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 40 in the lifetime of the portfolio
15:55 – Typical deal size is $500K to a million dollars
17:02 – Emily and her brother are talking about a company they want to launch
17:38 – Emily’s three babies from their portfolio are:
17:42 – Flow Kana: a processing center working with small farmers
18:17 – Headset is a machine-data analytics company
18:37 – Emily really likes Wurk
18:49 – Baker is also exciting because it creates market opportunity
21:40 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:
To become successful, one must research the field in question.
There’s a great demand for new product and technology in the cannabis industry as the supply is low.
Carry your past experience and knowledge into your current and future endeavors—employ the skills that transfer across disciplines.

Resources Mentioned:
The Top Inbox – The site Nathan uses to schedule emails to be sent later, set reminders in inbox, track opens, and follow-up with email sequences
GetLatka - Database of all B2B SaaS companies who have been on my show including their revenue, CAC, churn, ARPU and more
Klipfolio – Track your business performance across all departments for FREE
Hotjar – Nathan uses Hotjar to track what you’re doing on this site. He gets a video of each user visit like where they clicked and scrolled to make the site a better experience
Acuity Scheduling – Nathan uses Acuity to schedule his podcast interviews and appointments
Host Gator – The site Nathan uses to buy his domain names and hosting for the cheapest price possible
Audible – Nathan uses Audible when he’s driving from Austin to San Antonio (1.5-hour drive) to listen to audio books
Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

757: She Launched a $20m Cannabis VC Firm After Her Parents Passed Away

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