Paul Rosen on the One Non-Negotiable for Success in Cannabis | #HashtagFinance

CSE's Barrington Miller chats with Paul Rosen, CEO of 1933 Industries Inc. (CSE:TGIF) about his recent appointment as Interim CEO of the company and his operating philosophy moving forward in the face of COVID-19. Paul also shares his personal journey as an early leader in the cannabis industry and makes note of the many changes he's observed in the C-suite among his cannabis sector peer group.

Here's an overview of what Barrington and Paul cover in this edition of the #HashtagFinance podcast:

2:00 - Paul’s early beginnings in the Cannabis industry in the late 80’s as a constitutional lawyer.
3:58 - Hortican Inc.’s pre-MMPR history and evolution with PharmaCan Capital Corp./The Chronos Group.
6:57 - His transition into a management role at 1933 Industries.
7:55 - How Cannabis 2.0 has impacted C-suites in the industry.
11:58 - Highlighting traits of the early-stage Cannabis entrepreneurs.
13:28 - The unique challenges of running a public cannabis company.
17:16 - The imperative of running a clean balance sheet in today's COVID-19 environment.
20:14 - Las Vegas' cannabis prospects in light of the severe downturn in tourism.
25:25 - Paul's view on how the global pandemic will hasten tax generation from cannabis and social justice.
29:35 - Why preparing for domestic (US) demand is still the biggest opportunity in cannabis.
31:57 - The shift to prioritizing profitability first.

1933 Industries is a vertically-integrated, growth-orientated company, focusing on the cultivation and manufacturing of cannabis consumer branded goods in a wide range of product formats.

Related Links
http://1933industries.com/
https://thecse.com/en/listings/diversified-industries/1933-industries-inc

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:03

This is hashtag find it presented to you by the Canadian securities exchange the exchange for entrepreneurs with your host Barrington Miller.

