Green Flower Media Financial Model

• "Trusted Cannabis Education" brand, positioned as "the Lynda.com of cannabis"
• Three product lines:

1. Subscription / GFTV - 1,500+ hours of expert-led streaming video; 185,000 free members, 4,000+ paying members; web-only as of deck date, moving to single subscription model in 2019 with free trial; vision to launch on all major streaming platforms
2. Academy (Certificate Programs) - industry-facing certifications (Cannabis Fundamentals, Cultivation, Patient Care, Business, Compliance & Regulations, Extraction, CBD, Retail Compliance); LMS/e-commerce integrated; CME & CLE accreditation planned 2019; enterprise B2B sales channel (GTI, Kiva, Canna Advisors cited)
3. Colleges & Universities - licensing/partnership channel; 5,400+ US schools, <10 currently offer cannabis courses; targeting continuing education programs

• Content moat: 700+ experts under contract, 1,500+ hours produced, custom-built publishing & LMS technology, 10,000 sq ft production studio in Ventura, CA
• 200,000+ total database; 750+ affiliates

• US cannabis industry: $6.7B (current) → $22.7B in 5 years
• Global cannabis consumers: 192M (current) → 300M in 5 years
• US cannabis jobs: 150,000 → 1.1M by 2025
• Cannabis businesses: 40,000 → 115,000 in 5 years
• US cannabis patients: 2.2M → 3.5M in 5 years
• Addressable school market: 5,400+ US schools, 22,000+ worldwide
• No explicit SAM/SOM breakdown provided.

Three distinct streams (visible from financial table row labels on slide 16, though specific numbers unreadable due to image blur):

1. Academy (B2C & B2B) - per-certificate / per-seat sales; enterprise volume deals (e.g. GTI outsourcing entire training function)
2. Higher Ed - licensing/revenue-share with colleges and universities for continuing education programs
3. Subscriptions - recurring consumer subscription to streaming library; currently freemium (185K free / 4K+ paid); transitioning to unified paid subscription with free trial in 2019

Pricing not stated in deck for any tier.

• Launched: 2015
• Total email/database: 200,000+; separate figure of 185,000 free streaming members
• Paying subscription members: 4,000+
• Content library: 1,500+ hours
• Expert contributors under contract: 700+
• Affiliate network: 750+
• Employees: 25
• Academy: "thousands of students" enrolled in launched programs
• Enterprise clients: GTI, Kiva Confections, Canna Advisors (qualitative, no revenue figures disclosed)
• Revenue projections chart on slide 16 shows 3-year hockey-stick (2019–2021), reaching approximately $35–40M by 2021 - but table figures are unreadable due to image blur; treat as directional only

• Self-described "first mover in cannabis education" (launched 2015)
• Moat claims: brand trust, 700+ experts under contract, 1,500+ hours proprietary content, custom LMS/publishing tech, large email database, 750+ affiliate network
• Press positioning: Benzinga calls it "the leader in cannabis education"; TechRepublic "the Lynda.com of cannabis"
• No direct competitors named or analysed.

Team (25 employees total):

• Max Simon, CEO & Co-Founder - built Deepak Chopra's digital/products business; founder of Big Vision Business
• Stephanie Graziano, COO & Co-Founder - 33 years entertainment industry (Fox Kids, DreamWorks, Marvel); content production company exit
• Gage Bruce, Exec. Creative Director / CTO - 20+ years digital/Fortune 100 (Walmart, Dell, Under Armour)
• Joe Barnard, Academy Director - 100s of online courses for Higher Ed (McGraw Hill, Pearson, Cengage); Masters in Instructional Design Technology

Funding ask: $20M Series A

Use of funds:

• Increase headcount from 25 to 75
• Produce content for Certificates, Higher Ed, and GFTV streaming
• Marketing and sales development
• Customize Certificates for Canada, Latin America
• Acquire additional production equipment
• General corporate purposes

• Archetype + why: Multi-stream EdTech / Media P&L with subscription ARR layer. The business has three structurally different revenue streams (recurring SaaS-like subscription, transactional B2C certificate sales, and B2B institutional licensing), each with different growth drivers and margin profiles. Model should be built as a consolidated P&L with separate revenue build-ups per stream, then rolled up. This is closest to a hybrid subscription + transactional EdTech model (think Coursera / Udemy / Lynda).

• Forecast horizon & granularity: Monthly for Year 1 (2019), quarterly for Years 2–3 (2020–2021), matching the 3-year projection window shown in the deck. Annual summary outputs.

• Key drivers & assumptions:

*Subscription (GFTV)*

• Starting free members: 185,000
• Starting paid members: 4,000
• Free-to-paid conversion rate: 3–5% annually; rationale: typical freemium EdTech conversion
• Monthly new free member additions: driven by affiliate network (750+ affiliates) and streaming platform expansion
• Monthly subscription price: ~$20/month or ~$99/year; rationale: comparable cannabis/wellness streaming platforms; deck does not disclose
• Churn rate: 5–8% monthly (freemium to paid model, early-stage retention unproven)

*Academy (B2C Certificate)*

• Certificate ASP: $200–$500 per program; rationale: comparable online certificate programs
• Current student count: "thousands"; use 2,000–5,000 as range
• New certificate launches in 2019: 5 programs
• Enterprise deal ASP and volume:; rationale: no data in deck; assume bulk per-seat pricing

*Higher Ed / University*

• License fee per school:; rationale: not in deck; comparable CE program licenses ~$10K–$50K/year per institution
• Number of partnership schools by year-end:; ramp from 0 to ~10–30 schools over 3 years

*Cost structure*

• Headcount growth: 25 → 75; assume linear ramp over 18–24 months
• Content production COGS: high in Year 1 (pre-production of 5+ new certificate programs + GFTV content); declines as % of revenue as library scales
• Studio OpEx: fixed; 10,000 sq ft Ventura, CA facility
• Marketing: significant investment given $20M raise for marketing/sales development
• Expert contractor costs: 700+ experts under contract; variable per production project

*EBITDA*

• Revenue chart suggests ~$35–40M by 2021
• EBITDA margin: negative in 2019 (investment year), approaching breakeven or modestly positive by 2021 at scale; EBITDA % visible on slide 16 but illegible

• Scenarios (Base / Bull / Bear):
• Flex variables: paid subscriber conversion rate; number of university partnerships signed; enterprise B2B deal velocity; streaming platform expansion timeline (Netflix/Amazon/Hulu distribution)
• Bull: GFTV lands on 2+ major platforms (2020), university partnerships scale to 50+ schools, enterprise deals accelerate
• Bear: regulatory headwinds slow cannabis normalisation; GFTV platform rejection; low consumer willingness to pay for cannabis education; high churn

• Required sheets / outputs:

1. Assumptions dashboard (all drivers in one place)
2. Subscription revenue build (cohort-based: free members, paid conversion, churn, ARPU)
3. Academy revenue build (certificates × ASP, B2B enterprise volume)
4. Higher Ed revenue build (schools × license fee)
5. Consolidated P&L (Revenue, COGS, Gross Profit, OpEx by function: Content Production, Marketing, G&A, Tech)
6. Headcount plan (25 → 75, by department)
7. Cash flow & runway (pre-funding vs. post-$20M raise)
8. Summary outputs: ARR, total revenue, gross margin %, EBITDA, cash balance