Making financial prosperity easier for everyone Benzinga is devoted to transforming the financial industry and empowering individual investor. As the Vice President, Event Partnerships, Elliot Lane join Dan Humiston to talk about how their commitment to emerging sectors has made them the go-to source for cannabis financial news. He shares some of the ways that they provide cannabis investors the edge needed to profit, including podcasts and the Cannabis Capital Conference. Produced by PodConx MJBulls - https://podconx.com/podcasts/raising-cannabis-capital Dan Humiston - https://podconx.com/guests/dan-humiston Benzinga - https://www.benzinga.com/events/cannabis-conference/ Cannabis Daily podcast - https://open.spotify.com/show/4WFOpsECBrf6eP2N2UWD90?si=3f3bd508efc64f69 Cannabis Insider - https://open.spotify.com/show/50V49S5OyRFDu1iEnMejRA?si=8740e674268e491c Elliot Lane - https://podconx.com/guests/elliot-lane
Making financial prosperity easier for everyone
Benzinga is devoted to transforming the financial industry and empowering individual investor. As the Vice President, Event Partnerships, Elliot Lane join Dan Humiston to talk about how their commitment to emerging sectors has made them the go-to source for cannabis financial news. He shares some of the ways that they provide cannabis investors the edge needed to profit, including podcasts and the Cannabis Capital Conference.
MJBulls - https://podconx.com/podcasts/raising-cannabis-capital
Dan Humiston - https://podconx.com/guests/dan-humiston
Benzinga - https://www.benzinga.com/events/cannabis-conference/
Cannabis Daily podcast - https://open.spotify.com/show/4WFOpsECBrf6eP2N2UWD90?si=3f3bd508efc64f69
Cannabis Insider - https://open.spotify.com/show/50V49S5OyRFDu1iEnMejRA?si=8740e674268e491c
Elliot Lane - https://podconx.com/guests/elliot-lane
Dan Humiston: [00:00:00] today. And I'm Jay bulls. We are joined by Elliot lane, the corporate partner director at Benga Elliot. Welcome to the show.
Elliot Lane: Thank you very much for having me, Dan. Appreciate it.
Dan Humiston: Ver very excited. There are so many things that we can talk about today. I thought we'd maybe start at high level 50,000 feet and sort of work our way down.
Ben is just a huge financial media outlet. Most top traders wall street traders rely on the information for all the different markets and all the different industries and all the different sectors with. All those opportunities. Why has been seeing a focus so much attention on cannabis?
Elliot Lane: As you mentioned, we cover every market out there. And we cover it for the individual investor, but in terms of getting a start in financial media, there are obvious giants. You have your CNBCs and now your Cheddars, your Yahoo finances of the world, but when it comes to how Ben Zinga made a name for itself, we were really one of the first ones [00:01:00] to actively and excitedly cover emerging markets like cannabis, like financial technologies.
FinTech has been something we've been covering and we've been hosting events for eight, nine years. So those two pillars specifically I think are how we drew several million people to our site. At first. So I think we have like 2 million visiting our site from like year five to like year.
Dan Humiston: That's crazy. It's , I didn't realize that was sort of your bread and butter was the emerging markets, which makes a lot of sense. One of the things that you've done which I feel like is putting you in position to really have the pulse of the industry is you have a couple podcasts, you do a daily podcast, and then you do , a biweekly podcast, which really helps you keep your finger on the pulse of the industry.
, if you were to talk to some of , our listeners, where do you see some of the real opportunities in the cannabis sectors right now?
Elliot Lane: It depends on which listeners I'm talking to. Right. But if , if I, if I'm talking to overall, someone looking from the outside into cannabis saying, Hey, [00:02:00] How can I jump in here? I'm you know, I think we always have people on that preach diversity. So if I'm looking at cannabis and I'm talking to somebody who is emphatically behind the MSOs of the space and the MSOs, I'm sure your audience knows multi-state operators.