Speaker 2: 0:16

Hi, welcome to an edition of hashtag finance. I'm your host parents from Miller with the Canadian securities exchange, but I'm the director of listed company services at the exchange. Today. We are here with Paul Rosen recently named CEO of 1933 industries. How are you doing Paul? Good Barrington. Great to see you again. How are you today? I'm doing great for those just joining us or for those who have been under a rock for the past number of years on the cannabis scene. Mr. Rosen has been called, uh, everything from an Oracle to an entrepreneur to, uh, those are the names. Those are the names I'm going to write on my business card. Absolutely. Um, but this latest venture is, is very new and exciting. Um, Paul let's before we jump right in, tell us a little bit about your background because you've been on the scene for awhile. I have. Thank you. I appreciate it. I'll try to do this succinctly without sounding too self aggrandizing. Um, but I'm just a good old Canadian kid from Toronto, uh, grew up and went to public schools in Toronto and had the benefit of a good education. I got a degree from, uh, UWO university of Western Ontario and economics. And then I was fortunate to be able to attend university of Toronto law school, where I graduated in the late 1980s. And I began my career as a practicing attorney. I was a constitutional and criminal lawyer and it was then that I first sort of brushed up against what was the previous Canadian medical marijuana industry, which was not an industry at all. It was a grow your own program that the government of the day brought in after a constitutional challenge gave patients with the support of their physician, the rights to access medical marijuana. And I was a constitutional lawyers. Those cases were relevant to what I was doing, but at that time, the idea of an industry was, you know, Farfetch. There was no, there, there, um, I left law because, uh, sort of unexpectedly I started what I guess is now called a side hustle. I started a management business that actually happily is still in business 22 years later. And in the late nineties, I made a decision to try to just pursue a business career. I tried to coexist, I run my legal practice, which I was a sole practitioner and my new business, but it was impossible to do either at the level I wanted to do. So when I made the decision to go into business and I actually never went back to law, even though I'm still a member of philosophy society. And so I'm just like, you're, you know, I was a good small business person and running my own self funded company that grew year after year and provided a good living. And then along came cannabis in 2012. And that's when the Ben Harper government, our previous government began to articulate bringing a commercial cannabis licensing program. And that like blew my mind. If you will, the idea that you could get a license to commercially cultivate cannabis. And I was one of the, you know, I, and some of my colleagues came together and formed a company. We called it a horticulture incorporated, terrible name. I know. And we set out to, uh, to invent, I asked in companies that we're going to apply for one of these new licenses. It should be noted that we started this company before the government had even published. What's now called the MMPR or was previously called MPR or in the Gazette. So we knew it was coming, but we started to raise capital and deploy it even before the government had formerly iterated their program. And we were pretty good and maybe a little bit lucky. It's good to be both in that. We made a number of investments in Canada, early, all of which got licenses and that sort of first freshmen classic Canadian licenses, which there were only like 15 for the first couple of years, we invested in a company called peace naturals, got a license. One of the first Whistler medical marijuana got a license ad cat and got a license hard apothecary now called XO, got a license we bought in the zone. It's the first time anyone's bought a full LP licensed producer in Canada. We paid two point$7 million for a license when there was only 11 in the country with 13 acres of land in the Okanagan Valley, we went public with that company. We changed the name from horticulture to Pharmakon capital, maybe even a worse name. Uh, no one in cannabis, uh, was great at naming companies back in the name, maybe Tweed was a good name, but we were part of that first, uh, early way of companies. I think we were the fourth or fifth company to go public in Canada. Sorry to say. When public on the venture and out on the CSC, uh, through a CPC C RTO, that's a capital pro corporation reverse takeover. And, uh, lo and behold from this idea of starting a company to open in the Toronto stock exchange took about two years. And I continued to, I was the president and the CEO of that company for about the first four years I departed, uh, after four hard years, cause it's a hard industry. It takes a lot out of you and I was living my life on a plane. Um, I departed a CEO in may of 2016, shortly after the company renamed itself. Again now known as the Kronos group, obviously one of the better known and will capitalize companies in global cannabis. At that time point I had, um, put my other company good stewardship with my business partner, taking over my previous role of CEO. And I was fully all in and likely for the rest of my career will be all in and the cannabis industry in that. It's just so dynamic, potentially a creative and I'm full of all sorts of great opportunity and great challenges, which are conditions that I like as an entrepreneur foreigner. And I've done quite a few other ventures. I was, um, sat on a number of boards. Uh, I started to royalty corporation, which was acquired, is now trading on your exchange under the name red, white, and bloom. We started a food company in California, edible country company, doing really well called pantry. We just announced a deal to come to Canada. And I'm the executive chairman of a global cannabis advisory based in Los Angeles called, um, global goal. And to take us full circle to 1933, uh, I made a meaningful investment for that company. A little we'll call it a year and a half ago and I was close, uh, a meaningful enough investment that I paid close attention to the company. It's a passive investment to start, but I started providing advisory to the company and, uh, I agreed, uh, last month to take the role of interim CEO. I say interim because it's understood that there may be a transition from me, but right now I am acting and working very aggressively, uh, at 1933, along with a few new code executives that I recruited a great gentleman in Eugene Ruiz, who's our president. And we're really working hard to, uh, give that company the future and the runway that I think it deserves and likely will inherit.

Speaker 3: 7:07

Well, I know the shareholders and, uh, and the patients and the people that are with them associated with 1933 are, um, are glad of your, of your increased presence there. Um, let's, let's talk a little bit about cannabis 2.0 cannabis 3.0, uh, we've seen it. We, we did, uh, essentially five 20, uh, in the month of may where we interviewed a number of CEOs and companies. Um, and everyone has talked about the levels that cannabis has gone through, but very rarely are we talking about the levels of, um, of change that are happening within management? Because right now it is completely, uh, cannabis 2.0 on the management level, everyone, or almost everyone who was there at the beginning has either moved on, are no longer there, or, uh, I've taken on a different role. Um, can you, you yourself are representative of a fat and, uh, is that just part of the part of the industry? Is that just a natural cycle? Um, do you see this?

