Tim Carden

We will generate you 1-5 meetings with your ICP before asking for a penny. Link in featured section if you're interested.

Co-Founder

Here's why most cold emails go to spam.

(And what we do differently)

The problem isn't your copy.

It's your infrastructure.

Most founders: 1-2 inboxes, blasting 100+ emails/day.

What happens: Spam filters notice. Domain reputation tanks. Game over.

What we do instead:

1. Multiple inboxes per domain
↳ 3 pre-warmed inboxes (Zapmail) or 2 Google + up to 25 Outlook (ScaledMail)

2. Strict sending limits
↳ 15-20 cold emails per inbox per day. Never more.

3. Warmup ratio locked
↳ 1.5x warmup emails for every cold send

4. Domain-level health monitoring
↳ If ONE inbox drops below 98% health, all inboxes from that domain get pulled

5. Automatic removal
↳ Unhealthy accounts removed from campaigns instantly. No manual checking.

The result: Your emails actually land in the inbox.

Not the promotions tab.

Not spam.

The actual inbox.

Most founders learn this after burning 3 domains.

You don't have to.

---

Want us to book 1-5 meetings for you for free?

Book a call with our team to see if we can help.

Co-Founder @ RevenueFlow. Filling calendars with qualified meetings for high-ticket B2B companies through cold email

No alternative text description for this image

Here's our 10-stage lead enrichment pipeline.

It runs while you sleep.

Most founders manually research leads one-by-one.

Here's what we built instead:

Stage 1: Blocklist check (150 workers)
↳ Filter unsubscribes and complaints instantly

Stage 2: Global dedup
↳ Never email the same person twice

Stage 3: AI ICP classification
↳ Every lead scored against your ideal customer profile

Stage 4: Email cache lookup
↳ 140,000+ emails already stored - no paying twice

Stage 5-8: Email waterfall
↳ 4 patterns tested before spending a penny on paid lookups

Stage 9: Personalization
↳ AI-written copy that doesn't sound like AI

Stage 10: Campaign upload
↳ Ready to send by the time you wake up

We process 4,000-5,000 leads per hour.

Your SDR does maybe 50.

Your competitors aren't hiring more people.

They're building systems like this.

---

Want us to book 1-5 meetings for you for free?

Book a call with our team to see if we can help.

Most founders think they need to hire an SDR.
They don't. They need to automate.
Here's the math:

SDR cost:
- Salary: $50-70K/year
- Tools: $500/month
- Training: 3+ months before productive
- Output: Maybe 50 leads researched per day

Automation cost:
- Infrastructure: Fraction of an SDR salary
- Speed: 4,000-5,000 leads per hour
- Training: Zero
- Consistency: 24/7, no sick days, no ramp time

The gap isn't 2x.

It's 100x.

One SDR working 8 hours might research 400 leads.

Our pipeline does that in 5 minutes.

While you sleep.

While you're in meetings.

While your competitors are still interviewing candidates.

The best GTM teams aren't hiring more people.

They're building systems that don't need people.

Your SDR isn't slow.

The model is slow.

---

Want us to book 1-5 meetings for you for free?

Book a call with our team to see if we can help.

Email verification at $0.0005.

Not $0.05. Not $0.005.

$0.0005.

Here's why that matters:

Most teams verify emails one at a time:
• Find email: $0.02
• Verify email: $0.01
• Total: $0.03 per lead

Our approach:

• Check cache first: $0
• Try 4 patterns at $0.0005 each: $0.002
• Only pay for lookup if patterns fail

For a 10,000 lead campaign:

Traditional: $300 in verification alone
Our pipeline: Under $50

$250 saved. Per campaign.

And those savings compound.

Every email we find gets cached permanently.

Next time that person appears in any campaign, the lookup is instant and free.

140,000+ emails already cached.

Every week you're not caching, you're paying twice for the same people.

---

Want us to book 1-5 meetings for you for free?

Book a call with our team to see if we can help.

Most cold emails get ignored.

  Not because your offer is bad.
  Because you're writing like a stranger.

  Here's the framework that gets 40%+ open rates:

  The secret? Write like you're texting a friend who asked for help.

  Not: "I noticed your company is scaling..."
  But: "Quick question - are you still manually finding leads?"

  Specificity builds trust.
  Brevity shows respect.
  Questions create curiosity.

  What's your current open rate on cold emails?

Clay went from $1M to $100M ARR in 2 years.

