Our friendship formed over a mutual passion for drawing and an amazement over Don Blue's legendary video game Dragon Slayer. Hey, you may not think it's a great game now, but in the early 80s, this thing was a jaw dropper so much so that a second monitor had to be put on top of the machine so that the surrounding crowd could see what was happening. So take that whipper snappers. I think I'm supposed to say stuff like whippersnappers. At my age
Poker Man
@RealPokerMan · 0:57
Joe. What's that? Yeah, man. If I would have had a friend like Evan Martyr back then, I would have definitely traded up whatever I was doing it for anticipated. I would have fully supported him. I'm looking for friends like that now, man. Joe, you are definitely cool now. And not because of Evan Martyr, because of the Dragon Slayer ran. That was my s***. Back in the day it was in the corner store
Evan Marder
@EvanMatrix · 5:03
But on top of that now, I don't run matrix anymore. I actually left Matrix, which was my baby. But I left Matrix in the end of 2018, and I had started my own consulting company, and I was working in a big project in Oklahoma, but then eventually decided I really didn't want to be out in Oklahoma. They wanted me out there full time, and I just didn't want to do that. I wanted to still maintain a presence in Las Vegas
Evan Marder
@EvanMatrix · 1:41
Coat had hit. So we had just hit this really nice slide going upwards and then coveted hit, and that knocked us back down to Earth really quick. But now again, we've taken off again. And now we're staying consistent. And I hope to just grow this brand nationally and take this everywhere. The really cool thing about what I'm doing with Fleur is that this grow is a completely 100% organic indoor grow
Evan Marder
@EvanMatrix · 4:58
I did a lot of leg work just to get to that point. I mean, man insane amount of legwork. Plus, I had basically quit my job and was living off my life savings. It was a very scary time in my life, but also exciting, because I had landed the investment team, I felt that I was going to move forward with this dream of mine. And fortunately, I did
Evan Marder
@EvanMatrix · 4:53
So like I said, we were about to run out of money for the rent of the building. And we finally closed our deal in June 2015. That's when the partners all signed an operation rating agreement, and we all agreed to invest millions of dollars into this company. And that's when the millions of dollars came into the bank account, which was pretty cool. And then we finally got started on our construction project, probably in probably July of 2015
Evan Marder
@EvanMatrix · 4:31
So then so November 2016, like I said, recreational marijuana passed in the state of Nevada. And God, leading up to that, I didn't even get into all that. But the push to push that over and get that passed was very intense. Hold on a second. Okay. Yeah, that was very intense. But fortunately, we passed it in the state, and they fast tracked the program, and we started it in July of 2017. So what is that, Mike?
Average Joe
@AverageJoe · 1:35
Nothing to show for it except a f****** great time. That's what I remember about it. So I had to take us on a little walk there down memory Lane. And you know, it's funny. You play that game today, and you realize all you were actually doing was choosing a menu on essentially a DVD. It was a laser disk back then, but you weren't actually playing anything. Am I making the right menu choice right now?
Evan Marder
@EvanMatrix · 1:40
I remember that very, very well. And some corrections need to be made to that story and some additions, too. So it was actually $50. I had gotten it from my bar mitzvah, so that was almost like sacred money to my parents. And here's what we did, though. I don't think my parents knew that I was going to the Granite Run mall with you and your mom. I was kind of hiding that, and they thought we were just out playing somewhere
Average Joe
@AverageJoe · 1:58
I know we talk talked about how amazing this whole situation has been, but I don't think I ever asked you about the feeling of this passion of yours, this thing that was illegal for so long, becoming legalized and actually becoming a viable career that you could pursue out in the open. No more hiding what you were doing. Not that you ever really did. I got to be honest with everybody here. I don't think you ever hit it, but yeah, what was that feeling like?
