Delic: Advancing Psychedelics Education With Help From The Public Markets

Delic Holdings Inc. DELC, an e-commerce company focused on the nascent psychedelics industry, recently went public on the Canadian Securities Exchange.

In mid-November, the Vancouver-based company completed a reverse take-over with Molystar Resources Inc.

Most companies in the psychedelics space focus on drug development or ancillary services to the forthcoming industry of psychedelic therapy. But Delic has a unique approach.

It is the only public company in the psychedelics space — so far — to concentrate on media and live events.

Delic CEO Jackee Stang sat down with Benzinga to give us an overview of the company.

A Focus On Psychedelic Education

“We started Delic because it was very clear at the time that there wasn't an outlet for a mainstream audience to be introduced to psychedelics, to learn about the substances, to communicate to each other and join a community involving psychedelics, and so Delic was our answer to that problem,” says Stang.

The idea to create the company came to Stang and her husband, Matt, after they attended Burning Man in 2018. The two cannabis media veterans envisioned an umbrella platform to cater to the psychedelics industry, drawing from more than two decades of joint experience working for cannabis media giant High Times.

A vast personal journey in and around psychedelic culture fueled the project as well.

“It's a culture that he and I grew up in," she says. "And it's a very significant part of our lives. It has helped me, especially through my PTSD. Certain substances like ketamine have done more for me in a couple of years of treatment than 20 years of traditional psychotherapy did. And so this is a passion project for us."

The platform, which she has dubbed "The Goop of psychedelics," became a place where the duo could use their business acumen and financial resources to find the best ideas in need of nurturing and scalability. 

This incubation process, Stang says, is likely to bring diversification to the space.

After receiving $850,000 in seed funding from friends and family, the company went on to raise ‎more than $3.4 million ‎through a private placement offering that led to its IPO at the CSE.

Why an IPO?

There are several strategies for a startup to finance seed operations. But Stang says that she can't think of a better vehicle within the capitalist system than a public offering, given that the company’s mission is to mainstream the psychedelics conversation and give access to as many people as possible.

However, small-cap investors who participated in the cannabis industry can be somewhat cautious of venture IPOs.

In the cannabis industry, as legalization measures started to take place and investor expectations grew in intensity, a notorious strategy called “pump-and-dump” began to arise in certain circles. With this strategy, some companies took advantage of investor enthusiasm to inflate the price of their stock and cash in by selling the rip.

As the psychedelics industry becomes more involved in the stocks market, a fear of the same type of scheme arises within investor circles.

Given the unorthodox nature of The Delic’s business plan within the psychedelics industry, Stang feels the need to clarify the company’s mission within a post-cannabis-bubble context.

“No one involved in the core team -for lack of a better way of saying it- needs the money. We are all doing this because we believe in our ability to help push the agenda forward towards the end of the Drug War and towards legalization,” Stang adds.

The Delic Platform

The Delic branches out into three main subsidiaries: Reality Sandwich, Meet Delic and The Delic.com.

“Reality Sandwich is a legacy brand that's been around since 2012. We've got hundreds of thousands of unique viewers coming every month to learn for free about psychedelic wellness,” Stang told Benzinga.

Reality Sandwich is the company’s educational arm, and Meet Delic is a psychedelic wellness summit.

The brand has offered several online live events during the coronavirus pandemic. An in-person event is scheduled for May 2021 in Los Angeles. 

“Meet Delic is the first ever psychedelic wellness live experience," she adds. "Of course the live portion had to be postponed until next year because of covid.”

The event will feature two days of education around psychedelic culture, mental health, therapy integration, human performance and psychedelic medicine, featuring a lineup of experts, scientists, celebrities, comedians and thought leaders.

“Our mission here is to bring people across the aisle from health and wellness, from science, from psychedelics, and then allow the audience to have fun while learning,” says Stang.

Lastly, TheDelic.com functions as an online “find your experience” platform, where users can log on to find ketamine clinics and psilocybin retreats near them.

Stang anticipated that the company will announce a series of new deals and partnerships that would take The Delic beyond the field of media and live events.

Photo by Teemu Paananen Nick Fewings on Unsplash