They recently hit a $3B valuation. Here's their GTM playbook 👇

1. Six Years of Foundation Work

Clay didn't rush to market.

They spent 6 years building the product before explosive growth hit.

The lesson: Infrastructure matters more than speed.


2. Credit-Based Pricing Model

Every action costs credits:
→ Pull a LinkedIn profile
→ Find contact info
→ Look up a phone number
→ Run an AI prompt

This model scaled with usage. More value = more credits = more revenue.


3. Self-Serve First, Enterprise Later

They built a foundational self-serve customer base first.
Only in early 2024 did they move upmarket.

Now their customers include:
→ OpenAI
→ Canva
→ Anthropic
→ Rippling
→ Perplexity


4. Outbound Use Case as Core Wedge

Clay connects to sequencing tools to automatically create email campaigns from enriched data.

Rippling doubled their cold email performance year-over-year using Clay in 2023.

That's the power of good data + automation.


5. Near-Breakeven Operations

Even at $100M ARR, Clay operates close to breakeven.

They're reinvesting everything into growth rather than optimizing for profit margins.


The timeline:
→ 2018-2022: Building foundation
→ 2022: $500K ARR
→ 2023: 10x to ~$5M ARR
→ 2024: 6x growth
→ 2025: $100M ARR, $3B valuation

From 6 years of patience to 2 years of explosive growth.

P.S: What's your take on credit-based pricing for GTM tools?

We run an 8-stage lead enrichment pipeline.

Here's what happens to every lead in under 3 seconds:

Stage 1: Blocklist Check
• Filter unsubscribes and complaints
• 150 workers running in parallel

Stage 2: Cache Lookup
• Check if we've emailed this person before
• 140,000+ emails already cached

Stage 3: ICP Classification
• AI determines if lead fits your ideal customer profile
• Rejects bad fits before we spend a penny

Stage 4: Email Cache
• Check our database for known emails
• Free lookup for repeat contacts

Stage 5: Pattern Verification
• Try 4 email patterns automatically
• firstname@company, first.last@company, etc.

Stage 6-7: Professional Finders
• Only pay for lookups when needed
• Waterfall through providers

Stage 8: Final Upload
• Clean, verified lead ready for campaign

The result:

4,000-5,000 leads enriched per hour.

Your SDR does 10-15 per hour manually.

That's not an incremental improvement.

---

Want us to book 1-5 meetings for you for free?

Book a call with our team to see if we can help.

Your competitors aren't hiring more SDRs.

They're automating.

While you're posting job listings for $80K/year sales reps:

• They're running 150 parallel workers
• They're processing thousands of leads per hour
• They're paying under $0.02 per enriched lead

The math has changed.

Manual lead research:
• 10-15 leads per SDR per hour
• $80K+ salary + benefits + management
• Weeks to ramp up new hires

Automated pipeline:
• 4,000-5,000 leads per hour
• No sick days, no turnover
• Scales instantly

This isn't about replacing humans.

It's about letting AI handle the grunt work so your team can focus on closing deals.

Every week you wait, competitors are building lead lists you'll never catch up to.

---

Want us to book 1-5 meetings for you for free?

Book a call with our team to see if we can help.

AI agents now book more meetings than your entire SDR team.

For 1/10th the cost.

Here's what the data shows:

→ AI SDRs cost ~$833/month
→ Human SDRs cost $9,000+/month (fully loaded)
→ That's 10 cents on the dollar

The results?

• AI handles 1,000+ contacts per day (no lunch breaks)
• Cost per lead: $39 vs $262 for humans
• 83% of teams using AI saw revenue growth

36% of B2B companies eliminated their SDR teams in 2025.

Not because AI is "better" at everything.

Because the economics of volume prospecting fundamentally changed.

The smartest founders aren't asking "should we use AI?"

They're asking "how fast can we implement it?"

The gap between early adopters and everyone else is widening every month.

You're paying twice for the same email addresses.

And you probably don't know it.

Here's how it happens:

Month 1: You run a campaign. Find 5,000 emails. Cost: $100.

Month 2: You run another campaign. Different list. But 2,000 of those people? You already have their emails.

You just paid for them again.

Month 3: Same thing. Another $40 wasted on emails you already own.

Multiply that by 12 months.

That's $500+ thrown away. Per year. On emails sitting in your own CRM.

What we do differently:

We cache every email permanently.

140,000+ leads in our database.

