General Cannabis Inc. is becoming the biggest player in the rapidly expanding marijuana industry.
It seems like everyday I’m reading about how General Cannabis Inc. is buying another marijuana based business. The first time I had heard about General Cannabis Inc. was when they purchased WeedMaps.Com. WeedMaps.Com of course is the extremely popular website that tells you where to locate medical marijuana outlets in your area, provided you live in a medical marijuana state that has such entities. Recently, General Cannabis Inc. purchased marijuana.com for 4.2 million dollars…that’s a lot of dough! So who is General Cannabis Inc.?
General Cannabis, Inc. (OTC: CANA), based in Newport Beach, California, is one of the first publicly traded companies to support the medical marijuana market through management services, internet verticals, financial services, lobbying and policy.
General Cannabis, Inc., the parent company for each of the listed entities below, intends to be the largest company in the United States that specializes in numerous sectors relating to medicinal cannabis. The estimated annual value of dollars spent in the medicinal cannabis industry is approximately $45 billion. Throughout the United States the industry is fragmented and disjoined with thousands of small “mom and pop” operations in various states that permit medicinal cannabis. At General Cannabis, our goal is to capture significant market shares in four core areas; media (technology), medical, and management.
This is what General Cannabis Inc.’s site said about a couple of the companies that they own:
MEDIA (TECHNOLOGY)
WeedMaps.com
WeedMaps Media, Inc. is a wholly owned subsidiary of General Cannabis, Inc., and its primary operation is Weedmaps.com. Only 18 months old, Weedmaps.com is the largest dispensary finder site in the United States providing over 2,000,000 page views per month for dispensaries that subscribe to its service. In addition, Weedmaps.com has accumulated an active data base of over 50,000 users of which over 36% of all visits to Weedmaps.com are unique, and it has a 15% growth in revenue per month during 2010. With annual gross revenue expected to reach over $3.0 million for 2010, Weedmaps.com is poised to have an incredible 2011. Just as important, management anticipates launching at least 3 additional finder sites for unrelated industries in the 1st quarter of 2011.
MEDICAL MANAGEMENT
General Health Solutions, Inc.
General Health Solutions, Inc. a wholly owned subsidiary of General Cannabis, Inc. recently signed documents to acquire substantially all of the assets and management contracts of Synergistic Resources, LLC. As a result, General Health Solutions now manages 14 medical cannabis clinics throughout California. Included in the acquisition is the internet marketing and advertising template that generates approximately 500 calls per day to our call center which translates to, on average, between 100—200 set appointments per day. The 14 medical cannabis clinics currently see over 4,000 patients per month of which approximately 60% are new patients and 40% renewal. General Health Solutions anticipates scaling the marketing successes in order to increase two fold the volume of calls and set appointments in 2011. General Health Solutions now also has a database of over 25,000 individuals, and anticipates opening a minimum of 10 additional clinics throughout 2011 in states that have approved medicinal cannabis.
Here is a little background on the guys that run General Cannabis Inc:
Jim Pakulis, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman
48 years old, Jim is the CEO and Chairman of General Cannabis, Inc. Mr. Pakulis had been an advisor to Synergistic Resources, LLC since January 2010 to present. Since June 1995 Mr. Pakulis has also been an owner and/or consultant in start-up companies in various industries including internet, finance, real estate and insurance. From 1990 to 1995, Mr. Pakulis oversaw all mergers and acquisitions in the western United States for CliniCorp, Inc., a publicly traded entity that had specialized in healthcare clinic management and operations. From 1987 to 1990, Mr. Pakulis was involved in the healthcare industry overseeing day-to-day operations for several privately held multi-disciplinary clinics in the Los Angeles area. Mr. Pakulis received his BA in English from The Ohio State University in 1987.
Doug Francis, President and Chief Strategy Officer
33 years old, Doug is the President and Chief Strategy Officer of General Cannabis, Inc. From 2008 to present, Mr. Francis has been the CEO of Synergistic Resources, LLC, an entity specializing in the management of physician owned healthcare facilities throughout California. In November, 2009 Mr. Francis also became COO of WeedMaps Media, a leading cannabis vertical and web 2.0 site. From January 2001 to October 2007, Mr. Francis served in a senior management position at two financing related firms in Southern California. Mr. Francis received his BS in Finance from Chapman University in 2001.
Justin Hartfield, Chief Web Officer
26 years old, Justin has served as the Chief Web Officer of General Cannabis since November 2010. Mr. Hartfield is also the co-founder and CEO of WeedMaps Media, a subsidiary of General Cannabis. Mr. Hartfield serves on multiple boards, including the National Cannabis Industry Association and The Prometheus Institute, a nonprofit focusing on increasing civic engagement through technology. Mr. Hartfield is one of the foremost authorities on search engine optimization strategies and has held numerous positions in the internet technology field. Mr. Hartfield received his BS from the University California at Irvine in Information and Computer Sciences and is currently enrolled in the Paul Merage MBA program also at the University of California at Irvine.
Keith Hoerling, Chief Technology Officer
29 years old, Keith has served as the CTO of General Cannabis since November 2010, the parent company of WeedMaps Media; and the Prometheus Institute, a nonprofit that minimizes government by fusing technology with social crowd-sourcing. Mr. Hoerling is one of the premier developers in this country, has been recruited by Fortune 100 technology companies Internationally and consulted with top Internet firms in California such as Internet Brands. Mr. Hoerling received his BS in Information Technology from Chapman University in 2003 and he routinely confers with the brightest minds on Web today.
Of course, I’m no investment expert. But I think it would be a pretty good time to purchase stock in General Cannabis Inc. Like I said at the top of the article, they are buying up marijuana businesses left and right, which is smart. Right now marijuana is a very cottage industry in each area of the industry, and there is a need to consolidate a lot of areas, especially technology. While most people are scrambling to get a marijuana grow room going or open a medical marijuana storefront, these guys are strategically and steadily innovating the way the marijuana industry will operate in the future.
The amount of press releases these guys have put out shows the strategic moves they are making in the marijuana industry. To read any of the over three dozen press releases by General Cannabis Inc, click this link. General Cannabis Inc. has purchased apps such as Weedlaw, websites such as marijuana.com and weedmaps.com, and they recently purchased seed-to-sale collective management and point of sale software.
I’m curious what the process is to give the sales pitch to their investment team, because it seems like if you have a marijuana based idea with lots of potential, these guys are in the market to buy your idea and turn it into something bigger than you could have ever imagined. I tried contacting their staff, which replied very fast and courteously to see if they wanted to add anything to this article, but were very secretive about what their next moves are…Whatever their next moves are, I’m sure they will be stellar. I look forward to seeing what 2012 has in store for General Cannabis Inc.
