Investor Hot Seat - May 20, 2021
Investor Pitch Competition - Presenting Companies
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Moderator
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Moderator
Carol Ortega Algarra, Managing Director, Muisca Capital Group
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Originally from Bogotá, Colombia, Ms. Ortega is the Managing Director and Founder of Muisca Capital Group. For over 20 years, Carol has continuously demonstrated the ability to successfully guide cross-functional teams and achieve strategic goals for a diverse group of organizations at the international arena.
In Colombia, as a professor for Xavierian University, Carol leaded various research and consultancy projects within the financial industry, taught classes and was the Director of postgraduate programs in accounting. Within the governmental sector, at the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Tourism of Colombia she provided technical lead on all matters related to the process of convergence towards international standards of accounting (IAS – IFRS) for the country, under this role, Carol co-wrote the standards of accounting and financial information currently applicable in Colombia. Ms. Ortega has authorship on numerous accounting and business related academic publications worldwide. In the U.S., as the Director of Finance and Operations for Adelante Mujeres, Ms. Ortega leaded the research and implementation of the incubator, accelerator and micro-finance program, now the biggest one in the State of Oregon serving the Latino community. as the Deputy Executive Director for InStove, she established the organization strategy, resulting in the first place at the Portland Social Venture Society “Fast Pitch” competition among others, taking InStove from a start-up to a sophisticated, sustainable, growth-oriented, multinational organization.Ms. Ortega has provided business & financial consultancy services to legal cannabis start-ups in the U.S. since 2014, year when Recreational Cannabis was legalized in the State of Oregon and in Colombia since December 2015. Carol is the Founder & BOD Chair of the Colombian Cannabis Entrepreneurs Network (RECC), which foster and serves through its programs and services cannabis ventures in Colombia, founding entity of the first cannabis science event in the Americas called CannaCiencia, a state of the art event that promotes science, research, investment and good practices of the analytical laboratory of Medicinal Cannabis in the Americas. Carol earned a B.S. in Accounting & Finance a Master’s degree in Management Accounting, from Xavierian University in Bogota, and a Master’s in Business Administration from Canisius College. Buffalo, New York. About Muisca Capital Group Muisca Capital Group is the first Latin American investment management firm strategically targeting the emerging legal industry of medicinal cannabis. We establish investment and execution policies that allow us to generate an optimal allocation in diversified portfolios where profitability is maximized minimizing risk. Our due diligence process is traversal and covers the strategic, commercial, operational, financial, IT and corporate social responsibility aspects. Our team of financial consultants, risk managers and business developers combine decades of experience in the financial, pharmaceutical, governmental, academic and service industries in the Americas.
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Presenting Companies
Peter Kaspar, CEO & Founder, Terpli
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Peter Kasper is the Founder & CEO of Terpli, a community-powered mobile app for cannabis recommendations and reviews. Peter launched Terpli while enrolled full-time in the MBA Program at USC, Marshall. He has dedicated his life and career to the cannabis industry and recently had the privilege of founding and leading the Marshall Cannabis Industry Club, USC Marshall's first-ever business of cannabis organization. With a finance and applied mathematics background, Peter eagerly brings his quantitative nature to the cannabis space and is excited to launch Terpli in the summer of 2021.
About Terpli Terpli is a community-powered app where users can engage with reviews, get discounts, and see full Cannabinoid and Terpene profiles to make informed, personalized cannabis decisions. There’s so much more to cannabis than indica or sativa. Terpli is elevating the conversation. From peer-driven reviews and targeted recommendations to an analytics dashboard that enables brands to act on consumer preferences, Terpli is the go-to destination for making data-backed cannabis decisions before the point of purchase.
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Cesare Fazari, CEO, RYU Apparel Inc.
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Mr. Cesare Fazari, founding partner of Northwood Developments, with over 30 years of experience in retail real estate developments, has been the seed Venture Capital investor in several public and private companies. He owns a vast portfolio of over one million sq/ft of RE holdings, including residential units, office spaces, commercial retail, industrial space and land. Mr. Fazari is also involved in several charitable organizations, including The Breakfast Club of Canada, the Canadian Cancer Society and the Good Shepard Food Bank.