Speaker 2: 8:17

Yeah, I think it is. I think, you know, in some ways it's not to be, it's not that unexpected. Um, you know, you might use that adage, different horses for different courses. I don't really necessarily think that's the whole explanation, but I'll say that that freshman class of Canadian CEO's of which I was Juan Gris, Brislington Terry Booth, just to name a few well known personalities. You know, none of us are running the companies that we founded today. Chuck, uh, as another example, um, Vic Newfield Africa. So this is, um, in some sense, I think it has to, with the sort of the incredible arc of cannabis from what was a, you know, an area of curiosity in 2013 to an area with no interest, really the markets were really happy until Justin Trudeau became prime minister. And then there was, you know, what could only be described as a certain amount of irrational exuberance, maybe not irrational, but a lot of exuberance. And there was definitely sort of a, almost a, uh, almost hysterical, uh, era in cannabis where the banks were able to raise extraordinary amounts of money and companies spend that money, whether they spend it wisely or not. Uh, you know, history will say, I will say that, um, we were very entrepreneurial. And, uh, now that is sort of like what I call the thrust, getting a business onto the launch pad and getting it off that launch pad is a certain type of scale. Once it's maybe orbiting through space, it's requires a different type of, of navigation skills. That's not always the case. There are some great founders, Jeff Bezos is going to run, you know, Amazon today, uh, put him in, you know, maybe for the rest of it, for, for the foreseeable future. And it's, you know, it's not uncommon in startup culture, if there's any sort of capital crisis in an industry and as sort of a reset, which is what happened, valuation is reset. It's not uncommon to seek management change. You may sometimes say a CEO of a public company is not unlike the coach of a professional sports team in that, whether you're a great coach or not. If you have a losing season after losing season as measured by your stock performance or your quarterly earnings performance, it's a good chance that they're going to make a change. Um, no, I do think that there's something to what you're saying. I think that the bellwether moment, you know, and I've spoke about this, a great deal is when a constellation decided to replace Bruce Linton as CEO, because Bruce, Bruce really was a leader and a visionary in our industry. And I sometimes would use the analogy that it was like that Epic house party that everyone was having the best time at. There's been like five movies about this. And then all of a sudden other the police of the pair of job, they turned the lights on and, uh, they don't exactly love what they see going on. And so we call it, the adults have shown up, uh, these are all just analogies, but there has been a lot of turnover in the U S to you you've seen change. And so I might say, and this is just a pet theory that the crazy type of entrepreneur to start cannabis businesses long before it was popular and long before it was Vogue, or had a certain vision and really had a certain, you know, risk on approach to business and their career that allowed them to thrive in cannabis. And now as we get as more legitimate and more mature industry, we're really returning to sort of bedrock a business principles and maybe some of those entrepreneurial instincts needed to be pulled back a little bit to focus on more fundamental bedrock economics like profitability as one example,

Speaker 3: 12:00

This is a great transition point because I was watching for our listeners. If you wanted to see, uh, earlier interviews with, uh, Paul Rosen and our very good, uh, colleague Phil Shum, please check out, uh, CSE underscore TV on YouTube. Don't forget to subscribe. You can also check us out on the blog. It's www dot[inaudible] dot com. Now in that interview, you were talking about the, the shift of personas from the leaders of these companies from, I don't know if he was entrepreneurship, but from one level to the capital markets level from, Oh, sorry. It was an operator from being an operator to now being in capital markets. You have that experience with both. And now, uh,

