Marijuana Business Magazine - May-June 2018

Q&A By John Schroyer K evin O’Leary has had a fair bit of success in the business world. A deep-pocketed investor whose net worth is estimated at more than $400 million, O’Leary has made his fortune through a variety of ventures during the past three decades – though he may be best known for the American reality TV show “Shark Tank.” O’Leary also happens to be the keynote speaker May 9 at MJBizConNEXT in New Orleans. Marijuana Business Magazine spoke with O’Leary to get some of his thoughts on the investment opportunities and pitfalls in the mari- juana sector. Q If there weren’t concerns about mari- juana being illegal at the federal level in the United States, what types of ven- tures would interest you as an investor? A Definitely on the growing side. The ones that look interesting are where you can really put large amounts of capital to work. That would be on providing equipment and growing facilities for medicinal marijuana. You think about where you can deploy a large amount of capital: It’s going to be in optimizing the growing procedures and standards. I see double-digit returns in that space. You may be right down to the level of buying land and setting up real estate facilities for that. And that, for institutional investors, is really intriguing. Infrastructure investing is always the most interesting for large pools of capital. Swimming in the Shark Tank Five Questions with Kevin O’Leary, Businessman, Author and TV Personality 16 • Marijuana Business Magazine • May-June 2018

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