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Cannabis biz started 2 years ago, sold $7M!

MJ DeMarco

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How One Entrepreneur Built A Cannabis Business And Sold It For $7M In Less Than 2 Years

How One Entrepreneur Built A Cannabis Business And Sold It For $7M In Less Than 2 Years


Pretty good article considering this guy couldn't advertise (officially) on Facebook because of their MJ stance.


Grown via influencer marketing, social media, and targeted Google search (SEO)!
 
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D

Deleted50669

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How One Entrepreneur Built A Cannabis Business And Sold It For $7M In Less Than 2 Years

How One Entrepreneur Built A Cannabis Business And Sold It For $7M In Less Than 2 Years


Pretty good article considering this guy couldn't advertise (officially) on Facebook because of their MJ stance.


Grown via influencer marketing, social media, and targeted Google search (SEO)!
Goes to show the importance of networking skills. He had dependencies on well-entrenched influencers to drive his traffic.
 

Andy Black

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Clever how he wrote content based on what people were already searching for. (I’d pick up on that of course.)
 

Bearcorp

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Just another example of someone providing genuine value with authentic content on social media and being rewarded for it.
With all the time spent analysing content and creating it I wonder if he had time to test bots that do follow for follow and the other spammy rubbish people try on social media? I'm guessing he was too busy growing his business for that.
 
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whiz

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Clever how he wrote content based on what people were already searching for. (I’d pick up on that of course.)

If I ever get around to making a content-focused site, this is exactly what I'm going to be doing.

Why guess blog topics when I can just pull up Keyword Planner and have cold hard numbers that title the next 100 posts for me?

Give the people what they want...
 

Burning Desire

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Great trade for him. Cannabis-related businesses sell at ridiculous multiples because people expect rampant growth in the sector. Typical boom and bust cycle. Great job on him though, building a following like that in such a short timespan.
 

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Great move, early move win the game. I still don't know how a website can make so much money in a such a short period of time, ads & affiliate must be very lucrative in the industry right now.
 
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ALC

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Btw if someone has a great reference explaining all of the mecanich to build a lucrative website i'm open to that ! Knowledge purpose ftm
 

Private Witt

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A cannabis magazine (Dope Mag) in my city just sold for 11 million to High Times. The word was it was mostly in stock options and little cash. High Times is currently raising money through non-traditional methods and there is a lot of skepticism to what really is going on, very interested to see how it all pans out in the next few years as I see the Dope Magazine guys once-in-a-while at events.
 
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Raoul Duke

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A cannabis magazine (Dope Mag) in my city just sold for 11 million to High Times. The word was it was mostly in stock options and little cash. High Times is currently raising money through non-traditional methods and there is a lot of skepticism to what really is going on, very interested to see how it all pans out in the next few years as I see the Dope Magazine guys once-in-a-while at events.

"High Times -- which currently trades under Origo Acquisition Corporation NASDAQOACQ OACQF -- will give Green Rush’s sole proprietor, McGovern, a total of 577,651 Class A shares and $500,000 in cash.

High Times intends to start trading under its own ticker in the NASDAQ during the second quarter of 2018, listing through a Reg A+, crowdfunded, IPO priced at $11.00 per share. At this price, McGovern’s stock would be worth $6.4 million.

McGovern will continue to serve as an executive at High Times and receive, as part of his compensation, an additional 289,630 Class B non-voting stock options, to vest over a three-year period at $2.18 per share."

Inside Look At High Times' $7M Acquisition Of Green Rush Daily, A Marijuana News Company
 

MJ DeMarco

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"High Times -- which currently trades under Origo Acquisition Corporation NASDAQOACQ OACQF -- will give Green Rush’s sole proprietor, McGovern, a total of 577,651 Class A shares and $500,000 in cash.

High Times intends to start trading under its own ticker in the NASDAQ during the second quarter of 2018, listing through a Reg A+, crowdfunded, IPO priced at $11.00 per share. At this price, McGovern’s stock would be worth $6.4 million.

Yea, that's the big "what if" in this scenario. The stocks (and their options) often times end up worthless. But since they are going public, this lends to their value. I've heard far too many stories of asset sales where there is very little cash exchanged and it's mostly options -- the options end up worthless. (Happened to me, LOL).

Also it doesn't look like this has happened (yet) so then I'd value this deal at around $1M. The pending IPO puts it more around the $7M val.
 

ZeroTo100

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This is big business!

People don’t really understand how big this market is, not to mention CBD. Check out that CBD chart on google trends. An article just written up in entrepreneur says it might even outpace the MJ business.

Also, 4 companies made the inc500 list this year. Next year will be 4x that. Marijuana Business Daily made the list. Rev 18.2 Million - founded in 2011.

Timing definitely helps.
 
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MJ DeMarco

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This is big business!

