Is this the golden age of marijuana investment?

Is this the golden age of marijuana investment?


Daniel Yazbeck stepped to the podium before about 140 investors in a Las Vegas conference room with 15 minutes to persuade them to bankroll a handheld testing device that helps pot users evaluate marijuana.


Yazbeck, a lead investor in the product called MyDx, part of La Jolla, Calif.-based CDx Inc., told the group he was seeking $1.25 million in exchange for a 20 percent stake in the analyzer company. He was the first of 12 entrepreneurs invited to pitch at a conference organized by ArcView Group, a San Francisco-based firm of angel investors.


“It’s a tool that will not only educate but will also empower people with healthier lives by knowing what’s in everything they eat, drink and inhale,” Yazbeck, 36, said Thursday before showing a video on the tester, which also will be able to detect pesticides in food and contaminants in water.


The meeting coincides with the start of legal marijuana sales in Colorado, where retail shops opened Jan. 1 to long lines of consumers. Investor interest has surged since voters in Colorado and Washington state became the first to legalize recreational marijuana use in 2012. Stores are expected to open in Washington later this year.


“Welcome to the golden age of cannabis investing,” Steve DeAngelo, ArcView’s president, said at the start of the meeting.


“There will never, ever be another time when the deals for investors will be as good as they will be over the course of the next couple of years,” said DeAngelo, co-founder of Harborside Health Center, a medical-marijuana dispensary in Oakland and San Jose, California. “So be cautious, do your due diligence, be deliberate, be wise. But have your checkbooks ready. The time is now.”


Jon Cooper and Dooma Wendschuh, co-founders of Denver-based Ebbu, took to the stage to pitch marijuana products from pre- rolled joints to refills for e-cigarettes, all labeled to show the high they produce, ranging from “chill” and “giggle” to “bliss” and “energy.”


“What happens when you walk into a dispensary?” Cooper told the crowd. “You see rows and rows of glass jars and each of them contain a different strain.”


“With upwards of 500 different strains, you can see how this is really confusing for the cannabis consumer. How do you find a strain that’s right for you?” Cooper said.


“No more half-hour conversations with the budtender,” Wendschuh said of their labeling system. “It’s simple, and it’s going to change the world.”


Investors at the meeting included Joby Pritzker, whose family started Hyatt Hotels Corp. and who declined to be interviewed.


Tom Bollich, a founding employee of Zynga Inc., the San Francisco-based maker of “Farmville,” said investing in the marijuana business feels similar to the mobile applications industry.


“It’s like the Wild, Wild West,” said Bollich, chief executive officer of Hydro Innovations, a Boulder, Colo.-based company that makes climate-control systems for marijuana growers.


“Right now, it’s a gold rush and we’re trying to sell shovels,” Bollich said outside the conference room, between brief interviews that resembled speed dating. Investors and entrepreneurs lined up across from each other with a few minutes to talk before moving to the next person.


Twenty states, including California and Massachusetts, allow the medical use of marijuana. While federal law still classifies the drug as an illegal substance, the U.S. Justice Department said in August that it wouldn’t challenge the legalization laws in Washington and Colorado, provided the states prevent out-of-state distribution, access to minors and drugged driving, among other things.


President Obama said he didn’t think marijuana is “more dangerous than alcohol,” in an interview with the New Yorker published Jan. 19. Noting that he smoked the drug during his youth, he also said he views it now as a “bad habit and a vice,” and “not something I encourage.”


Leaster Gibson, 38, an investor from Springfield, Mo., said he’s interested in backing a couple of companies that made pitches, while declining to name them.


“Marijuana is the best growth industry probably in the next five to 10 years,” Gibson said in an interview in the conference hall’s courtyard, where the smell of marijuana filled the air. “I think there’s a tremendous amount of money to be made.”

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Yes sir, I do believe the golden age of marijuana is just beyond the horizon. With both Washington (where I live) and Colorado legalizing, more states should follow and it will become a full blown industry. Beyond that, this should help narrow the gap between smokers and non-smokers alike. With our beloved plant no longer being illegal, more and more people should come to accept and realize that it's not at all dangerous. I'm just glad I get to live in a time of such great reform!

I guess my only question is, with all this buzz and the inevitable legalization on the federal level, how do I cash into my own marijuana business? Baby steps I suppose.

I just wonder what the future holds... will weed be behind the counter in party stores like so many packs of Marlboros today? When it does go mainstream will they drastically limit the potency? One thing I do fear... the profits us small growers and caregivers are making now will be targeted by the large corporations. That's why I'm hesitant to endorse full legalization.

I'd rather people not be in jail over cannabis. That's all that matters to me.

There will always be a desire for boutiques and original growers. Think of "packs" as being like olden day shwag. Schwag never hurt good growers.

I'd be very hesitate of "Marijuana business" , no offense but our area of interest has always been a haven for scammers and hucksters.

I'm trying to chase down who steve deangelo is of the arc view group.... isn't that the dude who owns harbor side?????


and heres a link I've found on arc view while doing some digging

http://go.bloomberg.com/political-capital/2014-01-10/n-y-assemblyman-arrested-for-pot-skips-cuomo-address-for-colorado/

heres arcviews personal media page with some nice updates.

http://arcviewgroup.com/media/

Limosnero said:

http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/mydx

Click to expand...

and below is a post why this is a scam:

This screams scam or at the minimal an inaccurate expensive device I just spent money on.
I say scam on the following reasons, some already pointed out by others:
1.) low funding goal. For some scientific device, only needing $20k? Seems like if you had real investors, that would be an easy get as there is no way a product of this sophistication to be created at a price point of under $100k, I'd suspect much more. For one, hardware engineer is needed, two software engineers are needed. Three, custom test boards of the product are needed, these need to be tested and priced out for components in bulk, and that's just for testing the design. and accuracy of the build. Four, you'd have to have access to real spectrum analyzers and those cost money. Really its a huge red flag they only wanted $20k. If they were so far along, $20k is a drop in the fucking bucket.

2. they focus primarily on cannabis. If this was an honest to god life changer, Imagine the money you'd get from schools and universities. Government grants are a wet dream for companies. As someone else stated above with experience to portable analyzers, man would money be saved and no more hauling a giant ass piece of equipment around!

3. They offer no science nor explanation to the actual device. nothing at all can be found. they just struck gold with an awesome product, yet can't find the $20k?

4. they used a PR wire company to spread the word about them to look legitimate with a reputable news source. not knockint pr companies, but this is simply a cheap trick for two bit hucksters to look legitimate. penny stocks have been doing this for years. Google the name and the WSJ, there is no fucking article.

I could go on but ya get the picture. I really hope no one wasted their hard earned money for this pipe dream.

ETA I do give them credit for having a glossy appearance and some sense to try and look professional. An all or nothing donation in exchange for a product is also telling. I invested in the raspberry pi, I think crowd sourcing and micro lending is a great move to the future instead of current means to raise capital, but it's rife for scammers, and this industry is full of them. It only helps that some aren't as analytical as they should be, day dreaming of a pipe dream due to desire instead of actuality. I bet most people have no idea how the hell one of these works, or what a real one costs. But a fool and his money...