Alex Hormozi

🚨 Santa Ana, CA Cannabis Retail Licensing October 2025: What You Need to Know (and How to Win) 🚨 Santa Ana has announced a new round of 5 storefront retail licenses (capped at 30 citywide). The process is merit-based and highly competitive—success will depend on real estate, preparation, and experience. 🗓️ Key Dates Phase 1 (Eligibility): Oct 13 – Nov 12, 2025 Phase 2 (Merit Competition): Jan 5 – Feb 5, 2026 📍 What’s Required 👉 Secure a compliant property (site control is essential). 👉 Meet buffer requirements (500 ft from another retailer; 1,000 ft from schools/parks/residential zones). 👉 Be ready to compete on merit: experience, community benefits, compliance, and local nexus. 🌟 Why WeCann? No one has more experience in Santa Ana cannabis licensing than WeCann: ✅ Our CEO & Founder became the 4th licensed dispensary in Santa Ana by navigating the process firsthand. ✅ In 2018, WeCann submitted 6 applications for 11 available permits—and all 6 won. ✅ We’ve also managed countless non-retail applications, renewals, violations, and license transfers in the City. 💡 The bottom line: ☑️ Phase 1 is eligibility. ☑️ Phase 2 is competition. ☑️ Only the most prepared teams will win. 👉 If you’re serious about securing one of these 5 new licenses, now is the time to move. WeCann’s track record in Santa Ana is unmatched—we know exactly what it takes to succeed here.

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The best buying window in Southern California isn't coming. It's already here. And I know that's hard to believe right now. Because everyone around you is waiting. Waiting for rates to drop. Waiting for more certainty. Waiting for the market to feel easier. But here's what we keep seeing: The deals that pencil TODAY are real deals. Not propped up by cheap debt. Not relying on blind appreciation. Rates are down from the peak but nowhere near 2019–2021 levels. That keeps the weak buyers out and the pricing honest. Which means if you know how to underwrite in this environment, the competition is thin and the deals are real. That is the window. We put together a 2026 Southern California Market Outlook to show exactly what is happening in this market right now: • What looks mispriced • Where risk is hiding • How we're building deals today. Download your free guide below 👇 https://lnkd.in/g2QVttAy Disclaimer: This is not financial or investment advice. Real estate investing involves risk. Always consult a qualified professional before making investment decisions.

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Imagine telling a founder "No," only to see them raise $1M the next week. That’s exactly what happened to my latest guest on Demo Day, Paul Orlando. If you don’t know Paul, he’s the guy leading the incubator at University of Southern California, teaching the next generation of world-class founders. He told me about a time he had to choose between two health-tech startups. Both looked strong. Both had great teams. Paul did the work. He looked at their "specific knowledge" and decided to go with the team he thought had more progress. One week later? The founder he rejected hit his inbox: "Just wanted to let you know we just raised $1M." Keep in mind - this was 10 years ago. $1M back then actually meant something. Paul’s first thought: "Did I just make a massive mistake?" I love this story because it’s the reality of the startup world. Whether you’re an investor or founder… you can’t always control the outcome. You can’t control the timing. You can’t control the "luck" factor. But you can control your process. In this episode, Paul Orlando and I dive into: - Why "specific knowledge" is the only moat that matters. - How USC is building the future of incubators. - The psychological shift of being proven wrong by a "No." If you’ve ever had a "one that got away" moment in business, you need to hear this. Follow us so that you don’t miss the episode releasing on Monday: Youtube: https://lnkd.in/gYZcEGnh Spotify: https://lnkd.in/gMmh-yHJ Apple Podcasts: https://lnkd.in/gJbcpt3S Huge thanks to Paul Orlando for being so open about the wins and the misses 👊

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Excited to join Midday Connect tomorrow to talk broadly about how investors actually think when evaluating founders and companies and what we think about Symphonic Capital! If you can't make it, I recently wrote about what we look for specifically—how we back AI companies closing gaps in healthcare, finance, and workforce. Written with stories from four of our portfolio founders. Read "AI as Infrastructure" here: https://lnkd.in/eDNqG7K2