Average Joe
@AverageJoe · 0:53
Do you even battle? I mean, aren't you supposed to be Mike all happy? You're Mike, all mellowed out and stuff. Nobody's battling. I don't think we'll see, though. I mean, this could get ugly, but at any rate, Evan Serratine, Serratine, me, Evan, you guys should be, like, besties, like, build a clubhouse here on swell
Sarah Jean
@SarahJean · 0:13
Yeah, we don't battle in cannabis. Evan will just burn one together. That's all we do. We're lovers, not fighters in the cannabis industry. Burn one down together, bro
Poker Man
@RealPokerMan · 0:52
Hey, Sarah, I want to say that you look very, very happy on your profile pic. You look like I do right now. I've been down a slope of where anybody. But as far as you guys, I count on you guys going to war with each other because it's how I'm going to get the better price. I would go to Evan and say, hey, man
Deborah Pardes
@DBPardes · 0:18
Hey, Joe, thanks for flipping us all together into one happy soupy mess here. It's fantastic. Thank you. I'm going to put the link of Sarah Jeans interview here, so, Evan, please feel free to hop over. Lots of swell going on here. It's wonderful
Evan Marder
@EvanMatrix · 4:02
And so we had to remove all of the soil out of those 30 gallon pots, get it into these big 16 by four foot by 24 inch beds and 20 foot by four foot by 24 inch beds. And they're awesome and massive. I just posted them on my Instagram just recently in the story. So if you want to see what I'm talking about, head on over to my Instagram, Evan Matrix. Mmj
Evan Marder
@EvanMatrix · 4:56
And so there being around the plants every day for me is very thrilling, and it's awesome. But moving back to the feelings of I'm trying to focus on your question. So in the beginning, we got our initial inspection. In fact, we were the first facility in the entire state to pass our initial inspection with no demerits. And I had been working on the strip as a bar manager technically, but I was considered a bartender
Evan Marder
@EvanMatrix · 4:18
And seeing we're building the team and basically the family that I've been able to build in a year at this business has pretty much been a dream come true. So now, if you were to ask me how it feels now, I would say it's the thrill of my life. But it took me. It took me over five years to get here. So it's come with a lot of challenges. And early on, like I said, it was just terrifying
phil spade
@Phil · 4:57
I see that they lost the pro, the Bowl Riding Championship, which I know was a huge week for Las Vegas and a huge blow to the city of Las Vegas. I know that companies like MGM, we're really kind of on conventions and trade shows and especially with an international audience. And I think those are pretty much gone for the foreseeable time future and just wondering how you see the future of Las Vegas is, how challenging is it and how does it affect your business?
Howie Rubin
@Howie · 3:35
In its time, it was a huge, coin operated success by virtue of the fact, how many cabinets we actually built. My initial release was 6000 cabinets, for which we had to go out and source the billing material before the game was ready. So we committed Columbia Picture dollars to a bill of materials that would have never been used had the game been a failure. So it was just a tremendous, tremendous effort. And it was very successful
Average Joe
@AverageJoe · 1:04
I believe that's Gottlieb right. That's who did Mach Three, so. Yeah, no, thank you for participating in that time period, for creating these things that now serve as a patchwork in the quilt of my life. And definitely Evans and a whole h*** of a lot of other people, too. Awesome. I'd like to hear more stories about your time back then
Howie Rubin
@Howie · 3:06
Hi average choke. Yeah, you're right. It was Degottlebing company in 19, 18 81. Degotlibing Company was a pinball manufacturing company owned by Columbia Pictures. They had never entered into the video games business and wanted to do so. I was working for Atari at the time, and I was head hunted away by Columbia Pictures. Hired by Columbia Pictures to set up a video games division
Howie Rubin
@Howie · 1:44
They had to invent. They had to create their own ways of doing things, their own computer skill sets. And it was just awesome be part of it. I'm not very technical. I've never cranked code, but I certainly have met with the people who have done that. And it was just a gas
Mike Gallagher
@ForzaPilot · 0:51
Go out and drink for the rest of the night because we were young and we could still do that. But you just said, bases loaded. And boy, all of a sudden thought of that game in years. All of a sudden, that memory of how we turned it into a drinking game immediately popped in my head. It was an awesome game, or at least east. I think it was. So you were part of my College experience. So thanks, man
Mike Gallagher
@ForzaPilot · 0:52
Oh, and Evan, I gotta say, man, right on for your persistence, having been there when you grew that first bit of weed all those years ago, in high school, up until now, and hearing about a lot of the things that you talked about in here, I had heard before
Average Joe
@AverageJoe · 1:41
That's a really cool journey you've been on. Howie Cuber was one of my favorite games. I love the look of the machine. You know, the colors on the machine, the design of the character. I loved playing the game, and I was terrible at the game, but it didn't stop me from continually pumping quarters into it and being terrible. And I've actually built a multi arcade machine, emulator
Howie Rubin
@Howie · 4:15
The game probably could have been a much better game that I've done with regard to. Missile Command. Missile Command was one of the games that I sold at Atari. It was probably my first or second or third favorite game in the games that I sold. The three games that I really loved were Breakout. I loved Missile Command and I loved the game called Sit Down Night Driver, which was based on a driving game on other California Highway. So those were my three favorite games
Evan Marder
@EvanMatrix · 5:00
So you were correct in 2012, as a person that was trying to get into this industry in 2012, you were taking much more of a risk in States outside of Nevada. Now, why I felt so strongly about Nevada and why I was able to attract such great investors investment team was because Nevada was one of the first States that was actually going to be regulated by the state. And who does privilege licensing better than Nevada?
