Marijuana Business Magazine March 2019

What attracted you to these opportunities? They had the features we look for in terms of a great team, sustainable market need and long-run scalability. Some other recent examples include our investment in Dutchie, a platform allowing consumers to purchase cannabis products from dispensaries for pickup or delivery. The business model is akin to Grubhub in that Dutchie is an aggregator rather than a logistics provider. Its technology bridges buyers and sellers, creating a compelling value proposition. We also are big fans of Ross Lipson, the (Dutchie) CEO, who has demonstrated his ability to grow and scale businesses in the online food space previously. What are some of your key investment criteria? The first thing we look for is the team. Beyond just dedication and passion, we look for founders who are taking their expertise from other industries and bringing it into the cannabis space. We partner with people who were the best at whatever they did—inventory management, payments, online ordering—and are now going to leverage that expertise in the cannabis space. We also look for businesses with staying power. There are a lot of ways to make a quick buck in the industry by solving immediate but temporary problems. That’s not the business we’re in. We look at companies that will still be serving a vital need for the industry in 10 years. Metrc is a great example of a portfolio company that we see occupying a foundational position in the industry over the long term. We also look for businesses with scalable growth potential. This leads us to shy away from capital-intensive businesses like cultivation, but rather focus on technol- ogy platforms and similarly scalable business models. How did you connect with Snoop, and which portfolio companies is he most involved in? I’ve been involved in the entertainment industry since college, doing digital media consulting, so that has been a long-term relationship that has continued through my time in Asia and back to the States. These days, Snoop is probably most involved in our portfolio company Merry Jane, the digital media business that he helped found, which benefits from his expertise as a content creator.