About RYU Apparel Inc. RYU (Respect Your Universe) is a tailored urban athletic apparel brand that engages in the development, marketing, and distribution of apparel, bags and accessories. Our products are engineered for the fitness, training and performance of the multi-discipline athlete. Our products are designed, developed and tested at our corporate headquarters in Vancouver, BC, Canada. Production takes place in factories located in North America and Asia. The RYU brand was created by a team of industry experts in 2015 that found a gap in the apparel market whereby the male athlete was underserved, the female athletic market was awash by a sea of sameness, and nobody was designing carry systems for active people to build their lives around. This team transformed the RYU brand and created a new category: Urban Athletics. RYU is the new standard of tailored innovation for the urban athlete.
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Davina Kaonohi, CEO, Element Apothec
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Davina is the CEO and Co-Founder of Element Apothec. She is a seasoned entrepreneur with over 20 years experience in B2C, tech, and recruiting sectors. Experienced with startup strategy development, leadership, people strategy, recruitment, and organizational development.
Founder, entrepreneur and strategic operational leader. As a strategic leader and brand creator, Davina is passionate about challenging the norm and making a difference with every company she has worked with. With Element Apothec, Davina brings to the table vast experience in team building, business strategy and operational management and a mission to create good in the world. About Element Apothec Element Apothec is a new, disruptive CBD brand redefining the body care and wellness industry. Element Apothec is the trustworthy brand conscious consumers are demanding. They have created clean, safe and effective products with medical oversight and are committed to complete transparency. They look to disrupt and change, for the better, an industry that has abandoned responsibility for their consumers' well being and health.
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Joseph Daniluk, CEO, Waterblocks
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Service-disabled combat veteran. 30+ years of business experience for directing and managing new project development, emphasis on finance, automation and marketing.
About Waterblocks Creating New Multiuse Flood Control &Barrier Protection Systems Through Superior Engineering & Design For Rapid Deployment & Asset Management Control!
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Marcel Gamma, CEO, CBD of Denver
CBD of Denver Video - Click this Link
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Senior Manager with more than 25 years working experience in several industries. Proven skills in Organizational Restructuring, Business Development, Partner Management, Customer Relationship Management, Financial Advisory, M&A and general Entrepreneurship. Higher Education with a M.A. in Accounting & Finance from University of St. Gallen (HSG) and a M.B.A in International Business from Brunel University London.
About CBD of Denver CBD of Denver, Inc. (OTC:CBDD) a full-line CBD and Hemp oil company (“CBDD”) and a producer and distributor of Cannabis and CBD products in Switzerland, Europa and US. CBDD is focused on using equity to acquire profitable Swiss assets at attractive valuations to create value for all our shareholders driven by a passion to improve lives and strengthen communities by unleashing the full potential of cannabis. Through our brand Rockflowr and BlackPearlCBD we reach our consumers and have built up a strong customer base by focusing on top quality products and meaningful customer relationships. Black Pearl CBD has 0% THC, but is not an Isolate where the THC is stripped from the product rendering it ineffective. We use a proprietary technique adding terpenes as the activation ingredient, resulting in a product that is the finest in the industry and only available at CBD of Denver, Inc. is one of a handful of publicly traded CBD stocks. We are traded on the Over the Counter Stock Market under the symbol CBDD. As a publicly traded stock, this allows anyone the possibility of ownership in the rapidly expanding CBD market. Because we are publicly traded, we are bound by Federal and Interstate rules and regulations regarding CBD products. Offering products with 0% THC, allows us to work within these regulations. Understanding the CBD market is important, other products on the market are possibly imported from countries like China, are sold as a distillate resulting in less potency or a product that contains THC. The problem is that each state and country has their own rules and regulation regarding THC. Some states do not allow any products that contain THC, other states allow varying amounts of THC. That is why we post a lab report on all our products. OUR SUBSIDIARIES In Switzerland, we currently own two subsidiaries, Rockflowr, GmbH and CBD Welt 24, GmbH. Rockflowr, GmbH is a wholesale distribution company, which supplies CBD/ Hemp flower, CBD Oil, CBD Pollen and CBD biomass throughout Switzerland and Europe. Our distribution throughout Europe is growing by the day. CBD Welt 24, GmbH has vertically integrated the entire process of Hemp production from growing the hemp, lab extraction, and manufacturing. We utilize sustainable farming committed to the health of our customers and planet. We use drip irrigation, organic ethanol extraction, and natural pest deterrents such as pepper spray and lady bugs for all our products. We currently maintain 3 indoor grown facilities outside of Zurich, Switzerland and are looking to expand in the near future. In the United States, we currently own CBD Social Network and Black Pearl CBD. We are the only CBD company to own and release a comprehensive CBD Social Network (www.cbdsocialnetwork.com). The idea of the network is to connect CBD users from America and around the world to interact and discuss CBD uses, treatments and products. In recent months active users have doubled and we receive between 3,000 to 3,500 hits per day. In the future, this part of our operations could be an integral part our revenue structure. Black Pearl CBD (www.blackpearlcbd.com) is a manufacturer and an ecommerce retail sales unit that only sells the highest quality full spectrum CBD containing 0% THC. We do this through a process that removes the THC molecule from the CBD, then we remove the Terpenes from the THC and attach it to the CBD thus creating a full spectrum product. Other companies either leave the THC molecule and terpenes attached or strip it out completely. It is misunderstood, that the THC molecule is the activator for the CBD to be effective. It is not the THC, but the Terpenes that activate both the THC and the CBD. By removing the Terpenes and reattaching them to the CBD, we have a product that is effective and safe. Black Pearl CBD offers a full range of products from facial creams and sunscreens to all types of oils. All of products can be purchased at our ecommerce site www.blackpearlcbd.com.
