Cheddar's CannaBiz explores the latest trends, and news in this expanding market of recreational, and medicinal marijuana. Cheddar's Hope King and Baker Machado speak with start-up founders about how they are capitalizing on cannabis.
Legal technology platform CannaRegs is on a mission to make sense of the legal landscape of marijuana for stakeholders in this growing space. The company's founder and CEO Amanda Ostrowitz explains the regulatory landscape for marijuana, and why she was inspired to launch this start-up.
"I realized the only solution to my problem was to build it," says Ostrowitz. "It's actually kind of influencing the way law is being made because we've been able to track it to such a level where the first time a city government even talks about cannabis--we've tracked it."
Colorado Marijuana sales hit $1.5 Billion in 2017, generating nearly $250 million in taxes and fees for the state. The Cannabist's Marijuana Policy and Business Reporter Alicia Wallace explains why the state sales could face a plateau, and lessons other states could learn from Colorado.
"In Colorado the slowing growth is more of an indicator of a mature market," says Wallace. "We're the guinea pig on this, and we've been able to learn a lot of lessons really quick as this industry came out of nowhere here."
Sensi Products recently underwent a complete redesign to make the transition to solely medical marijuana edibles to consumer products for recreational use. The company's co-founder Lisa Tollner explains how her company made this switch, and her outlook for this expanding market in California.
"For the most part it was a pretty straight forward maneuver for us," explains Tollner. "We saw this coming. I would say as early as five or six years ago we felt it was just a matter of time."
Cheddar's CannaBiz airs every Tuesday from 3:30 to 4:00 p.m.
Marc Blinder, Co-Founder and CEO of Aikon, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell, where he discusses how his company is helping businesses use blockchain applications without needing to learn the intricacies of the new technology.
The Federal Reserve minutes from its January meeting are indicating it's sticking to an interest rate hike in March, but what does the report coupled with ongoing inflation mean for investors going forward? Scott Brown, a market strategist at LPL Financial, joined Cheddar News to break down the minutes and talk about how investors might navigate the rest of the year. "it seems like the market is kind of inclined to trade off these headlines, really, through the first half of the year," he said. "And then, oh, don't forget, we've got midterm elections, which always tend to add a little bit of volatility in the second half of the year." Brown noted that the path forward for stock investors in 2022 would be "rockier" than last year.
Season 13 "Shark Tank" contestant Tania Speaks secured a $400,000 deal for her Speaks Organic Skincare brand with "Shark" Mark Cuban while also being named one of the best pitches in the history of the show — all at 19 years old. Now 20, Speaks joined Cheddar News to talk about the skincare line, the clean beauty industry, and the moment that host Cuban was moved by her pitch. "I couldn't believe that he got emotional. I'm surprised I held back my tears that long," the young entrepreneur revealed. "It's just amazing for someone else to be inspired by your story, especially Mark Cuban himself."
The media giant formerly known as ViacomCBS has officially rebranded itself as Paramount Global with a focus on its streaming service, Paramount Plus. Naveen Chopra, chief financial officer at Paramount, joined Cheddar to discuss the company’s name change and streaming wars. "There are components of content licensing that we continue to do, either historical arrangements or opportunities to license content that don't really impinge on what we're trying to do with our owned and operated services and that continues to be an important ingredient in our broader financial model," he said. "But our number one priority is putting our best assets on Paramount Plus." Chopra also discussed theatrical release windows before feature films hit its service and the platform's subscription goals.
The recent 7.5% year-over-year increase in consumer prices is the highest since 1982, and drew some strong reactions from investors, with speculations that the Federal Reserve will hike interest rates by 50 points instead of 25. But other analysts believe that the Fed will stick with its original plan of 25 points next month. Chris Vecchio, Senior Analyst, at DailyFX broke down how the Fed could potentially react to the historically high inflation data.
Ride share competitors Uber and Lyft both posted their fourth quarter earnings days apart from each other. Both companies have been trying to get back on their feet after taking some pandemic-related hits, but the Omicron variant had other ideas as the year came to a close, with each company taking a hit in ridership in December. Lance Ippolito, head trader at The Future of Wealth explains how Uber and Lyft measured up this earnings period and why Uber may still have an edge over the competition.