People don’t really understand how big this market is, not to mention CBD. Check out that CBD chart on google trends. An article just written up in entrepreneur says it might even outpace the MJ business.

Also, 4 companies made the inc500 list this year. Next year will be 4x that. Marijuana Business Daily made the list. Rev 18.2 Million - founded in 2011.

Timing definitely helps.

Yup, and the entrepreneurs become acquisition targets by big pharmaceutical interests. Even the cigarette manufacturers have taken interest in the field... billions will be made.

Sensing Big Bucks, Tobacco Companies Pivot Toward Marijuana
 

ZeroTo100

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Yup, and the entrepreneurs become acquisition targets by big pharmaceutical interests. Even the cigarette manufacturers have taken interest in the field... billions will be made.

Sensing Big Bucks, Tobacco Companies Pivot Toward Marijuana

Yup, even big beverage companies. And if people think that legalization is not coming, they’re just asleep at the wheel.

Now with the farm bill being passed and on Trumps desk, some believe this will open up the flood gates. Definitely demonstrates a change in culture, that’s for sure.
 

Fassina

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Great move, early move win the game. I still don't know how a website can make so much money in a such a short period of time, ads & affiliate must be very lucrative in the industry right now.
They didn't buy it for income.. They bought it for the expected ROI and growth.

Also probably didn't just give him 7kk, probably a million or two in cash, a couple million on shares and the rest hostage for 2-5 years if the guy can comply with their contractual agreements on expected growth and the like.

It's a good deal don't get me wrong, but headlines make it sound better it is. Read 'built to sell' so you can better understand how these type of transactions work.
 
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Royce2

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Speaking of cannabis, what’s all the hype of this CBD and how profitable is it for you guys? Isn’t CBD most effective when it’s NOT separated from THC?
 

Arrived2015

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Btw if someone has a great reference explaining all of the mecanich to build a lucrative website i'm open to that
You may find it inbetween the lines in the article that MJ DeMarco quoted.

;)

From my brief reading of his success story I learnt:

~ Instead of appealing exclusively to weed smokers or competing with cannabis media companies, he built a website and company for everyone curious about weed whether for medical or recreational use. He and his team created content that people were searching on Google. (Qualified generic ready made audience).

~ Having famous followers ie Ludacris, Tyga and amassing a social network of influencers with over 1 billion combined followers helped too!

Reading the article, am certain that you'll get more 'success-leaves-clues' pointers especially as it appears he's starting a similar venture. His new venture is mentioned in Raoul Duke's post above.

Edited: to add a word
 
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Last edited:

MooreMillions

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This is big business!

People don’t really understand how big this market is, not to mention CBD. Check out that CBD chart on google trends. An article just written up in entrepreneur says it might even outpace the MJ business.

Also, 4 companies made the inc500 list this year. Next year will be 4x that. Marijuana Business Daily made the list. Rev 18.2 Million - founded in 2011.

Timing definitely helps.
That...chart...is NANAS!

I knew it was this big, but seeing the chart from 2004-Present is beyond impressive because it is not even in its infancy...it's still in itts embtyonic stages.

I tell everyone, "What a tome to be alive!"

We are witnessing a re-legalization of an industry that was worth billions of dollars in 1937 AND it is still a multi-billion opportunity today...maybe a trillion.

Good stuff.
Yep... the same cigarette manufacturers who funded all those anti-cannabis commercials :rofl:

World is a tricky place!
They needed time to recover from the money spent on negative ads for smoking, build a 1-3-5-10 year plan, so they can figure out how to get their land freed up to start growing the industrial hemp.

Capitalism is funny, d@mn near hilarious.
 

ZeroTo100

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That...chart...is NANAS!

I knew it was this big, but seeing the chart from 2004-Present is beyond impressive because it is not even in its infancy...it's still in itts embtyonic stages.

I tell everyone, "What a tome to be alive!"

We are witnessing a re-legalization of an industry that was worth billions of dollars in 1937 AND it is still a multi-billion opportunity today...maybe a trillion.

Good stuff.

They needed time to recover from the money spent on negative ads for smoking, build a 1-3-5-10 year plan, so they can figure out how to get their land freed up to start growing the industrial hemp.

Capitalism is funny, d@mn near hilarious.

Yeah man. It’s a little harder now though. Competition is fierce and there’s a lot of noise - which is ok though. I seen that chart about a year ago and it was “tasty” than...Internet marketers ruin everything though. You see mompreneur’s selling CBD oil online. It’s getting to be like the days when internet marketers were packing skin creams in their kitchen and selling them on amazon lol.

People have also been scooping up MJ domains for a long time now (big biz). Don’t get me wrong, it’s not too late. It’s like anything else, you have to find a way to brand and market yourself better than any other company out there.

It’s a space I would have loved to entertain also and still would.

I wonder if there’s any fastlaners on the forum in this space.
 

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