Usually I wouldn’t go near this publicly (I won’t), but I feel safe here. It’s your house, and our place to be open and honest. About the big, and the small. Speaking of small……
This afternoon, a Tweet came through my feed….penned by no less than John Fowler, ex-CEO of Supreme Cannabis ($FIRE). Seems that – upon reflection – he was all shook up by machinations at and being fired from the company he led for 3 years. It all came to a head when they took his keys away from the executive washroom and simultaneously fired the mushroom he’d spent a year grooming to take over his CEO role. Perhaps the other two Board roles vaporized at the time were ‘freebies’.
By the time the Board had caught up with the dumpster-fire Fowler had made of the outfit, really, they were in distress. The assets, the ‘investments’. The everything. The Board should have done it 6 months earlier in hindsight.
Anyhow, all is now sparkle and shine, a legacy figure repositioning and continuing their education (likely funded by his severance package), and becoming so much more now than they were before. Perhaps it’s an effort at image management if there is self-awareness (if it’s blind and dumb lack of awareness, it’s not. That’d mean he’s simply a moron).
Wow Molly, you’re so harsh. What have you got against the guy?
Nothing. I’m a financial analyst who every single day tries to present impartial thoughts and reflections upon the Canadian legal cannabis sector.
A company that wasn’t transparent about the sales ratios of wholesale to retail. Of a bloated C-Suite that pulled more than $53MM out of the company in 24 months. Of self-dealing in the UK, of acquisitions (BlissCo/Truverra) that were deemed worthless within months of their execution. Of a rudderless short-attention span ‘shiny-squirrel’ capital deployment that led the Board with no option other than to scorch the earth and spend money to find a professional (any professional) who would be willing to try and clean up the shit-show that Fowler left behind.
It’s fitting that his Twitter profile picture is of Wiz Khalifa. The rapper whose pants Fowler dropped $10MM of other peoples’ money into to get that photo. I’d guess it was one of the high points of Fowler’s life. <That sounds nasty, but really, kids will be kids. No need to sugar coat it>
After seeing what GoBlue and I have documented, Fowler has proven to me he shouldn’t be trusted with a roll of dimes.
Since being punted, Fowler’s played around with being a cannabis sector head-hunter; has peddled himself as a consultant; attempted to become a wholesale cannabis broker; and now, is apparently loving the next ‘adventure’ in his life. Cool. Go get ’em Tiger.
The smouldering pile of utter failure he put together – and the sea change that saw his removal from it – is the only real notable thing I can think of about Supreme. Fowler treated the outfit like a loot-box, without ever seeming to think that at some point, it should actually become a company someday.
The more ass-ends we see of these lightweights the better. Fowler might be Mr. Nice and super-cool-dude-I’d-love-to smoke-one-with kinda person. Whatever. He could have been that. Instead chose to run the track, and pissed away $180MM in shareholder value while holding a 3″ gold neck spinner saying ‘yo-yo’ to any and everyone around him.
There will always be the ‘dank-nug’ and ‘sticky-icky’ companies out there that will love and hope to grab the guy and the image. But – it’s my utter and honest belief – there isn’t a serious company anywhere that’ll pick him up, or, give him any kind of signing authority.
I don’t wish him poorly, but I do say ‘good riddance’. This sector is young and evolving. The last thing it needs is a bag-seller from another time pretending they know formal commerce.
There’s still a few left to come.
The preceding is the opinion of the author, and is in no way intended to be a recommendation to buy or sell any security or derivative. The author holds no position in $FIRE.
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