'I Dealt With Gangsters, Shakedowns, Loan Sharks And Government Corruption,' Says Entrepreneur Who Built The First Cannabis Unicorn

Get ready to dive into the world of cannabis entrepreneurship as Bungalow Media + Entertainment along with writer and producer Zach Goldbaum undertake a three-part series about Adam Bierman, the mastermind behind MedMen Enterprises Inc, the first American cannabis unicorn.

The series is based on Bierman’s upcoming tell-all book, “Weed Empire: How I Battled Gangsters, Investment Banks, and the Department of Justice to Build the Cannabis Industry in America," scheduled to be released in April 2025.

“It’s an amazing origin story about one man’s fight against the establishment," said Robert Friedman, CEO of Bungalow Media + Entertainment. "Adam takes us on an amazing, tell-all journey of the new Wild West of hubris and greed while navigating a treacherous world, hoping to attract suburban moms, dads, and stoners alike.”

Together with Andrew Modlin, Bierman founded MedMen in 2010. What started out as a single store in California, "skyrocketed off the technical graphs, becoming the first mainstream cannabis company in the world to hit every screen in America.," as reported Benzinga's Nicolás Jose Rodriguez earlier.

Read Also: Adam Bierman, Co-founder Of American’s First Cannabis Unicorn, Teams Up with Female-led Bombatta Seeking To Transform The Marijuana Landscape

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Bierman took MedMen public in 2018, quickly propelling the company to a remarkable $2 billion valuation. However, after the company's 2018 bid to acquire PharmaCann in a $682 million all-stock deal was not fulfilled, Bierman parted ways with MedMen in 2020.

After years of legal hurdles, Bierman won a $3.1 million arbitration settlement from MedMen in 2023.

"We were the first cannabis unicorn, the first billion-dollar valuation in history in the US, first private equity fund to raise money to deploy into plant-touching businesses, I think we were the first nationally union-friendly cannabis business, raised a lot of money, bought a lot of assets, built a lot of stores, pissed a lot of people off, made a lot of mistakes, learned a lot of lessons, and along the way had that ‘north star' of making the world a better place through access to legal regulated cannabis. We were doing things for the first time (…) and inevitably means you are pissing people off," Bierman told Javier Hasse and Elliot Lane during a 2022 Benzinga Cannabis Insider episode.

Now, the former MedMen CEO says he wants to tell the world "what it took to bring weed to Main Street America.”

“Living at the intersection of criminality, politics, finance and pop culture; I dealt with gangsters, shakedowns, loan sharks and government corruption at the highest level," Bierman said in a press release on Thursday. "It’s a dynamic story and the Bungalow team’s commitment to sharing the account with the world has been invigorating.”

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• Podcast: Former CEO Of The First Cannabis Unicorn Spills Industry Secrets, Shares Insights On Revolutionizing The Space