When a new lead comes in, we check the cache first.

Hit rate? Often 20-30% on mature campaigns.

That's 20-30% of your enrichment costs eliminated instantly.

Before we spend a penny on a paid lookup, we check:
1. Have we seen this person before?
2. Do we already have their verified email?
3. Is the domain a catch-all? (Skip it entirely)

Simple system. Massive savings.

---

Want us to book 1-5 meetings for you for free?

Book a call with our team to see if we can help.

Most founders burn money on email lookups.

We check 4 email patterns before spending a penny.

Here's the waterfall we run:

1. Cache lookup first
• 140,000+ verified emails in our database
• Instant match = $0 cost

2. Pattern verification
• Try firstname@domain
• Try first.last@domain
• Try firstlast@domain
• Try f.last@domain
• Verification costs $0.0005 per check

3. Professional finders (only if needed)
• LeadMagic: ~$0.02/lookup
• Icypeas: ~$0.02/lookup

The result:

Most leads never hit the paid providers.

Our average cost per enriched lead: $0.003 - $0.02

Compare that to paying $0.02 for every single lookup from day one.

The 4-pattern check alone saves 60-70% on email finding costs.

Every cached email is pure profit.

---

Want us to book 1-5 meetings for you for free?

Book a call with our team to see if we can help.

Test batch in minutes. Full campaign in hours.

This is how we launch campaigns:

Step 1: Test batch (20-50 leads)
• Run locally with 10 workers
• Verify domains parse correctly
• Check ICP is accepting the right leads
• Confirm emails are being found

Time: 15-20 minutes

Step 2: Review results
• X/20 enriched successfully
• Y skipped (catch-all domains)
• Z failed (no email found)

If results look good:

Step 3: Trigger cloud run
• 150 workers in parallel
• 4,000-5,000 leads per hour
• Automatic Slack notification when done

Step 4: Review in Email Bison
• All leads uploaded to campaign
• Signatures auto-configured
• Click "Start"

Total time from CSV to live campaign: 2-4 hours

Not days. Not weeks.

Hours.

---

Want us to book 1-5 meetings for you for free?

Book a call with our team to see if we can help.

Seth Yakatan

Raising & Selling 📈 $1B+ Raised 💰 22 Companies Sold 🤝

Are you struggling to communicate your vision to the capital gatekeepers?

Are you exploring selling your business but don’t know anything about:
✘ Due diligence
✘ Term sheets
✘ Earnouts

Friend, you're lucky you found me...

I'm Seth Yakatan.

I have 30-odd years experience as a corporate finance professional.

My specialties are:
💰 Raising money
🤝 Selling companies

And I’m f**king good at it.

I’ve raised over $1B and sold 22 businesses.

My career has mostly been supporting small-cap and major corporations seeking capital to grow, or
to find strategic acquirers.

Most of these companies are in: 
— biotech
— cannabis
— pharmaceuticals
— DTC consumer goods

I’ve been on boards, taken companies public, gone up against multinational corporations, raised from VC and PE funds.

All of it. 
Many times over.
Whatever your problem is, I’ve seen it before.

But let me level with you:

What I REALLY love is helping people to get to the finish line.

Talking to entrepreneurs excites me.

But in my experience, entrepreneurs are mostly s**t at raising capital and selling companies.

** They just don’t understand investors **

And that’s where I come in.

Together, we workshop: 
✔ Your pitch
✔ Your deck
✔ Your strategy 

And help you raise the capital to GROW and SELL your business.

If you need this help—and almost every business does—send me a DM.

Like, now.

Don't lose another potential investor or acquirer with the wrong pitch.

Seth ✌️

Merchant Bank / Advisory / Family Office

Will there be ONLY ONE California distro left standing?

If that’s true, my money’s on NABIS.

Nabis just acquired assets from Humble Cannabis Solutions.

Distribution. 
Commerce systems. 
Compliance. 
Logistics.

Others chase vibes, Nabis keeps chasing leverage.


>> What’s Happening?

Nabis just picked up assets from Humble Cannabis Solutions.

No hype. Just more control over the infrastructure that moves cannabis.

And now they OWN California…


>> Why This Matters

Infrastructure wins in markets where margins are thin.

And A/R drives the leverage of brands and suppliers.

Owning distribution, commerce, and compliance creates LEVERAGE.


>> What Am I Watching?

Can KSS last?

How many brands realize too late that they don’t control their own destiny?

