"The problems with the industry are also the opportunities,” Kennedy insists. “The managers are unprofessional. There are no standards. There’s no involvement by Wall Street, private equity, venture capital firms, banks. You have to have a high tolerance for risk. And despite all those problems, annual revenues are large and growing rapidly.”
The numbers Kennedy cites are staggering. He projects cannabis (production, distribution, sale, and services) will be a $50 billion to $75 billion industry in the U.S. within five years. He points to figures showing that the value of (mostly illegal) marijuana produced in the U.S. is already higher than corn ($40 billion, compared to $34 billion for corn).
“So if you think about Lincoln, Neb., there’s corn insurance and corn banks, agricultural supply houses, and high-fructose corn syrup,” says Kennedy. “All of that needs to be built for cannabis” now that legalization appears to be spreading.
“I spent the last seven years studying different industries,” Kennedy continues, “electric cars, online games, daily coupons, solar cells. And when I started to study the immensity of this industry, I felt comfortable taking that risk. This is the biggest opportunity that we’re going to see in our lifetimes.”
Kennedy says there are promising investment opportunities to get in on the ground floor in everything from greenhouse equipment and lab services to software and breeding to financial services like insurance. Not to mention plenty of opportunity to produce ancillary products like pot brownies and gummi bears.
