Investment opportunities in the natural wellness and plant wellness space at large The Cannabis Investor Series sponsored by PodConx is back for the Fifth year. This year, the Series will again feature the cannabis and plant wellness industry's top investors, reviewing how the current macroeconomic cycle is affecting investing in these sectors, what to expect in 2023 and sharing investment opportunities and strategies. In today's episode, Dan Humiston is joined by Matt Nordgren from Arcadian Capital Management. Produced by PodConx MJBulls - https://podconx.com/podcasts/raising-cannabis-capital Dan Humiston - https://podconx.com/guests/dan-humiston Matt Nordgren - https://podconx.com/guests/matthew-nordgren Arcadian Capital Management - https://www.arcadiancap.com/ Recorded on Squadcast - https://squadcast.fm/
Investment opportunities in the natural wellness and plant wellness space at large
The Cannabis Investor Series sponsored by PodConx is back for the Fifth year. This year, the Series will again feature the cannabis and plant wellness industry's top investors, reviewing how the current macroeconomic cycle is affecting investing in these sectors, what to expect in 2023 and sharing investment opportunities and strategies. In today's episode, Dan Humiston is joined by Matt Nordgren from Arcadian Capital Management.
MJBulls - https://podconx.com/podcasts/raising-cannabis-capital
Dan Humiston - https://podconx.com/guests/dan-humiston
Matt Nordgren - https://podconx.com/guests/matthew-nordgren
Arcadian Capital Management - https://www.arcadiancap.com/
Recorded on Squadcast - https://squadcast.fm/
Matt Nordgren: [00:00:00] Hey, good to be here. Thanks for having me, man.
Dan Humistom: sixth time.
Matt Nordgren: Good to see there too. It was, uh, it was good to be around everybody. it felt like it was a welled.
Dan Humistom: I felt
Matt Nordgren: [00:01:00] Yeah, I think so. I think it's just hard to navigate like any market that's emerging, which is why the, the way to do that is to invest with a manager who really is able to diversify and hedge those investments, but additionally, work through them with the expertise that that one has. I think most people will agree.
Uh, the industry that [00:02:00] is natural and plant alternatives will continue to thrive and grow over the years. But how to do that is another question. Uh, no. No different than the late nineties 99, 2000, 2001. You, you, you're better off investing with a, a Benchmark Andreson, uh, General uh, one of these groups so that don't invest in MySpace versus Facebook.
You, you just don't know today. And so you really need to be with a manager.
Dan Humistom: Yeah. you've
Matt Nordgren: Uh, we need to see at the federal level, which we did, we saw with Biden last week. So that was a really helpful move. not just for the, what he did for the federal. you know, convictions, but asking [00:03:00] the state level, folks to do the same and asking for descheduling and asking for a number of things that really the, ball moving forward, in a direction that we have all wanted.
Dan Humistom: Do you think that will
Matt Nordgren: Well, safe banking is the main one, so lame duck section. We have a really good chance of making that happen and I think that's what everybody's looking forward to right now. But we have to be excited about the fact that this industry's uncorrelated in many ways to a lot of the broader market activities.
I think we're seeing a lot of investors a little bit more serious, than they have with investing in Arcadian Fund because a lot of these other sectors have variables that are a little bit harder to, uh, decipher terms of the war or, international supply chain. markets. I think with, the plant you see an opportunity to invest where [00:04:00] regulatory is your main.
variable to consider. And when you see what happened with Biden and you see, what's going on at various state level, regulators and when we see safe banking next month when we see, public market listings being, something to follow safe banking, in an industry that has cash flow and jobs and taxes and assets, growing at the pace it is.
That's a very exciting time.
Dan Humistom: I, I
Matt Nordgren: [00:05:00] I think it is. We, we, we certainly believe that, whether it's now or in the coming months, it's certainly an opportunity to invest. I, I would tell you that probably a little bit pain in the market. But for, you know, CBD plant alternative and, and, and, um, plant based products and, you know, people that service the cannabis hemp space, I think perhaps you're, you're, you may be there already.
So in this space, probably can start to do, some negotiations on where you want to enter a deal or how you wanna lead a deal. But at the same time, uh, you know, there's gonna be a, a six month period ahead that, is gonna be difficult to understand. So founders just need to make sure they understand that, it's not gonna let up so they may as well go ahead and get their deal done today.
Dan Humistom: In other[00:06:00]
Matt Nordgren: Yeah, that's what I'm saying. I think it, the window is, is here now. I, I, I don't think it gets anything but better for, the plant space. keep in mind, Dan, we, we don't invest in companies at Arcadian. don't invest in plant touch and cannabis. We invest in companies that support.
The natural wellness plant wellness space at large. when we thought, when we think about investing, we think about telemedicine, health tech, Ag Tech. Uh, we think about a lot of our companies that are selling, um, C B D and CBT and cbn, terms of medicines and consumer products. a lot of our companies are, servicing the, alternative medicine space, the, the alternative, uh, industrial [00:07:00] application space.
So I think all of those are things, uh, that we invest around as a supply chain company for cannabis. You know, there, it's a very specific that you have. Have a lot of focus on in terms of, what's gonna happen regulatory wise. So for Arcadian, the nice thing is our investors get a little bit of exposure to the ancillary side of that space, but, a large portion of our portfolio, is, you know, in many other categories as I was mentioning.
So it gives a diversified hedge approach for the entire kind of natural wellness space in all consumer categories.
[00:08:00] Well, it, it certainly does. we work with a lot of great investors from various in. There are, know, groups that focus on the, plant meat space that we work a lot with. We work with a lot of groups that focus on, alternative medicines from various parts of the world and various, uh, ag parts of agriculture and plant strains.
Um, so we're very fortunate for that. Uh, within the, you know, sort of hemp and space, there are tremendous investors there that we work with as well. But when you say the industry, Dan, to me, a, as a venture capitalist, it focuses on plant as a broad Uh, so it's a, it's a very large we do work with a lot of investors throughout, you know, the country and, and throughout the world, and we feel very fortunate to be able have the respect of other investors to co-lead and follow on and help lead deals.
Dan Humistom: I guess that[00:09:00]
Matt Nordgren: the great advantage to working with us is how, how much I think our team has built a reputation for investing, in these companies. We, we really work with companies very closely. I think that's where you gain a lot of advantage when you're, when you're with them day to day and you really understand their needs and, and desires and, and the various, um, goals that they have at any given time.
That is what, investors are, are find difficult to do.[00:10:00] you're investing yourself, it's, it's hard to spend that amount of time with companies to know the direction you can help them go. I think we offer very diverse approach to a, a broad I think of, of all the people that you interview, Dan and, and so many wonderful investors, you know, I think that most.
All of them, uh, focus entirely on the cannabis sector. whereas at Arcadian we offer that but a little bit more broad in terms of the ability to, to hedge oneself into an entire category of plant-based products. supply chain to empower, um, sort of esg, natural wellness, plant based, consumer applications.
And so, particularly right now, I think it gives people quite an advantage in terms of the way they invest. But, just being present, being alive. And [00:11:00] focusing on the things that we're doing as a firm, just really at this time is it's encouraging to be where we are.
Dan Humistom: I'm gonna have for doing this.
Matt Nordgren: Uh, too, Dan. Thanks for all you do brother.