Marijuana Business Magazine January 2019

Marijuana Business Magazine | January 2019 10 Q&A with founder, investor and partner at CS Ventures Codie Sanchez By Lisa Bernard-Kuhn C odie Sanchez has advised corporate giants such as Facebook, Apple and Amazon. Now, she’s turned her attention to cannabis. Sanchez, recently a featured speaker at MJBizCon in Las Vegas, is a venture principal at Chilean investment fund Magma Partners and head of Latin America and offshore business for First Trust in Dallas. She also founded CS Ventures, which provides investments and corporate advising to startups. A former mutual fund manager at Goldman Sachs, Sanchez said knowledge remains the top investment tool that keeps her strategy on track. “I’m not interested in (being) lucky,” she said. “I’m interested in repeatable processes and insights to gener- ate consistent returns.” Sanchez recently shared her top investment strategies and insights with Marijuana Business Magazine. What’s the best cannabis investment you’ve made and why? My best investment was in a fund, Cresco Capital Part- ners, a (private equity) fund in the space. Learning from an expert through diversified investing initially is always my first step for a new sector. They say to become a good VC, you have to have $500,000 in losses. That doesn’t sound fun to me. So, instead of spending the $500K and 10,000 hours, I lever- age someone who has put in the time to learn from them. What attracted you to these companies/ opportunities? People. I’m a former journalist. My expertise is in asking the right questions to get to the right answers. I always question the motivations, intent, execution ability and track record of any team. After all, an idea without execution is worth exactly what you got it for: nothing. Follow the right people, drafting on the right generational trends, and your portfolio will look a whole lot sweeter. What was your biggest investment mistake, and how did you overcome it? Being too nice. In investing, you have to say no to 100 times more deals than you say yes to, because most won’t succeed. In the beginning, I struggled to say no, or worried that I had to “get in fast.”Truth is, everyone is always rais- ing. Most important are the deals you passed on. What’s your top tip for best judging the credibility of valuations? Valuations are rarely my top priority. It’s all about: Will they be able to execute? In that vein, past behavior is Money Matters | Investing & Finance Insight Codie Sanchez speaks from the MJBizCon main stage in November. Photo by Soliman Productions