Some consider to be the biggest growth opportunities for investments in the industry. But I'm also looking at those who are supporting the space. I'm intensely excited about the hydroponic side. And, and nothing I say is financial advice, this is just my personal opinion.
And from the interviews we have as well, AFI just how they are diving in to being a full-fledged partner to their companies. Who's competing against a current right now?
in the public market space. Looking at maybe international companies, a as well, like your growth and those developing C B footprints in the.
Plus international grows like village farms is now in Europe. And the flower Corp is now in Portugal. And all these companies developing global footprints. At the end of the day become [00:03:00] a full.
Fledged investor benefiting from this space. That would be honestly in terms of opportunities. That's where I see it, but I don't think that's me discounting, MSOs or the us opportunity. Obviously the us is a market that has to be respected and those leading the way in this space will be. Amazing companies.
I just think there are so many different opportunities out there they've held up the space so far. Last year was REITs that were really driving the way last month was us operators. We've seen stocks like Aker drive the way. So, it seems to be different , every two months.
Dan Humiston: I, I think that's , part of the excitement. Plus part of the frustration is that it's really hard to put your finger on it. And I'm not surprised that you weren't super comfortable with that question, because I don't know that anybody really knows, if they did, they certainly wouldn't be sharing it.
One of the things I do notice though, is that A lot of our small family offices listen listeners over the last year or so have been frustrated [00:04:00] or complained to me that they're not seeing as many good seed stage deals. And then on the flip side, IM hearing a lot of the seed stage companies are saying, I'm not getting in front of as many family, the offices as I think I should, based on the quality of my business. Why do you think that is.
Elliot Lane: The age question of capital flow in this in this industry is.
It's a question that continues to change, but seed stage companies. I, I think you're seeing right now a stall point and, and of course you, you look at these new state markets where I think you could get really cool seed stage companies, maybe like a Missouri.
I think you have a few companies there that could legitimately be players in the state and solid single state operators. And that that's, that's the benefit of these new state markets rolling out. But when you have new technology companies, we're not nearly done yet. I've in the last two months spoken to several coins , for dispensaries for them to utilize.
So, [00:05:00] we, we are far from being done in developing the technology side. I, I think. Right now, we've been a very quick growing industry. It's been a very fast pace to where we are now and technology will, will come. It, it doesn't necessarily follow the pace of cannabis legalization.
So, for me as these state markets roll out, it it's exciting to see who steps up, but that being said, In the state markets that are interesting, you really have to be one of the top five single state operators to be an interesting M and a target for one of the MSOs. And if you're not, then the interest from investors tends to wa I find at least what, what is the point of being the six best SSO?
At that point, investing in the six best SSO, I should say. So that would be my response to that. I think there will be seed stage companies come along, but it's a for operators at the pace of, of opening state markets and B technology. It's dependent on more than [00:06:00] just legalization.
Dan Humiston: , I agree with what you're saying. I usually say to him that, five or six years ago, everything was a seed stage.
Elliot Lane: Yeah. Even into that, Verano, wasn't even a thing five to six years ago now it's the third, fourth biggest footprint in the us. It's pretty incredible how these companies have come onto the scene with a fiery passion.
Dan Humiston: Yeah. So, that's part of it is, a lot of the former seed states are now series of a B. Well, let's talk about your conference. It's coming up in , Miami on April 20th and 21st. Tell us a little bit about the Bening cannabis capital conference.
Elliot Lane: Yeah.
So, this is something that Bening has been putting on since 2018. When I think of our events at Bening, obviously media first, that's a backbone of everything we do, but these events provide direct access. Direct engagement from the companies , to the audience, to the investors, to the entrepreneurs, service providers of the industry.
And I think that's incredibly important for companies to be a part of. [00:07:00] And, when we first dove into the space, we partnered with the likes of companies like new camps, ventures, and now in Broxton at four 20 investor to really bring the who's who of the industry in at that time, once COVID hit, obviously we were able to keep Going because we have a very large audience of individual investors.