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You can turn $100,000 into a $50 million business through acquisitions. This is closer to capital allocation than traditional entrepreneurship. Here's the deal structure. First, the capital stack. You buy a business the same way you buy a house. Equity in, bank covers the rest. With SBA loans: 90% loan, 10% equity. A million dollar business might require $100K to $200K down. Target companies with $1 to $3 million in earnings. Go to sellers that are NOT at market. Brokered deals are competitive and sellers want cash at close. This only works off-market. Here's what you propose: Seller keeps 20% equity in a new entity. Asset sale, their company moves into newco, they keep running it at fair market salary. You write them a check for 60% via bank loan. Remaining 20% is a seller's note: 10% straight note, 10% performance earnout. From the bank's perspective, you created 40% equity. The truth? It's really only 20%, and it's the seller's. Your money in? Approaching zero. But you own 80% of Enterprise Value. Why would a seller agree? Tell them: my goal is to make your 20% as valuable as the 80% we're giving you today. What are the odds you double the value on your own in 3 to 5 years? Now stack earnings. $2 million average per company. Buy 10 just like this. $20 million combined earnings under one entity. Centralize marketing, accounting, HR, governance at HQ. You bought each at 4 to 4.5x. A $20 million earnings business sells for 7 to 7.5x or more. That's multiple expansion, just by combining them. Close the first one. Negotiate the next $100K for the next business. Then newco sells to PE for 7, 8, 9x your $20 million in earnings. That's the path from $100K to $50 million. If you're considering buying a business in the next 12 to 24 months, we built Acquisition Lab for exactly this. walkerdeibel.com

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If "Pre-Seed" investors ask for traction, they're not Pre-Seed investors. If Seed investors ask for equity in your Pre-Seed, they're Pre-Seed investors.

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Here’s how increased access to cannabis led to Sparkplug’s explosive growth… The startup — a LAUNCH portfolio company — offers a SaaS product that educates and rewards and benefits the dispensary clerks and “budtenders” who actually sell cannabis to clients, incentivizing them to sell more and allowing them to share in the proceeds. It turns out, as more and more states decriminalize cannabis and offer consumers a pathway to making legal purchases… it has lit a fire under Sparkplug and other companies in the cannabis space. Hear straight from CEO Andrew Duffy about how limiting unnecessary regulations opens up now doorways for innovative companies — and why the cannabis business in general might be on the precipice of a breakout moment — in this clip from our first-ever This Week in Cannabis expert roundtable.

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If you have 5 clients, you can unlock top-tier links for a fraction of the price. Last week, we helped 5 cannabis clients land placements on high-authority sites at just $400 that typically charge $1,500 per post. Here’s how we made it happen: ✅ We approached publishers ranking for our target keywords in the U.S. ✅ We negotiated a deal for collaborative listicles featuring multiple brands. ✅ We divided the total cost (plus our fee) among participating clients. Many clients hesitate to share link juice, preferring solo guest posts. One client, for example, spends $15k per month on guest posts alone. But here’s the truth: Sharing link juice doesn’t dilute the value. These high-authority placements still pack enough punch to boost rankings for everyone involved. In this case, 5 clients said yes to the collaboration. The result? ✅ Mentions on 5 niche-relevant, high traffic sites. ✅ Significant savings for each client. ✅ No compromise on link quality. It’s a win-win: publishers get their rate, and clients get affordable, impactful exposure. If you have 5–10 clients in the same niche, this strategy can work wonders. Collaborate, pool resources, and unlock premium links without breaking the bank. With the growing trend of listicles, you can do this in case top ranking listicles aren't mentioning your clients in their posts. 👉 Publish your own listicles on high authority sites. 👉 Build links for the same listicles (tier 1 + tier 2 + tier 3) 👉 See your listicles ranking in the top results without having a big budget. Would you consider this approach for your clients? Let me know your thoughts below in the comments 👇👇

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Turning $10M into $300M isn’t luck it’s leverage, timing, and vision. That’s a 30x return. In public markets, it’s a $1 options play hitting $30. In venture, it’s backing the right founder before the world even knows their name. But here’s the truth, if your fund looks like 2005 and sounds like 1985, don’t expect 2045 to bet on you. The future of capital is culture-informed. Globally minded. Risk-adjusted and narrative-driven. Founders care who’s backing them. LPs care where their name is stamped. Relevance is the new alpha. If you’ve already made money, now it’s about multiplying it with meaning.

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Social media makes it sound easy to build a million dollar business overnight. Reality says otherwise. SBA data shows most businesses never reach $1 million in revenue, and even fewer reach $10 million. Real growth takes time, discipline, and strategy. #EntrepreneurReality #BusinessGrowth #StartupTruth #Entrepreneurship #SBAData All information shared is for educational and informational purposes.

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