Whats next for Vince Ning and Jun S. Lee? 

No vibes. No hyperbole. No fanfare.

Just own the damn channel…

The WHOLE DAMN THING.

I LOVE it when someone proves me WRONG… particularly when it’s someone with such a unique and positive character.

Case in point… my main hermano Los Arias and the Green Horizons, you guys have CRUSHED IT.


>> What’s Happening?

A few years back I heard something I thought was crazy

Someone was running around trying to raise big money for a greenhouse in the desert of CA.

A green house? How much $$$?? WTF???

Wrote him off as crazy.

Well, Green Horizons has built one of the best facilities I have walked, PERIOD.

Clean, tighter than a tick, good flower, and serious PASSION…

Impressive, MOST impressive.


>> Why Is This Important?

Sometimes I’m puzzled by the industry and things which I see and hear…

It’s one thing to raise this money. It’s another to know how to use it AND execute…

Cultivation is really easy to do wrong, and very hard to do right…everything about what Los and Green Horizons has built is RIGHT.

And I could not be happier for Los and his whole squad.

Sometimes you just have to BELIVE.


>> What Am I Watching?

Will anyone else have the STONES to build more cultivation in CA?

How soon will this crew stand up facility #2?

Will Green Horizons change the view of CA and the desert?

They sure changed this Joshua Tree’s path…

Abrazos, Jefe…

"You can't fight the desert. You have to ride with it." ~ Louis L'Amour.


Los is an INSPIRING DUDE who just back on LinkedIn, give him a follow and keep up to date with their progress 📈

Am I Trending???

Well you know what I say:

Once is luck, twice is an anomaly…

Three times? Then you’ve got a trend, my friend.

I was highly privileged to be featured alongside the savvy Mitchell Osak in this excellent Forbes piece by Javier Hasse on cannabis M&A in 2026.

Superb reporting, AS ALWAYS Javier.

Essential reading for everyone trying to make moves in the industry this year.

Check it out: https://lnkd.in/gxNfAQ6W

Here’s an idea: why not just sell Hemp TCH Beverages till the last possible second

Eight brands including Cann, Drink DELTA, Wynk™, MAGIC CACTUS, Nectar, HOWDY and NOWADAYS are rolling out at Sprouts (WITH A BAN PENDING).

Yes. A national grocery store! Actual Hemp THC beverage! Next to groceries!


>> What’s Happening?

Sprouts just green lit the sale of THC drinks in stores.

First Target, NOW a mainstream grocer.

So while half the industry is still arguing about about regulation…

….Sprouts says: “Cool. We’ll take the money.”

>> Why Does This Matter?

This is something of a watershed moment for THC beverages.

Alcohol didn’t win because it was moral.

Nicotine didn’t win because it was healthy.

They won because they were available, familiar, and frictionless.

THC drinks just took a HUGE step in that direction.

>> What Am I Watching?

Which retailers will follow? (Because they WILL…)

Which of these eight brands win at grocery, and which dies trying?

How will regulators react now??


Fun fact: The market is moving faster than the rulebook.

Retail just signaled a big fat IDGAF for regulatory clarity.

You’re still debating whether THC beverages are “real”…

Congrats, you’re already two years behind.

Well...it happened: Wyld + Grön announced a definitive merger yesterday.

If you've been following me or listening to my BS, this is great news.

Why?

1. This represents a hallmark transaction for the industry and can foster a new era of M&A in the future

2. The combined company fully illustrates the importance of PLATFORMS driven by BRANDS

3. This represents the first national platform (and in ANT other industry this would be the basis of a Private Equity roll up deal/strategy)

4. It illustrates that there are companies (i) of scale, (ii) generating revenue and profit, (iii) that can find exits, (iv) that are Founder-led and (v) that can be stronger and grow together !!!

5. With this announcement and some form of Federal change on the horizon, 2026 could be our best year YET.

Congrats to all my friends at both companies on an AMAZING deal...

Aaron Morris and Christine Apple you should both be proud… and thank you both for showing the world what IS POSSIBLE!!!!

And if you know Draper Bender, then you know how and why this got done. Period.

Here is to the future for us all.

P.S. This video was recorded July 17, 2025 with Michael Krefman and Michael Peterson on From the Weeds to the Clouds

Even a broken clock is right twice a day....

Glad you all gave up because some of us just GOT STARTED.

Looks like 2026 is off to a terrible start…


>> What’s Happening?

Nothing at all, just go back to sleep

Cannabist’s VA footprint goes for $130M.

Wyld/Gron pops off.

Illicit does a landmark ESOP.

Sunderstorm grabs Lime.

Nabis grabs Humble.

Key takes Bellrock.

Canopy puts $150M on the balance sheet

But its only January, go back to sleep….


>> Why Does This Matter?

The strong are getting STRONGER.

Notice any similarities in any of these deals? (read any of my posts??)

I have profiled most of these companies as “working”.

And the others have big balance sheets.

THE CONSOLODATION will not be televised.


>> What Am I Watching?

Who and what is NEXT?

SUPER-BRAND V2 is coming. Count on it…

Can someone take control of California?

What am I missing??

First of 12 innings down.

The pitcher has not even warmed up and

Already its a Perfect GAME ….

Germany is officially importing TONS of lettuce.

The EU’s biggest single c@nnabis market is sprinting toward 600 metric tons of annual imports.


>> What's Happening?

Germany's medical cannabis imports have climbed quarter over quarter.

From 41 metric tons in early 2025 to 57 t in Q3 2025, crushing records.

German regulators even raised the annual import ceiling once the original quota was exhausted.

Prescription access is expanding and telemedicine is growing…the trajectory now looks like hundreds of tons annually…

>> Why Is This Important?

Germany is now Europe's largest regulated medical cannabis market and its explosive import growth is a global signal.

Deutschland’s policy reforms have created predictable patient access and a huge upstream opportunity for exporters and supply chain players.

At 600 tons of annual imports, that is global supply chain scale and a new benchmark for what "big cannabis" might look like outside North America.


>> What Am I Watching?

Can anyone in Europe actually grow weed at scale, or will the country remain dependent on imports long term?

How pricing, pharmacy networks, and telemedicine evolve and can a patient market can coexist with both social clubs + adult use.

Which countries and companies position themselves as primary exporters into Europe's hottest cannabis corridor?


Bottom line:

Europe's medical cannabis boom isn't theoretical anymore…

It is measurable, explosive, and reshaping global supply chains.

If you haven't been tracking Germany's trajectory closely, you're late.

In case you missed it 

Wyld and Grön was announced earlier this week...

Have to give props again to both teams on the absolute magnitude of this deal for the industry....I am still amazed by this one....

And do not forget why....and what else is possible and for who...

Jeeter - a DreamFields Brand
Timeless
Nova Farms
Standard Wellness
C3 Industries

Thank you Aaron Morris + Christine Apple for showing the WORLD what this industry CAN DO !!!!

Here is to the future for us all...
and never sleep on Draper Bender (might just be the best in the business) 

P.S. This video was recorded July 17, 2025 with the amazing squad of Michael Krefman and Michael Peterson on From the Weeds to the Clouds
(MORE PROGNOSTICATIONS FORTHCOMING.... )

Welcome to Las Vegas !!!!
Wait...did I see you there ?
Well if I did, maybe you made the edit...

Seibo Shen
Elliot Lane + IgniteIt Cannabis
Diana A. + First Citizens Bank
Salvatore (Sal) LaTorre
Aisha Alves + the squad from FlowerHire
My main man Frank Colombo,  CFA + Viridian Capital Advisors
The ever popular Jesse Parenti, TRA 
Marty Higgins
and the ever magnanimous Lisa Williams + Hello Again

Want to thank my good friends from Sweed for all the help !

I am never giving up on California...EVER...

Keep an eye on my friends at Embarc
Keeping it REAL FOR EVERYONE....

CA is still #1 and will be #1 for a while.

We ain't going nowhere...

Just training for the next 12 rounds....

Where do hemp beverages belong?

Well, what do we know:

1. They sure found a way to enter traditional distribution channels

2. Alcohol use is declining

3. Consumers are driving demand

With the hemp ban looming I'm not sure which way is UP.

So you tell me?

Thank you to my friend Peter Su, PBC-CP, CTP, CCBP, CRS, GRCP, GRCA, IDPP, CBE for having me on...

When does a celebrity brand officially hit the skids?

When it turns into a $50M lawsuit.

Iron Mike Tyson and The Nature Boy Ric Flair just turned their brand in weed biz into federal lawsuit.

And the allegations are wild.


>> What’s Happening?

Tyson and Flair filed a 76-page RICO-heavy lawsuit against their former cannabis partners at Carma Holdings.

