Taking the Leap
Founded in Seattle in 2010, Privateer Holdings seeks to break down the stigmas associated with cannabis. Its three partners, Brendan Kennedy, Christian Groh and Michael Blue, share a vision of the future and lead with science and research. In the last nine years, they’ve changed the industry and turned their disruptive business model into a global operation with capital and investments all over the world.
Blue elaborates on taking the leap of faith into the cannabis business: “Before we quit our jobs, we had long conversations with each other, our spouses, our families. The hardest conversations were with our in-laws. We had a lot of concern about reputational risk.”
Blue continues, “Brendan and Christian were working at Silicon Valley Bank, and I was working at a private-equity firm. Between the three of us, we had subscriptions to all of the leading business-intelligence databases.
We looked up medical cannabis and synonyms for cannabis, and there was nothing. It was a black hole. There was no formalized data or institutional research. That piqued our interest even more, so we decided to investigate. But the only way to get information was to talk to people. So we traveled the world to meet with growers, processors, dispensary owners, patients, pharmacists, physicians, activists, lawyers and political campaigners.”
Kennedy chimes in: “We were pioneers. We got dirty, we worked hard, and it cost us a lot of money. In fact, there were several dark moments where we were dead broke. But by going to places people didn’t go and talking to people that other people didn’t talk to, we became convinced of the global opportunity and never looked back.”
Money Moves
The trio has since raised