Editor's Note: A buzz is certainly brewing around marijuana businesses, with investor-meetings and entrepreneurial showcases beginning to abound, and the already-well-known "Shark Tank" concept (borrowed from the popular "Shark Tank" reality show) well on its way to becoming a marijuana-startup catch phrase. In September, a new web series called "The Marijuana Show" launched auditions (with the series premiere Nov. 18), billing itself as "Shark Tank meets The Apprentice." Like the "winners" at the ArcView Group's gathering (reported on in the following article), the entrepreneurs selected on "The Marijuana Show" are put through a boot-camp, complete with mentorship, business planning advice, investor-pitch training and capital. Brace yourself … I think we're going to see a lot more of this type of investor-pitch-gathering, and frankly, I wouldn't be surprised if marijuana startups don't soon go mainstream–whether on The Marijuana Show (do you see Donald Trump dipping his toe in the marijuana waters?) or whatever comes next.Â
The frenzy in the cavernous Green Valley Ranch Resort ballroom might have passed for any confab of entrepreneurs pitching their business plans to pokerfaced angel investors – until an organizer took the podium for a public service announcement.
Please stop smoking weed out by the parking lot, he implored. Hotel security did not approve.
The gathering last week of several hundred Wall Street types, tech industry disrupters, agricultural enthusiasts and assorted others shrugged and went back to the business at hand: leveraging the legalization of marijuana into a windfall.
