Emily Paxhia. She’s the founder of Poseidon Asset Management and she shifted her focus entirely to the cannabis industry, in 2013. Since that time, she’s taken her experience of researching markets, companies and strategic opportunities and turned them entirely to the world of cannabis. Her focus on understanding where the market is headed rather than where it has been, has been critical to developing a diverse portfolio of companies that span the sector. With over 15 years working with Fortune 500 companies—developing products, resolving strategic errors and addressing new target audiences—her work has been fundamental to stewarding her companies’ portfolios along the paths to success. Famous Five: Favorite Book? – The Hard Thing About Hard Things What CEO do you follow? – Mark Zuckerberg Favorite online tool? — Asana How many hours of sleep do you get?— 3-5 If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – “I wished I had took it easier” Time Stamped Show Notes: 01:04 – Nathan introduces Emily to the show 01:53 – Poseidon is a VC firm for cannabis 02:02 – Emily was from an industry where companies were looking to expand their market share 02:09 – Emily saw the cannabis industry as an opportunity—there was a demand for products 02:30 – Emily’s parents passed away from cancer and she was told by some that cannabis could have helped her parents 02:43 – A dying cancer patient is prescribed medication that has side effects, then is issued more meds to handle the side effects—which is a difficult cycle 02:58 – Using cannabis appropriately could actually help with the side effects 03:05 – More and more cancer patients are experiencing relief while using cannabis 03:38 – Emily and her brother were 16 and 21 when their parents passed 04:07 – Prior to Poseidon, Emily was with Miner % Co. Studio 04:44 – As a financial professional, Emily had to assess her risk tolerances 05:04 – It’s important to be mentally and financially invested 05:09 – Emily also had great support to bring Poseidon to life 05:53 – Current fund size is $20M going $25M 06:11 – Emily’s brother is her business partner 06:36 – Emily shares a story when her brother brought in a company that Emily disagreed with at first 06:38 – In 2015, they’ve invested in a company called Surna 06:43 – The company had gone public and was in a lot of trouble 07:00 – Morgan had the idea to buy out the founders of Surna 07:15 – Morgan joined the board and helped the company get on track again 07:40 – Emily shares a time when the reverse happened; she brought in a company that Morgan was hesitant with at first 07:48 – The company was Wurk 08:00 – Emily was interested with Keegan’s presentation 08:35 – Keegan was in Episode 735 of The Top 09:20 – There is an assumption that Emily and Morgan are always high—this is NOT true 09:44 – Emily takes cannabis for stomach pain, but it doesn’t get her high 10:26 – Emily sees the cannabis industry as a wellness industry 10:50 – Emily is interested with business technology solutions that help businesses run smoothly 11:00 – She’s also interested in agricultural technology solutions as well 12:06 – “Honestly, if I could, I would solve the banking issue in California” 12:21 – Banks are still dropping businesses and credit cards 12:35 – It gets challenging when someone loses their banking relationship 13:00 – Emily is currently in San Francisco 13:23 – Poseidon is modest in stating their expected returns 13:31 – Emily wanted to capture the growth of industry 13:59 – Poseidon has been running 40-44% IR 14:13 – Poseidon has 3 phases of diligence: 14:20 – They receive lots of emails and Emily tries to read and respond as much and as quickly as possible 14:56 – Emily meets the founders and the team as part of their due diligence 15:06 – The last phase is from getting into the details of actual financial projections to sourcing potential co-investments 15:25 – Poseidon currently has 30 active companies in their portfolio 15:28 – Over