Accusations include all the good stuff: wire fraud, embezzlement, money laundering, extortion and securities fraud. 

And further accused management of siphoning off cash and company funds for private jets, yachts, home renovations, mortgages and lavish perks.

NY Post has the scoop if you want to read the details...

Tyson & Flair are seeking more than $50 million in damages.


>> Why This Matters?

RICO is typically reserved for organized fraud and systemic corruption not partner disputes.

Defendants are pushing back hard, calling the suit “fiction dressed up as a lawsuit.” 

Celebrity + cultural icons + weed business + alleged internal theft = BAD LOOK

As an industry we do NOT need further headline drama.


>> What Am I Watching?

Does this show anything about governance, IP control, and fiduciary accountability?

Or does it just becomes another in a long list of “bad-celebrity brand” tabloid footnotes?

Can RICO stick here?

Which is the next celebrity cannabis brand to go ass over tea kettle? 

Bottom line:

Celebrity cannabis brand launches make headlines.

Celebrity cannabis boardroom lawsuits makes worse headlines.

Can we just NOT do any more celebrity brands, PLEASE??

You think its easy to get a deal done?

Think again...

Getting any deal done is HARD:
— Senior Debt
— Equity
— M&A
— Partnerships

It's like walking a drunk person home in the snow.

You might slip and fall a few times before you get there..

You have to realize it is going to fall out of bed once or twice.

And you have to have people around you who know how to get it done....
AND CLOSE.

Appreciate my friends Louis Magazzu and  Rachel Wright, CPA, MST for the discussion and the crew from IgniteIt Cannabis for the platform....

Nothing makes me happier than seeing good people succeed.

Especially those who pulled me up with them on the path.

So it gives me GREAT pleasure to give a huge congratulations to my friend  Austin DeAngelis on his most recent feat with furl.


>> What’s Happening?

A few years back I got pulled into Eaze, one of the better experiences of my life.

Were it not for the software sales veteran boom-mic trio of Nick Fasano, Austin DeAngelis and Owen Ruh…

I would have been left out on Venice Boardwalk.

But they took me in as one of their own and I am eternally grateful for that.

Especially when you have to pivot to make moves in c@annabis.


>> Why is This Important?

Sometimes you hear people leave the industry and hope they land feet first…

Then you check it…

One of the guys who pulled me along at Eaze

Drops a presser about a $10M seed round for his new AI start up deal furl.

With gold plated investors Ten Eleven Ventures, Rapid7 CEO Corey Thomas and Open Opportunity Fund, furl seems like a BANGER.


>> What Am I Watching?

What do I know about AI? Well frankly nothing…

But I do now how hard it is to pivot industries.

I also know how hard it is to RASIE CAPITAL.

SO when you pivot and knock the ball out of the park….

I can only admire the achievement and offer my most sincere congratulations.

Austin, I’m betting on you and furl thats for sure.

And thank you for all the help you have given me.

‘Seth, how did you make it into Forbes AGAIN?’

Well dummy I worked my butt off and I picked the right partner. That’s how…

Last week, Forbes published a piece on cannabis M&A that I was quoted in — alongside Mitchell Osak, who is the most credible and consistently right analyst in Canadian cannabis consulting, full stop.

No hype. No BS. No capital-markets vocabulary tests. This article didn’t come out of thin air.

It was grounded in a long-form piece Mitchell and I debated, pressure-tested, and refined because the loudest narrative in cannabis right now (“M&A is dead”) is… well just lazy.


>> What’s Happening?

M&A narratives dominate headlines, but how?

Behind the curtain, consolidation IS happening.

Private deals, restructurings, recaps, and strategic repositioning is where the action is.


>> Why Does This Matter?

Public markets for the next big cannabis deal? Maybe…

The next wave of exits, value and consolidation will emerge through private channels.

M&A didn’t disappear. It just stopped showing up in places that make for easy screenshots.

Public markets are frozen and private markets are doing the real work.

And anyone still waiting for a headline-grabbing “tsunami” deal from a busted MSO balance sheet is watching the wrong screen.


>> What Am I Watching Next?

How private capital structures continue to adapt to cannabis realities?

Does MORE off-market consolidation accelerate?

Does federal clarity finally unlock the value trapped in state-legal operators?

If you care about where real deal flow lives, this Forbes piece will be a reference point for 2026.

If you’re an operator, investor, or board member still anchoring strategy to press releases instead of private deal flow… good luck.