We're able to continue driving agendas, and work with companies that we hadn't worked with to that point. So now we're seeing the benefit of both of those we're driving agendas that, three years ago, I wouldn't have thought possible for Beningo. So I'm super excited about that.
Whether you like MSOs or not, whether you are, against corporate cannabis or not, we're also supporting social equity. We are supporting several businesses that we want to give a platform to and, and provide them a spot to get in front of investors, get in front of potential partners, grow their visibility.
We wanna start supporting the industry from every side and that is all under a financial and umbrella of Beninger, but it's investment oriented, its M and a [00:08:00] truly met harvest health at our event. It's yeah.
I, honestly, it's, it's got a history of success in terms of who we bring.
We do want to grow. We want everybody to come experience the event. So it's not like we are saying No.
to certain attendees. But we do bring the best of the best. It obviously I'm biased as heck take away the great assault, but, I think if you just look at our lineup, BC cannabis.com it's it's, it's impressive.
And one major speaker. I got a shout out is Carson Hamon. she'll be joining a panel for banks, really talking about , how do you use a raise. How do you go about, using the funds from a raise in this space and and really digging in and becoming a leader. And she's talking with leaders in the industry from can Luke Anderson from can and, and work a major HR and software platform.
So, we're, we are touching on MSOs, we're touching on international. , how do you have access to cannabis with weed maps? I could go on and on, man. I don't wanna, I don't wanna make this giant advertisement for you, [00:09:00] but I I'm very happy and proud of where this event is.
Dan Humiston: I think you're onto something. I really do. I think the idea of a place where investors can, just have conversation with legitimate. Growing companies is so needed. It's so needed well, we'll have all that information in our show nude. So if anybody's interested in registering and zipping down to Miami, it's a good time of year four to spend four 20 in Miami.
That's not a bad place to be on four 20. right.
Elliot Lane: We'll try and make it worth your while, man. I, I do remember one of our attendees last time we were in Miami just happened to pull a giant can Gar out of his pocket. I'm not saying I parked up in that. No admissions. But it was awesome but that being said, we have fun. Honestly, events are fun, being on the beach is fun and it's incredibly content driven for us.
So educational updates from these companies, where are we gonna be at the end of the 20, 22 will have the likes of Brady Cobb and legislative leaders talking as well. [00:10:00] So , I think overall there's something for everybody. And it's not just our events. It's, it's, we'll see you at MJ biz.
We'll see you guys at events around the country as well. I'll be at the alternative products expo in a couple weeks. It's just making sure that we support the industry as an editorial financial news outlet, as well as providing access to these companies for the investors that we listen to us.
Dan Humiston: That's awesome. you can also cuss Elliott just about every day and
Elliot Lane: every weekday. I.
Dan Humiston: Yeah. He takes the weekends off, but on his podcast. And, and was it every twice a month on the
Elliot Lane: a week. So we do two interviews a week every Tuesday and Thursday live on our YouTube channel at 4:00 PM Eastern time. We just did Verano yesterday. , we have. Tommy ch we've interviewed Whitney Tilson tons of really cool people on there almost as cool as Dan Stein's podcast.
Not quite there yet. But , cannabis daily is a five minute update every morning around 10:00 AM. It'll come on, [00:11:00] but we have podcast Goor crypto cannabis NFTs Ben zinger.com/podcast. If you guys are interested in learning about anything that has to do with investing Ben.
Dan Humiston: That's Good to know. And we're gonna have Elliot back on this show again. So Elliot, lot of fun. I'm glad you led to finally have you on the show. Look forward to having you on again.
Elliot Lane: Yeah. Dan, thank you so much, man. It's really nice to talk to you. And if you are going to come and seek cannabis insider, I promise you Dan's gonna be there at some point in the near future. Appreciate you, my friend.