Speaker 2: 12:50

The company, this is the thing is that there were so many companies in Canada that were in Vegas, if you will to go public, uh, and I've done it, uh, started companies that went public twice. And then now running a third public company. I recall the night before we went public at tidal royalty, everyone was all the youngers in the organization. I was always the most senior member, uh, were understandably buoyant as they should be. This is a career milestone that very few people will achieve. And then I had to sort of break the bad news to them tomorrow. We have to start a new company, the public company, and a lot of the scales that served us well running our operating company are not necessarily the same skills that we're going to need to run our public company. And now we're going to have to, you know, how we didn't have enough bandwidth anyways, to do our job. Now we have to extend that bandwidth further because we have to do meaningful IRR and we have to spend capital on maintaining a public listing. And so it does, you know, in my opinion, not every company should go public, but in the cannabis industry, quite frankly, it was a quid pro quo. If you want the money, you have to have liquid liquidity. And I feel that that actually has damaged the fortunes of all sorts of otherwise credible companies that just have not been able to withstand the extra expense and the distraction of having to run a public company. And generally my rule would be what's the business case for going public? Like, tell me how your business is going to be improved by going bump. And if the only answer is there is no business case, but we needed to raise money. You know, it's not a wrong answer because if you can't raise money, maybe you can actually have a business, but I would encourage anyone to seek alternatives. If that's the only reason to go public. On the other hand, it does create some advantages for a company. Uh, you can use your stock as a currency to do M and a that's a potentially good advantage. Uh, the reason I sometimes, you know, as an entrepreneur, one thing we love to do Barrington is tell our own, tell our own stories. And it's very for me to get excited in good faith about a business I'm working on and to discuss the value of that business with investors. Once you go public, you sort of lose the valuation narrative. You are what you are worth according to the public market. And then, so that leads to a phenomenon where remarkably, every CEO of every public company in the world believes their stock's undervalued.

Speaker 3: 15:13

Oh, I, I have yet to meet one who said, I'm way overvalued my story.

Speaker 2: 15:19

This is way too hard. Elon tweeting. He was over valued. And then it stock doubled.

Speaker 3: 15:26

That's he, he's, he's a separate conversation.

Speaker 2: 15:29

You're coming over planet brain stupid. But yeah, but generally we, we, I fundamentally believe every company I've run is a public company. I didn't say it as a talking, but I believe we are undervalued. I think 90, 33 is spectacularly undervalued. That's what I think. I'm not saying that's, you know, other people can disagree. Uh, but I think it's undervalued just like, I feel that pharma can now Kronos was undervalued when I was running it. I believe that I proved right, because of their huge run up in value over time. Uh, so, um, it's, it's an interesting point. You raise, uh, about the challenges of a public company. On the other hand, there's opportunities available public companies that private companies don't have, it's a balance and some companies are meant to go public and some ought not to have in the cannabis industry.

Speaker 3: 16:11

Yeah. We have we're in the midst of a global pandemic that has shifted a lot of things, um, to just put it mildly. Uh, I think that the pandemic has really helped some public cannabis companies. Um, we've seen their bounce sheets strengthen. We've seen, uh, more opportunities arise, um, you know, 1933. How, how were you guys doing?

Speaker 2: 16:42

Yeah, it's four, I think at what it's doing, you know, few, few thoughts on that. One is that the cannabis industry writ large holding up quite well during a COVID meaning that the demand for our product is not slacking, uh, meaning that actually argue demand consumption has gone up for a whole number of reasons, uh, stress relief, more private time at home, but what it has done, uh, is it CA I think it's made every, a trend that was already happening in cannabis was accelerated. And that is that you better clean up your balance sheet. And we had a lot of messy balance sheets, but, um, if the music was still playing, the may not have been the necessary urgency. And I will argue that while COBIT is of course a true, uh, you know, global healthcare tragedy, the loss of life is staggering. And the, just the loss to our economy is staggering. But, you know, if there is a, a silver lining on that dark, dark cloud for our industry, the cannabis industry, one is that we've held up really well. I mean, the business of cannabis has growing QRQ regardless of COVID or not, but also it's hasten the need to take your balance sheet more. And in 1933, um, you know, that's the first thing I needed to work on was I felt that our balance sheet needed to be improved just like most cannabis balance sheets needed to be improved in our case, it means working towards debt reduction and working towards improving our, you know, just the overhang of, of, uh, of, of the convertible debt that we passed amendments to convert at a lower price. And with all sorts of other features that would give us some relief and likely it will lead to a capital raise imminently. So it's really forced us at 1933 in the brief time that I've taken on the role of CEO to get very serious in the here and now, and put sort of hope and wish beyond and focused on what Have a lot we can control right now, very good asset capable of being quite profitable if we run it well. And so I would say that, and you've seen us in other companies put aside everything that doesn't relate to immediate or near term profitability, whether that's of be pulling up stakes in multiple jurisdictions, same thing with Africa, same thing with the Rora and focusing on the here and now, uh, I feel that is good advice for all cannabis companies or really all companies in the world right now that are affected by COVID and my other industry. And non-related to cannabis. We're watching our balance sheet. We have a very healthy balance sheet, but we're doing everything we can to prepare for the unknown. So, um, the COVID is going to accelerate a trend that was already happening. And those that don't figure out the trend line are doing are not figuring out at their own peril at 1933. I am laser focused on optimizing our top line PR minimizing our autumn and making sure it is attractive as possible to go forward.

