IMJ Interview with Leslie Bocskor from Electrum Partners
July 14, 2015 - Interview by Vin Maru from Invest In MJ with Leslie Bocskor from Electrum Partners.
IMJ: Hello Leslie, thank you for taking the time to speak with Invest In MJ.com. We are excited to learn more about Electrum Partners and your involvement in the emerging cannabis industry.
Your firm was established in early 2013 and since then you have been very active in the industry as one of the leaders seeking investment opportunities and putting capital to work. Can you provide us some background on the management at Electrum and what attracted you to the cannabis industry?
LB: I have a history of working in early stage disruptive trends and technologies, beginning with the internet and new media properties in the late nineties. Since then I have been involved in life science, cybersecurity and Internet gaming. Electrum was founded by myself and Gordon Katz to explore and incubate a number of opportunities in the legal cannabis industry: policy and licensing of cultivation, dispensaries, processors/manufacturers, distributors and laboratories, Media, Security, Corporate Finance and Investment Banking. We were drawn to the cannabis industry due to a few unique forces that are at play. 1) This is not a new industry; it is the migration of a black market industry into a regulated industry. 2) The social justice issues that are consequences of prohibition that is based on bad data. 3) The fact of my previous work as an investment banker during the birth of a new industry and how that created a context and road map for us to be able to follow here, capturing large valuation shifts in short periods of time.
IMJ: Electrum Partners brings with it energy and a strong foundation to be an industry leader in the cultivation of Cannabis in Nevada. Getting a license is a feat in itself, but you managed to secure many cultivation licenses in Nevada. Can you tell us what attracted you to Nevada and why you choose to focus all of your energy there?