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Michael Sassano, CEO , SOMAÍ Pharmaceuticals
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Michael Sassano is well known as one of the original investors in the cannabis industry. He is celebrated prominently in both mainstream business and cannabis media as an international authority on large-scale cannabis cultivation and medical product development. Michael is also widely respected for consistently predicting long term market trends.
In July 2020, Michael led a merger of the cannabis cultivation company he built called Solaris Farms, with The Sanctuary, a local Las Vegas brand operating two dispensaries and an extraction facility. In the four years prior, Michael was able to build Solaris out from a bare lot of land with just private equity into one of the largest and most well respected cannabis cultivation operations in the state of Nevada. As a result of the merger, Solaris is now one of the top ten private vertically-integrated cannabis companies in the state. Michael remains on the advisory board and will help sell the new vertical to a larger company in the future. Michael has since shifted focus to his role as CEO and Chairman of the Board for Somai Pharmaceuticals LTD,an Ireland-based holding company centered on investing in manufacturing and distribution of GMP-certified cannabinoid-containing pharmaceutical products throughout the European Union. Taking with him the superior cultivation and product development knowledge honed in the competitive American west coast market, Somai is one of the first American-run companies operating across legal European markets. Somai is currently building scalable high out-put facilities in Portugal and developing various strategic countries in Europe. The idea is to carefully develop processes for scalability and get proper registrations in order to expand as new countries legalize medical cannabis and new markets and demographics become available. As the continent ultimately comes fully online, Somai will be positioned as a top global manufacturer and distributor of EU-GMP-certified cannabis pharmaceuticals. You can read more about him and his companies here: www.somaipharma.eu/news About SOMAI Pharmaceuticals SOMAI Pharmaceuticals is an international company focused on the extraction of the Cannabis plant and making formulations for the EU market. SOMAI invests in extraction, cultivation, research, development and distribution of GMP-pharmaceutical certified cannabinoid products.Name of Company:
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Rob Blair, COO, RYU Apparel Inc.
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About
About RYU Apparel Inc. RYU (Respect Your Universe) is a tailored urban athletic apparel brand that engages in the development, marketing, and distribution of apparel, bags and accessories. Our products are engineered for the fitness, training and performance of the multi-discipline athlete. Our products are designed, developed and tested at our corporate headquarters in Vancouver, BC, Canada. Production takes place in factories located in North America and Asia. The RYU brand was created by a team of industry experts in 2015 that found a gap in the apparel market whereby the male athlete was underserved, the female athletic market was awash by a sea of sameness, and nobody was designing carry systems for active people to build their lives around. This team transformed the RYU brand and created a new category: Urban Athletics. RYU is the new standard of tailored innovation for the urban athlete.
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Stephen Meade, CEO & Founder, MonetaPro
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Stephen Meade is an American entrepreneur, executive and business founder who is passionate about creating companies that make a difference in the world. Meade has the ability to catapult an idea from pure concept to the creation of a thriving business. In the past 20 years, Meade has created, incubated and architected (9) successful technology-based companies. Meade frequently speaks on the art of networking at executive leadership conferences and global communities of startup (i.e. executives, entrepreneurs, start-up founders, co-founders, students). In 2005, Meade founded Big Bamboo, LLC to serve as the incubator for ideas that are worth building a team around and bringing to market.
