Oh, how I mocked Pharmacan back in the day. An outfit that spent $50 million to become a holding company of minor pieces of weed growers, only to boast a then market cap of $10 million at the end of it all, MJN.V was a ticker that resembled everything I disagreed with in business.

There was the constant feuding with the companies they had a stake in, the lack of financial help moving those companies forward, an a CEO who, frankly, had little concern for marketing to investors. It all amounted to an easy to ignore deal that was usually bleeding at the eyeballs.

Well, I wasn’t the only one unhappy. In fact, one investor stepped up and took the wheel in an effort to remake Pharmacan, now Cronos Group, into something that he thought would do better.

And boy howdy, did he nail it.

I’ve given Cronos Group no column inches over the past year, but it’s warranted them, as it’s built from that all-time $10 million low into a $400m+ behemoth in just over a year.

In this Equity.Guru podcast, I talk to the guys who’ve been giving MJN.V the big shove, about all the assets they’ve acquired, about how Germany could make them a global player, and learn that their entrepreneur mindset stretches pretty far – right down to renting a house for the execs to work and live out of, like an Animal House without the blackout drinking.

Respect to the Cronos crew. This is how you do it.

— Chris Parry

FULL DISCLOSURE: Cronos has no commercial relationship with Equity.Guru. We just dig the story, and we should have told it a long time ago.