Marijuana Business Magazine July 2019

Marijuana Business Magazine | July 2019 76 What can you apply from your previous work of evaluating tech and other companies to your current job at MariMed? There’s a lot of similarity. My job at MariMed is one part strategy; M&A is another part; strategic investments—like minority investments—is a third part. All of those are directly connected to things that I’ve done before. On the strategy side, I’ve been on the boards of dozens of companies and had to think about strategy a lot. On the M&A and capital-raising side, the analyses that you go through and the due diligence that you perform on any opportunity that comes up are quite similar to what you would do if you were thinking of making an investment as a venture firm or hedge fund or recommending a stock as a research analyst. How does covering emerging companies help in your current environment? I’m a learning junkie. I try to understand a new emerging industry that’s growing fast and preferably has lot of complexity and chaos, because then you can uncover things other people may not uncover. You may uncover opportunities. Over my 30-year career, I went from following consumer products and services in the ’80s to technology and the internet in the ’90s and eventually to renewable energy in the 2000s and, now, cannabis. Looking back, I guess I didn’t realize how much risk was associated with it. I didn’t see the risk; I just saw the opportunity. What’s a key lesson learned in finance that you can apply in cannabis? If you’re going to be a player and have staying power, just make sure you’re well capitalized. Because if it’s a long game, like I think it’s going to be, and you’re growing fast and you’re not profitable because you’re reinvesting your profits into growth, make sure you’ve got a war chest, because it may take five to 10 years to get to the promised land—if you ever get there. CURRENT COMPANY MariMed, multistate marijuana company, Norwood, Massachusetts CURRENT POSITION Chief strategy officer WALL STREET COMPANY Roth Capital Partners, San Francisco; EFW Partners, San Francisco WALL STREET POSITION Senior research analyst and managing director (Roth); founder and managing partner (EFW) CHARLES FINNIE ″If you’re going to be a player and have staying power, just make sure you’re well capitalized. ... It may take five to 10 years to get to the promised land— if you ever get there .″ Hustle America