Speaker 3: 19:37

Uh, 1933 is, uh, is Las Vegas. And that has been, that has been hit. And that's one of the places that has been hit hardest as far as the economy, as far as the industry. Um, we have a, a few list of companies that are in the Las Vegas, Nevada region. Um,

Speaker 2: 19:58

One planet 13 there's two right now.

Speaker 3: 20:01

Yeah, no, there's a what's what's that landscape looking like?

Speaker 2: 20:07

Um, and then I'll speak for the, exactly. So even forgetting about the cannabis industry, you're quite right, Barrington Las Vegas is probably the most tourist dependent economy in the world in that it doesn't have, like New York may have a massive tourist repairs may have a massive tourist economy, but it's just one of many industries and Las Vegas, there were the tourist industry is the largest economic engine. Um, it is what drives, uh, employment, and it is what tribe drives GDP growth. And, um, therefore when people stopped traveling completely, uh, it, and all the casinos and hotels had to physically close their doors, it caused great distress to the overall economy of Nevada. What exacerbated it for the cannabis industry was that in there the authorities decided to code the dispensary's as well. And that was sort of anomalous across the United States because mostly cannabis and the dispensary's were considered an essential service. And there are 33 jurisdictions in America that have legal or recreational cannabis programs. Uh, 31 kept their dispensaries open. One of the Massachusets shuttered, their rec kept their medical dispensaries open and Las Vegas disclosed all their dispensary's. And while demand did not drop off a cliff of the ability to service that demand was severely compromised. It took a while for companies to figure out ways to get their product to market. If you couldn't physically walk into st. Planet at 13, a huge dispenser that can serve 3000 patients a day, you know, curbside could not completely fill that happily. Uh, and hopefully this is a trend that will continue. Las Vegas has cautiously reopened. Hotels are open at approximately 50% capacity dispensary that are open and at the macro data, I think you'll see that April was probably the low point for the economy generally for the cannabis economy. Certainly. And I think you'll see for the overall economy of Las Vegas, which until then was in my opinion, and I have facts to back this up, maybe desirable market of all in America, for a number of reasons, largely just the price still was one of the highest price products in the market as supply and demand economics are favorable, and you have a culture of tourists, not really being that cost conscious when they're on holiday it's that just let's have as much fun as we can. So Vegas well bounced back, but it definitely took it on the chin to your point. It is working its way back. It's not a hundred percent capacity, um, but it's quite a bit further than it was say in April. And we all hope and pray that, uh, the virus does not, um, cause the need to, uh, close the whole city again. And that's really the, the, for all of us, that is a wild card is, um, COVID for any business, uh, absent zoom. And if not, just to button a few others, you know, it's, it's, you have to prepare, you just don't know it's as great unknown. And, um, you know, the world that we live in today had, I had popped this up eyes five months ago. This is what the world's going to look like. I think people would've said that's like insane or science fiction. I would say Las Vegas has turned a corner. And I think that the, what we are getting better is figuring out okay. Uh, uh, uh, a hybrid approach where, um, it's not all or nothing, nobody go out, everybody go out and we're going to have to figure out how to approach that allows the economy to continue. Cause that's in the best interest of the nation's health as well, uh, while also protecting vulnerable populations. And so far, at least Las Vegas hasn't yet shown up as one of those other jurisdictions that are having these crazy spikes like Texas, um, Arizona until recently. Yeah.

Speaker 3: 24:01

Uh, you, you mentioned about the economy and getting it started or restarted or picking up the pace. Uh, we have legalization, um, that was, that's always just looming. That's always there, uh, my next sort of line of questioning and area that I want to go to, has to do with legalization versus banking. Uh, which one do you want to see first? Um, the election coming up in November, if you want, if you want to talk some politics, um, I'm really surprised that this whole thing hasn't spurred, uh, the legalization talk, uh, even more, but w what's your wishlist.

Speaker 2: 24:49

Yeah, that's a lot to unpack there. So number one, I fundamentally believe that the economic, uh, come out the cause by COVID is going to hasten cannabis reform at a global basis. Uh, people look at the tax revenue, uh, other States or governors or legislators look at the tax revenue that Colorado is enjoying. Oregon is enjoying Washington. State's enjoying even Illinois, but collected$50 million of tax revenue since they went RAC, nevermind all the people they employ and who would not want that. You've got your, your you're cheating. So many policy goals, employment, paying taxes, uh, patient safety and social justice in that, um, when we stop arresting people for cannabis possession that will improve social justice because regrettably it's the case that visible minorities are prosecuted at a disproportionate ratio than white people. So that's a social justice issue. So all these things that are ruling our society right now, the economic impact of the COVID, the aftermath of George Floyd and Brianna, et cetera, cannabis has a partial, not a full solution to some of these problems. So not to answer your question specifically, I would welcome descheduling cannabis. I would welcome the passing of the safe act. Both of those would be massive risk on events. That is to say they would invite the introduction of huge pockets of capital that know inevitably that they're going to enter the cannabis industry, but can't do it yet until it's essentially federally legal or at least where there's a clear sign that federal legal, uh, or at the end of sort of illegal cannabis is coming. And I think it's coming sooner rather than later. I would not be surprised if both parties between now and the election in November ran on a more aggressive cannabis platform Biden for sure. I know we still on the only decriminalized, but in a close election, uh, is a winning issue. This is a issue that is popular on both sides of the aisle left and right Republican and Democrat coast and middle of America, uh, to, to use a line. I often trot out, uh, when you combine red and blue, you get the color green. We all know that from kindergarten. And when you combine Republican mentality and democratic mentality on this file, it all produce the same color green. So it's should be noted Barrington that the prohibition, the end of the alcohol prohibition and estates happened in the teeth of the great depression, because the government saw the economic benefit, nevermind the social good. That could be come from taking an industry that was doing a lot of business in an unregulated market and turn it into a taxable regulated, uh, authenticated market. So when this happens and I say, when not, if, whether it's safe or even all the way to descheduling cannabis, I predict that that is going to create an incredible opportunity for both investors and entrepreneurs, because there's going to be, we saw this in Canada, right? If you happen to look and see the date of the seven or eight public companies in Canada, that what their stock prices look like the day after Justin Trudeau became prime minister, you'll see that they all that morning at Epic Grimes. Now they gave it back, but ultimately they went way beyond those highs. So when we really activated the Canadian cannabis industry and made it what it is today, a Goliath, wasn't the MMPR, it was federal legalization, and it's allowed Canada to create, uh, to play an Epic role in the center of the global cannabis industry, exporting products, acquiring licenses in new jurisdictions, doing JB deals to bring other brands into candidates, all fermented, uh, and also being able to raise capital. One of my earliest investor, large investors was a U S hedge fund, uh, back at Kronos or farmer cannon, as we called it then, and they couldn't enter the U S market, but they totally understood that the cannabis economy was going to be massive. So they went to where they could invest legally. That was Canada. When the U S becomes game on, it's going to create,

Speaker 3: 28:58

It's still, it's still the biggest opportunity around, I don't care what anyone says. It's the focus still is. It should be the U S cannabis story. Yeah.

Speaker 2: 29:09

Yeah. So, um, you know, at 1933, and I'd say, this is a goal of every U S operator, bigger, small MSO or not, uh, we want to be as healthy, as possible, as profitable as possible, and have the right sort of team in place to fully realize what that opportunity will mean for us. And it's coming in the next couple of years. I can't imagine it'll be much later than at latest 2022. That's what David Klein, the current CEO of canopy said. I would say that that's the latest, we'll see meaningful reform, whether it's an act of Congress being signed into law by the president, such as safe or States, or whether it's the full blown descheduling of cannabis, it's imminent, and it's going to separate, uh, those companies that can swim at that point are going to have incredibly bright prospects. And so certainly in 1933, we're making sure within our power that we are not only, uh, around, but super healthy at that time.

