![]() The pair began searching for the right opportunity, eventually focusing on the $3 trillion-plus health care industry as ripe for disruption. At the time, Bergmann had recently left a job as an investment banker and was managing a small hedge fund with investments from friends and family. Indeed, they immediately bonded over a shared interest in futurism and how rapid technological changes were reshaping whole industries. “And he thought that crazy and crazy would make something great.” And he thought Wes was crazy,” Bergmann recalled of the mutual friend who introduced them. “It was like 22- to 25-year-old guys trying to figure out how to become men,” Van Dyk recalled.Īt one of these gatherings in 2013, a longtime friend of Van Dyk’s brought along Jake Bergmann. Shortly after graduating from the University of Georgia in 2012, Van Dyk began hosting a series of barbecues at the loft where he was living outside of Athens along the Oconee River.ĭubbed “Leather Apron Club” nights - in homage to the mutual improvement society Benjamin Franklin founded - they would hold weighty conversations about the state of the world and their place in it. The story of Beau Wrigley and pot begins not with chewing gum but with barbeque, and not with Wrigley but with a far less renowned entrepreneur named Wes Van Dyk. " had that classic challenge of needing a lot of money and taking longer than they had planned to get to cash flow positive.” Weed futurism “The challenge with cannabis is that it’s a very capital intensive industry … especially vertically integrated like Parallel,” said Neil Kaufman, a corporate cannabis attorney based in New York. ![]() The continued federal illegality of marijuana means that companies face sky-high taxes, steep barriers to access capital and stiff competition from the entrenched illicit market. Even as the weed market continues to boom as legalization spreads rapidly across the country - sales are projected to hit $32 billion this year, more than doubling since 2019, according to New Frontier Data - most companies continue to hemorrhage money and stock prices have collapsed over the last year. While the details of Parallel’s financial struggles are unique to the company, in many ways its plight is emblematic of the broader cannabis industry. Lawyers for Parallel declined to comment. The company did not respond to requests for comment. Parallel has yet to provide a detailed response to the allegations in court filings, although it has filed a motion to dismiss one of the lawsuits. The lawsuits are still in the early stages, so it’s difficult to weigh the merits of the claims. He will defend against these false claims in court.” Wrigley is confident the facts will demonstrate the allegations in the complaints have no merit. More lawsuits are almost certainly in the pipeline, according to some investors who aren’t involved in the current cases.Ī spokesperson for Wrigley issued a statement in response to POLITICO’s inquiries about the lawsuits: “Mr. ![]() The company’s founding CEO Jake Bergmann, who left shortly after Wrigley took charge, is also suing the company for roughly $20 million. District Court for the Southern District of Florida in March. “Although the Company participates in the comparatively new industry of legal cannabis, … the Securities Defendants still committed good old-fashioned securities fraud,” reads the complaint filed in the U.S. Now Wrigley and the company face a pair of lawsuits from investors who allege Parallel officials concealed massive debts, issued fanciful financial projections, engaged in self-dealing and committed various other misdeeds to defraud them. Less than two months later, Wrigley stepped down as the company’s CEO. Just seven months later, the SPAC deal collapsed. a special purpose acquisition corporation, or SPAC, co-founded by music mogul Scooter Braun, whose clients have included Justin Bieber and Ariana Grande - planned to purchase Parallel and take it public in a deal valued at $1.9 billion.īut in retrospect, what appeared to be a capstone moment for Wrigley’s burgeoning weed empire marked the start of a period of legal and financial turbulence. ![]() That same month, Parallel announced in a press release a blockbuster deal that if consummated would solidify its plans to become a major national player in the booming $30-billion-plus cannabis industry. “At Wrigley, we brought joy to people’s lives. “I think this can be bigger than the Wrigley company,” Wrigley told Forbes magazine for a cover story in February 2021. By the end of 2022, Parallel boasted that it was on course to have 86 dispensaries across eight markets and revenues in excess of $600 million. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |