this podcast go for things that you, you know, bring to the table. So when

Jordan Tritt  38:53  
we started the Panther group, it took a little while, but we settled on the saying of investors, advisors and connectors. So that's what, you know, the investor side, you know, as you talked about, is primarily through the fund, as well as being that conduit, that bridge between family offices, institutional capital and the space. So that's a big thing for us. And you know, you have to do that that's a full time job in and of itself, along with being a fund manager. So, you know, building a team, which I've been fortunate enough with Scott to do, is critical. And that's how we're able to solve those two things. There's no question as we've talked about throughout their synergies to investing in a company, they oftentimes need this help anyways, why not, you know, build that relationship with them and provide those services either directly or through connections that we have. And so that's what I look at this space. You know, we've over time we've continued to put a emphasis on taking what we've developed from a day in and day out and making it available and visible to the entire world within the cannabis space. And then again, moreso, also clustering people in in a way that, you know, they feel comfortable. So that's what I think the synergies between the two, investing and advising is, and then how I think we're looking to leverage this show to be a microphone for us of getting that message out and sharing with people what we're seeing on a daily basis. And I think it triggers, you know, other thoughts as people listen in, and that will just continue to allow this podcast to build off of itself.

Josh Wilson  40:29  
Scott, did you have something to add to that,

Scott Berman  40:31  
I just wanted to add that it's the one thing that we do quite well is like, we helped along the journey from the beginning, you know, super early stage growth stage, you know, to an exit. And so there's a lot of things that happened, you know, you need capital, but you also need people and you need advertising, you need connections, you need, you know, we have a huge network, we have a lot of data that we bring to the table. And so we're able to help you have many different stages of your life cycle as a company. You know, I also like to think of us as advisors, mentors, and therapists, you know, for this space, because it is not easy. And so, given you know, our experience as entrepreneurs and being in the space for many years, we can help people navigate the tough times and help them you know, celebrate the good times.

Josh Wilson  41:15  
All right, now you both will have an opportunity to make the final point. And then what's a good way for people to contact you, especially if they want to learn more about Panther, learn more about the advisory service, learn more about investment opportunities, or they just want to connect with you and maybe discuss a deal. So before we go into how can people connect with you, Jordan, final thoughts before we say goodbye for the day? Well, I

Jordan Tritt  41:38  
think it was what we said even before we got on the air, which is the excitement that we have about where we're heading and what our position is, and being able to help this industry grow in a organic and you know, unknown way. So every day, it brings a new, interesting opportunity. That's the excitement of the space. And so I'm just very thankful and appreciative that we met you, Josh, and that you have given us the platform to really be able to build a conversation directly and indirectly, with people in our world, so excited about what the future holds for us in the cannabis space.

Josh Wilson  42:16  
Awesome. Thank you as well. Scott, final thoughts before I say goodbye?

Scott Berman  42:20  
Sure. I agree. Thank you very much, Josh, you've helped us a ton, you know, getting ready for this, we're super excited, we have a lot to share, we love to educate, we love to teach people and make them feel more comfortable about the space, it's new, it's very new to a lot of people, and we're here to help, we love spending time just talking about it, and just from a lot of different angles. So you know, any investor that wants to get into it, we're more than happy to spend time and educate and you know, and also down the road, you know, we're gonna be here to you know, we're playing the long game. And you know, we want to we want to win with everybody in the end.

Josh Wilson  42:54  
So what we'll do is I, you know, we'll put your contact information in the show notes. So as people are listening in, and they want to connect with you guys directly, we'll put that information but Jordan, for people to reach out to what would be a good way for someone to reach out to you in terms do they have a question? Are they interested about investing? Like, what topics do you want someone to reach out to and talk to you about?

Jordan Tritt  43:15  
Yeah, so we're fortunate to have a great team. So I can definitely play a gatekeeper and point people in the right direction. But in terms of what I love talking about is the opportunity for people to invest in space and what we're doing and how we're approaching it. So anyone who's looking to get exposure to the cannabis space and any different which way that we've talked about today would love to explain the different vehicles that we have in order to place capital smartly into this space. And feel free to visit the website cancer group that CO is definitely some intake forms, including one specific page around investors that you can put in what you're interested in, and you know, what you're looking to deploy into the space and that'll be the start of a, hopefully a long relationship. So that's the best way for me.

Josh Wilson  44:01  
What about you, Scott? What kind of topics as people are listening in topics questions? Or what kind of people would you like to connect with you and maybe even get on the show? Well, first of

Scott Berman  44:10  
all, almost anybody know anybody that wants to get really learn more about the space and invest or just work in the space and you know, interact with some of the companies Scott at the Panther group.co Is my email easy to find on LinkedIn, we also have a new, great newsletter. So if you visit our website and sign up for our newsletter, we conduct webinars fairly regularly with portfolio companies. So tune in for those and finally, like the joint ventures podcast,

Josh Wilson  44:38  
awesome. So Jordan, Scott, thank you for sharing your story. Thank you for setting the stage of what people can expect by listening in to this podcast now, as a guest host of this I'm going to talk to the audience just for a second. If you guys are listening in and this message resonates first of all, the most important thing is that you connect directly with the hosts themselves say, you know, I heard you on the show Maybe you want to get on the show myself and share my knowledge of the industry, you know, maybe find a way to do a deal together. So, you know if that's you in the audience, reach out to the host and say, thanks for doing this show, this industry needs this. Let's find a way to do a deal. Now if you're listening in and you just want to kind of be along for the ride to get maybe get some education or some entertainment, you know, my encouragement to you is that you like and subscribe this show, give a five star review, tell these guys that they're amazing. Encourage them and you know, support them along the ride, share it with a friend that might be interested in the journey as well. And as always, I hope you guys are having a wonderful day. Thank you for being business builders and people interested in the industry. And stay tuned for the next episode. Bye everybody.

Michaela Petrone  45:44  
Our mission is to bring you insights on how to thrive in the dynamic, fast paced and rapidly expanding cannabis market. If you are an investor, cannabis, executive or innovator and want to be featured on our show, visit joint ventures podcast.com