Two final points:

The Forbes piece is worth your time

Mitchell’s perspective is worth following

And if you want the WHOLE 18 pages behind the article download it here:

https://lnkd.in/eBxsGE7H

Read it. Argue with it. But don’t ignore it.

It's not what they say when you are IN the room
It's ALL ABOUT what they say when you are NOT IN the room...

What happens when two rival founders stop competing and start collaborating? 

Ben Larson and AnnaRae Grabstein find out from Draper Bender, President of Grön, as he shares the unlikely beginning of his friendship with Aaron Morris, CEO of Wyld  the man he once viewed as a bold, untouchable industry persona. 

Remember this was a Founder-led deal, there were no bankers. It was a direct, operator-to-operator discussion and transaction. No financial engineering. Just aligned businesses with similar DNA: bootstrapped, profitable, and deeply operational to their cores...

I was not even close to this one. 
Love you Draper and Christine Apple
And Aaron Morris count on me sending more pictures of boxes....
XO

Props to AnnaRae Grabstein + Ben Larson for the LOVE
And get on High Spirits: The Cannabis Business Podcast
On Apple Podcast (apple.co/40e8I2T )
Spotify (spoti.fi/4iUKphY )
and YouTube (https://lnkd.in/g5CMxNAM)

Here's the latest speculation on Schedule 3…


A few weeks ago a Senator proposed a measure that would direct the AG of the USA to create a commission charged with making recommendations on a c@nnabis regulatory system….


That MODELS for what is currently in place for ALCOHOL….YUP.

>> What's Happening?

Sen. John Hickenlooper (D-CO) introduced the PREPARE Act.


This directs the U.S. Attorney General to establish a Federal Regulation of Cannabis Commission.

This will draft a regulatory framework for post-prohibition cannabis.


Safety standards, labeling, crop and trade practices, banking & revenue systems, and social equity impact.

The bill would effectively give the AG Trump's a formal job to coordinate federal cannabis policy and set rules before full legalization.

>> Why is this Important?

A commission BEFORE legalization is scary.

That's not helping us….that's pre-ordained federal architecture by committee, which seems to create MORE problems.

The industry deserves clarity on issues like taxation, banking, and ADA/FTC guidance.


Not MORE mechanisms based on bureaucracy.


>> What Am I Watching?

Does this commission actually draft binding regulatory standards or just recommendations that Congress can ignore?

Which stakeholders get a seat at the table?

Does this become the new pretext to delay real federal legalization until the next election cycle?

Commissions are easy press releases. Regulation is hard law.

Don't confuse politicking with legalization.

Contact your elected officials today…PLEASE.

This will make some people uncomfortable.

Good. Read it anyway.


>> What's Happening?

A new study from the National Bureau of Economic Research suggests that legal marijuana access is associated with lower suicide rates among older adults.

Particularly once dispensaries actually open.

Not legalization on paper.

Real access. Real products. Real use.


>> Why is this Important?

Older adults deal with chronic pain, sleep issues, anxiety, isolation.

And guess what? They're also the group with the highest suicide risk.

When legal cannabis becomes available, suicide rates in this cohort go down.

Let's not pretend this is nothing while we happily prescribe opioids, SSRIs, and booze like Tic Tacs…


>> What Am I Watching?

How long policymakers keep saying cannabis has "no proven benefit" while data quietly stacks up.

Whether public-health conversations finally acknowledge harm reduction instead of moral panic.

Who actually cares about outcomes and who just cares about optics…


No one is saying cannabis is a cure.

But dismissing data because it challenges the norms is bad science and worse policy.

If legal access helps even a subset of people feel less pain, less despair, or a little more okay, maybe that's worth taking seriously.

Just a thought…

Why was I so hyped on Beverage ???

I am a history major
I studied how Alcohol was rolled out over the last 80 years

Why ?

Normalized adoption and distribution...
And they MAKE MONEY
(and its the only thing that we have as an example)

and you know what...they make $$$$$

Thanks to Alex DeFazio and the The High Index for the spot

You want to get in the game ?

Get yourself to a meeting with my folks from IgniteIt Cannabis
thats right...

GARDEN STATE COMING IN HOT...
February 10th, 2026
Westin Jersey City

and make sure you bring me a Hoagie....

Register HERE: https://bit.ly/49pHgUF

and use my CODE: SETH20

Patrick Lane Elliot Lane Javier Hasse

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