Vin Maru: Invest In MJ
He has unparalleled experience, proven successes, and an insight that empowers you to make wise decisions when it comes to investment opportunities in the legal marijuana industry. When you come across an entrepreneur like Vin Maru of InvestInMJ.com, you know you’ve discovered a gold mine, an invaluable resource, a man with unwavering ambition to be an industry leader. And as we all know, leadership is not something one can claim himself, it has to be earned; and believe us when we say, Vin Maru has earned it. He is paving the way for success and educating all those who are willing to listen to do the same. Don’t let his voice fall on deaf ears and be left behind in the green rush…
What was the deciding factor for you to join this particular industry?
Being an analyst and an entrepreneur, I enjoy looking for major emerging trends and opportunities for both investments and getting involved in becoming an industry leader. About a year ago I realized that the medical marijuana industry was becoming commercialized in Canada and we were at a major turning point in how the world would view cannabis for both medicinal and recreation use. With the U.S. government starting to back off on its federal policy on drug enforcement and leaving it up to individual states to decide on its own drug laws, the case for wanting to participate in the industry became even more compelling.
As I see it, we are at the beginning stages of the industry becoming commercialized worldwide for both medical and eventually recreational use. This opened up the opportunity for entrepreneurs to start offering products and services the industry currently offers, wants, or needs… and doing so legally. The drug trade has always been there, but the only people that prospered were illegal growers or government employees who are paid on the tax payers’ dime to fight the “War on Drugs”.
I always knew that billions of dollars were being made by the illegal marijuana trade, but with the end of prohibition, the industry is becoming commercialized; those billions will now be made by entrepreneurs and investors. By positioning myself and getting involved in the legal marijuana industry at an early stage, I just wanted to get my slice of the pie, because if it wasn’t me then it would be someone else. The trend towards legalization is already in place and there is no turning back, anyone who can add value to the industry should do really well.
I always knew that billions of dollars were being made by the illegal marijuana trade, but with the end of prohibition, the industry is becoming commercialized; those billions will now be made by entrepreneurs and investors.
What skills from your previous experiences helped you in what you are doing now?
I really enjoy analyzing, researching, and connecting with the best people and companies in any industry I am involved in. I seem to find major trends as they develop and get involved at the earlier stages. Back in the mid 1990’s after graduating from a university with a finance degree, I started my own company reselling computer hardware and software. Shortly after, I realized the internet was going to be a paradigm shift in the way we communicate. I started to research the best companies in the industry and became partners with them so that I could offer their products and solutions. After one meeting with the national sales manager from Macromedia (now owned by Adobe), I became their channel partner in Canada and went on to develop internet based multimedia solutions for some of the biggest corporations in Canada.
Two years after the Dotcom crashed, I got out of sales, project management, and development. I decided then to focus my time on one of my other passions, the financial market. I saw a major trend being established in the precious metals and resource sector, so I proceeded to focus my time and energy in the commodities sector evaluating companies and looking for ways to get invested. I started creating a specialty in the resource sector, namely precious metals, and started sharing my research with others. But after a chance of meeting with the original founder of Stockhouse (Canada’s largest financial website) in Acapulco, Mexico, I decided to write a subscriber-based newsletter related to precious metals called TDV Golden Trader (which now focuses on the marijuana industry).
While I still believe in owning precious metals as a store of value, I am now mostly focused on the marijuana space as I think this will be just as big of a trend as the internet and precious metals was and still are. Being a little older and wiser, I plan on capitalizing on the emerging marijuana trend much like I was able to for the internet and precious metals by getting involved early and establishing myself as an industry leader. I have a strong background in internet technologies and financial markets and I plan on bringing both of these skill sets into all my endeavors I take within the marijuana industry.
Right now, where are you guiding your passion and energy towards?
Passion and energy are two of the major drivers to anyone’s success; I am guiding both of these towards the marijuana space to create value for the companies I am involved with or on my own business ventures. Having a strong internet and financial background, I am mostly focused on creating the best investor portal in the cannabis space and working on opportunities with companies who are or will become leaders in the legal marijuana industry. At the moment, I am evaluating dozens of investment opportunities and helping the best companies build awareness in the investor community.
As much as I am focused on the investment and business opportunities that this industry presents, what really drives me is knowing that my efforts will make a positive change for society and the world. The money to be made in this industry will be great; I hope to make a lot of it by aligning myself with the best the industry has to offer. But my passion for success is second to helping make a positive difference and a better world full of peace and love; cannabis is just a plant which will help achieve this goal.
Describe your work ethic to me in one word.
Passionate
What do you consider your weakness as an entrepreneur? Your strength?
My strength would be my analytical skills. I have been told many times that I can take a complex situation, break it down very quickly, and come up with solutions that think outside the box. My weakness would be critical manner and being brutally honest, especially of others, which can lead to offending people at times or not taking their feelings into account. Trust me, I’m working diligently on watching how I convey my critical messages but as an analytical person, it sure is difficult.
How are you differentiating yourself from the competition?
