Jim Cacioppo cut his teeth in the financial world in the early 1990s with investment bank Wasserstein Perella. The bank was co-founded by Bruce Wasserstein, the hostile takeover pioneer portrayed in Barbarians at the Gate, the book about his 31 billion dollar takeover bid for RJR Nabisco. Cacioppo, after working at some of New York’s most storied hedge funds, broke into the cannabis industry in 2018, and co-founded Jushi Holdings, a growing MSO. He brought a "buy big" strategy with him into cannabis, spending tens of millions of dollars on licenses and acquisitions in states like Illinois and Virginia. In this episode of Seed to CEO, Cacioppo will share: How his finance experience helped him in cannabis How to identify lucrative acquisition opportunities in an ever-changing economic environment How to pick markets for new launches How expand and scale Who is Jim Cacioppo? Jim Cacioppo is the CEO, Chairman and Founder of Jushi, one of the biggest MSOs in the nation. Before breaking into cannabis in 2018, Cacioppo spent more than 20 years with some of the most successful hedge funds in finance. Cacioppo is also Co-Founder and Managing Partner of One East Partners, and previously served as President and Co-Portfolio Manager of Sandell Asset Management and Head of Distressed Debt for Halcyon Management, a global investment firm with over US$9 billion in assets. Cacioppo earned his BA from Colgate University and his MBA from Harvard University.