Speaker 3: 30:09

No, this, uh, like I said, we did, uh, for our listeners, please tune into, um, our version of, uh, four 20, which was five 20. And speaking with Paul, he's echoed a lot of the same sentiments, um, that his peers have said regarding the cannabis space, 20, 20 year of the balance sheet, make sure you are good behave like a public company. Um, no, it's, it's, it's great. Cause I had the, I had the pleasure of sitting on this side, uh, talking to at least five or six different CEOs and without you and I, we never had a precall conversation. And, uh, you're, you're echoing the exact same sentiment and we're not telling you who to invest in or what to buy if you're listening, but just keep in mind, if you hear a lot of the really good CEOs saying the same thing, chances are, there's a reason. So that's my 2 cents I'm wrapping up here. What would investors and people follow in 1933 have to look forward to what are some of the milestones that you're looking to achieve or,

Speaker 2: 31:18

Yeah, the only milestone that matters to me now is profitability. Uh, I would say that our industry, like a lot of, um, sort of venture backed industries over the last few years, price growth over Uber grub hub, we work, uh, category growth corporation, uh, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. It was a, uh, a unique time when venture was on venture was encouraging us to grow, grow, grow, even if we would sustain meaningful, if not met a substantial losses in the pursuit of growth. And the narrative is changed for not just the cannabis industry, growth is great, but grow from profitability. If you have to keep on losing money in perpetuity or near perpetuity. So I can forget what I'm focusing on now. And I think this is echoed by other CEOs is a path towards profitability, uh, on, as on an accelerated timeline as is possible within, you know, the, the, the boundaries and the, and the challenges that any company faces. And I'm confident at 1933, that we're going to get there. Just like I'm confident that the industry is going to get there to date. There's very few companies that are actually profitable. There's accounting tricks, if you will. And biological assets that could show, but I measure it by like how much money went out the door and how much money came in quarter on quarter. And if more went out and came in, but you're using an accounting practice under, under, uh ifrifrst for example, um, as to how you value your biological assets, or if you're going to have to take Goodwill impairments on stuff that you've marked up on your books, which there was a lot of that, okay. You know, all that the auditors and the CFOs debate, what is, but what I'm looking for as an operator is do we have more money in our bank account at the end of the month than at the beginning? And is that a sustainable thing? And as long as the answer is yes, to that accounting for all contingent liabilities, like tax bells, then that's what I call profitability. We earn more than we make. I mean, we earn more than it costs us to earn. And so that's what I, and I'm sure many other CEOs now in multiple industries are focusing on specifically if you're a public company. Um, it's very, very important to demonstrate to your shareholders that you have a commitment towards profitability at whatever scale, if you're at, uh, the, the, you know, the canopy scale profitability means one thing, if you're at a smaller operator scale profitability, it may be on different scale, but the goal is the same it's to create businesses that can survive even a capital crisis because they're profitable.

Speaker 3: 34:01

And, uh, we're going to sign off here on a, on a very, very green note of profitability. Uh, Paul on behalf of the Canadian securities exchange, we just want to say, thank you, please continue to be safe. Uh, we appreciate your listing. And if there is anything that we can do to, uh, to help, we will, uh, we will be here for you. So

Speaker 2: 34:22

My pleasure, great to see you again, look forward to seeing a person when I keep up the great work you've CSC does yeoman's work on behalf of the industry. And, uh, all of us that are on your exchange are grateful for, uh, all the service that we get from you.

Speaker 3: 34:34

Well, thank you. We appreciate it. Uh, don't forget to subscribe to CSE TV on YouTube. Check us out on our website. That's www dot[inaudible] dot com. We're on all the social media channels, LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and, um, yeah, this is Barrington Miller, uh, via Paul Rosen signing off. Thank you.