Known globally as “The BullsEye Guy,” Meade has taught his signature Ten Step “Bullseye Belief System” which demonstrates how an individual can create and target exactly what's needed to succeed in business and life. His rigorous focus on using sales psychology to communicate simple ideas across a strategically targeted network has evolved into The BullsEye Belief System, which he has systematically used through the years to create and build companies. Meade is currently the CEO of MonetaPro.io, which is a FinTech Blockchain company for global companies to participate in corporate trade. MonetaPro competed in and won the Silicon Valley d10e Global ICO contest, which to date was the largest ICO competition in the World featuring 32 companies. MonetaPro also took 3rd place at d10e (Seoul, Korea), 4th place at d10e (San Juan, Puerto Rico), 2nd place at d10e (Malta), etc. MonetaPro has globally placed in eight startup competitions, more than any other company in this space Meade has also judged Startup contests around the world—including most recently at AIBC in Malta (where he helped craft some of the Blockchain Laws). Meade was previously the CEO of Upper Street Marketing, a boutique public company focused on technology around Media, Entertainment, and Influencers. The first product for UPPR, MagMo (which stands for “Magic Moments”) is a photo-sharing tool for major brands to create stories and share it with their existing audience. MagMo can provide monetization for social media audiences of the brand through a patent pending process known as the “back cover.” Prior projects include:
Meade’s ideas are impactful, relevant, and quite often ahead of their time. From having the 4th ever Infomercial in the late 80’s to VirtualSellers in the 90s, Meade has positioned himself as a pioneer in the e-commerce transaction processing company. Prior to venturing into the entrepreneurial world, he served as a regional Vice-President with Travelers Group, a fortune 500 financial services company. He is the author of three books in the field of finance/credit improvement and business networking. Meade is a frequent speaker and panelist at CGI (Clinton Global Initiative), Founder Institute, Opportunity Green, and more. He has also served as a guest lecturer at universities including MIT, Harvard, Northwestern, PKI (Peter Kiewit Institute), University of Nebraska, UMKC (University of Missouri Kansas City), USC, UCLA, University of Chicago, Loyola University, Illinois Institute of Technology, University of Illinois at Chicago, and more. Meade has been a featured speaker on the following topics:
Recently, Meade was asked to join the Board of the prestigious company Centurion Invest (which includes a Crypto Exchange, Blockchain Banking, and a full suite of Business services). In this role he is Director of Corporate Finance and Fundraising. About MonetaPro MonetaPro is an award-winning B2B Fintech platform for the $17 Trillion-dollar industry of Corporate Barter or "Non-Cash Trading", and acts as an enterprise marketplace with built-in settlement options (think eBay for business and PayPal 2.0). In MonetaPro, a seller can list goods and services for sale and select from multiple payment options- including cash/ach/wire/credit card and a unique Digital Settlement Dollar ($G) called a GBUC (pronounced G- Buck). The GBUC, which stands for "Global Business Usage Currency", acts as an internal Digital Dollar. Companies can sell items and receive $ G's as payment and then use the same $ G's to make purchases from other Companies and Countries within the marketplace, without ever converting to fiat dollars. MonetaPro acts as a closed-loop payment system where all transactions can occur internally. The Company has integrated with IBM Blockchain (Hyperfabric), which can seamlessly integrate into SAP/Oracle asset modules for inventory management, compliance, and audit trails. MonetaPro provides a plurality of benefits, including multiple payment options, immediate financial settlement ($G), helps with cross border currency issues, can offer liquidity options for foreign companies and countries, internal escrow and negotiation modules, all with enterprise-level controls and built-in procurement tools for saving money.
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Saf Dhillon, CEO, iMetal Resources
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Saf Dhillon, has been involved in the development of companies primarily listed on the TSX Venture Exchange for about 20 years. He has held a variety of positions including senior management and board directorships. At U.S. Geothermal Inc.(NYSE Market), from inception throughout his 12-year tenure, he was part of the senior management team that grew it from a $2-million start up to a profitable USD$250-million Market Cap independent power producer. Saf currently sits on the Boards of Glacier Lake Resources Inc., Raindrop Ventures Inc., Earl Resources Ltd. and Lake Winn Resources Corp., as well as providing his skills and knowledge to several other private and public companies.
About iMetal Resources iMetal Resources is a Canadian mineral exploration company situated near similar geology as the world-class mining camp in Kirkland Lake, Northern Ontario. Its flagship project is the Gowganda West prospect consisting of nearly 150 square-km. 🇨🇦 TSXV: IMR 🇺🇸 OTCBB: ADTFF 🇩🇪 FSE: A7V2
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