I actually welcome competition because it only makes me stronger in the long run. This industry is just opening up and there will be lots of opportunities, I can only focus on my core competencies and align myself with the best. I am being selective on the projects or companies I work with, and the only way I’ll get involved in a project or deal is if I think I can add value to it. At the end of the day, there will be other people doing the same thing I do; whether it be a financial analyst, helping companies with investor awareness and marketing, a distributor of products, or getting directly involved with a company, I just want to make sure I can add value in some capacity and excel over the competition. What differentiates me is that I am not looking to be an expert in any one thing; I would rather be very knowledgeable, well connected, and help put two and two together. This means taking a more holistic approach to my involvement in the industry and finding a good balance and fit between all the projects or businesses I am involved in.
How do you find inspiration in this industry? What have you found that has inspired you?
Putting the potential to make money aside, the inspiration I find in this industry is knowing that we are at the beginning stages of legalization and it is truly a game changer for the world. Hopefully, my involvement will help end a lot of pain and suffering – and I’m not talking about just the patients that receive medical benefits from this plant. We could have a world with less violence and crime because pot smokers are generally much more relaxed than alcoholics. Hopefully, the end of “War on Drugs” ends the “War Against People”.
Smoking pot is a victimless crime, yet more people in the U.S. are jailed and criminalized for ingesting a plant than anywhere else in the world. Marijuana was put on this earth for a reason, it’s time we nurture it and allow it to flourish legally, only then will we ever know its true purpose and potential. The change in human psychology around how we attain our freedom and rights to choose our destiny without prosecution is what inspires me. Legalizing marijuana is just one step in the right direction, especially in a world that needs healing from the evils of control.
What’s the best advice you’ve ever gotten?
I’ve been given great advice at many different times in my life. The best to-date is “believe in yourself and what you are doing, provide value, and the universe will provide everything else.”
What’s your newest knowledge about the marijuana industry?
I truly didn’t understand the medical benefits of marijuana until I started doing my own independent research and speaking to growers, medical patients, and experts in the industry. There is so much science that is now going into the industry, most of which I will never understand, but I do believe the plant has some true healing powers. Of course, if a medical doctor like Dr. Sanjay Gupta was misinformed about its medical benefits, then it is quite understandable why the rest of the world has very little knowledge about it. But that is all changing and I am quite optimistic on marijuana’s future and look forward to seeing and reading the science behind the plant. At the end of the day, the science will tell the truth about marijuana, not some politician with an opinion.
If you could rewind time to 5 years ago, how would your business be different?
Had I known back then what I know now, I would have started focusing on the marijuana industry a couple of years earlier and gotten involved on many more levels. Of course, back then, one would always be in fear of the U.S. government and DEA breaking down your door even if you were trying to operate a legal business with a medical license and pay taxes. However, it’s not too late and even now there is a tremendous amount of opportunities for growth. The fact that the industry is moving towards legalization makes it now the most optimal time to get involved. We have just entered the sweet spot in terms of the opportunities for running a legal business. So, I am not so much focused on the past and what could have been as I am excited about the future and what it will become.
The fact that the industry is moving towards legalization makes it now the most optimal time to get involved.
What will we be seeing from you and Invest In MJ (a Division of Golden Tech Media) in the coming future?
Actually, I have quite a few companies I am excited about and am getting involved in on a business level. They see the value I can bring in terms of connections, strategic vision, marketing, investor awareness, and access to capital. I will be continually updating InvestInMJ.com with various opportunities I find and helping create awareness of the best companies in the industry. There are a couple of interesting franchise business opportunities that look promising and will be coming to market shortly. The InvestInMJ.com website is a public site with a lot of information and countless opportunities for investors to become educated and participate in the marijuana industry.
If you are an accredited investor, we have a dedicated newsletter on the site that you can sign up for. There are a couple of great private placement deals coming shortly which I am excited to share with investors and begin to connect them to the companies doing the raise. One U.S. company looks like it will be the industry leader when it comes to investing in real estate and property management for the grow industry. Another deal has the biggest celebrity name in the marijuana industry as a founding member; the company has one of the best marketing and customer acquisition plans I have seen so far. There are a couple of other companies in Canada who are getting their MMPR license very shortly, they will be raising capital, and also be going public much like Organigram did recently.
My distribution company is sourcing out the best products and technologies in the marijuana market and will be supplying them to the commercial growers. A month ago my company was able to secure a distributor partnership for one of the best LED grow lights in the industry. The manufacturer recently launched a 1000w HPS equivalent LED grow light which should save commercial growers about 50% on energy costs and has equal, if not better, PAR and yield than equating HPS bulbs. From what I see, no one else has a LED grow light that is comparable in terms of PAR and yield; the lights are truly a game changer and I can see many commercial growers wanting to move away from HPS and start incorporating these LED grow lights.
But to top it all off, the opportunity I am most excited about getting involved in is the reality TV series that I am helping put together; this will be my first foray into the showbiz world. If I can help shine a positive light on the industry and help change the world’s view on cannabis, the rewards from that effort will be more satisfying than any profit that will be made as an investor and entrepreneur.