Evan Marder
@EvanMatrix · 5:00
So that just makes me think either you have a lot of people investing in homes out here, or you have a lot of people retiring out here. As far as how it's going to affect our business. That's a great question
Evan Marder
@EvanMatrix · 2:15
That was the case with most games back then, until I think Colekovision got closer, not totally there. But remember Colecovision having the best graphics of anything. I remember also that Joe got it before me, and I was pretty p***** off about that back then because I was always the kid, even though I grew up low, middle class, just like Joe. But I was always the kid amongst my friends. That was the first one to have
Evan Marder
@EvanMatrix · 2:19
Believe it or not, we were expecting to see a bit of a hit because no stimulus checks went out and so far that really hasn't been much of an issue either. So you know, I think we have a lot of local support in Las Vegas. I think that long term. I think we should be okay. I think obviously the tourist market is definitely going to suffer and the dispensaries that were set up for tourists are going to suffer. Or maybe I shouldn't say suffer
Evan Marder
@EvanMatrix · 1:46
And even on the easy level, it's hard. It's a hard game. It was always hard. And to think back that I actually spent the money and spent the time to finish that d*** game. Oh, my God. The hours that Joe and I and thousands and thousands of other kids, our agents, time spent playing that game put a beat, I guess, looking at your phone all day, which is what we do now. Life is funny like that
Evan Marder
@EvanMatrix · 1:00
But yeah, we had a whole game and that we wanted to sell to a guy like you or Don Blue. And obviously that never panned out. But if you want to take us up on it, I'm sure Joe could scrounge up the old drawings in the storyboard and we could get this going, man. Maybe this was a serendipitous moment. Thanks
Average Joe
@AverageJoe · 1:23
First, we had Cubert on Kalikovision Cuz. Kalikovision was the most badass home system. There was the closest you got to arcadequality graphics. And when I say closest assistant, I'm being very generous, but it still was miles better than in television or Atari. Secondly, I had not forgotten The Lost World of Godzilla, just trying to not mention it. I don't think I've ever been as excited to receive a rejection letter as I was from Don Blue Studios. That was fantastic
Average Joe
@AverageJoe · 1:43
But yeah, that's always been a massive problem when you build these cabinets at home because you had your track balls and spinners and all the different things that made the game really accurate. And that's not something unless you want to spend a tremendous amount of money and have a machine the size of a wall unit entertainment center with the whole joystick panel, every kind of button configuration
phil spade
@Phil · 4:01
And if anyone ever takes a road trip with me and we drive through corn country, I'm abysmal to be with because I sit there and point out which corn is dry, what corn was planted too late, and I'm fascinated by just farming. I love it. And it sounds to me like you've put a lot of heart and soul into the farming aspect of this. And I was wondering if you could talk a little bit about what are the variables when you're growing this?
phil spade
@Phil · 2:16
I too loved Cubert, and I also was terrible at the game. Just terrible. At least once every game, I jump off the side to cries of I didn't do that, blaming the joystick, blaming anything except my inability to capture the 3D aspects of the game. And I just didn't play the game well. I did enjoy watching somebody that played the game well. I did actually enjoy watching them play. And I can't say that about every game
Average Joe
@AverageJoe · 1:52
Yeah, Phil, you know, this is my huge problem with the arcade oneUP cabinets. I mean, they look fantastic. The prices are completely reasonable for, you know, what looks like a really faithful replication of other other original machine on a smaller scale. But, for instance, like my buddy bought the Pacman Countercade and they're using a cheap, like sandwich eight way joystick. They're like a couple of Bucks. And that joystick makes all the difference in the world playing that game
Howie Rubin
@Howie · 5:00
They couldn't save money or time or any effort in developing the games, which is something that is done today where the development companies can Port to all other different platforms if it's your assets. So that wasn't available. Pac Man is a very interesting discussion, and I'm laughing about it. Pacman was originally developed by Namco in Japan and they licensed the game to Bali in the United States. Bali, the original name of the game in Japan was put out as Puck. Man
Howie Rubin
@Howie · 4:07
While we're talking about MIT, I think it's relatively not really noted. But Atari Nolan Bushnell is giving credit for being the founder of other video games industry when in fact, the first video games were designed at MIT. In the MIT labs, there was a patent that they had issued. And I know that there were fights and issues about the patents and royalties
Average Joe
@AverageJoe · 3:29
And so then Atari kind of essentially lifted his idea, and I guess carried it on with the story you were telling so all pretty interesting stuff. It sounds like you had a fantastic ride there. And I'm realizing if you like to smoke weed and play like Cuba and video games, this is the greatest well, probably that's ever happened
Evan Marder
@EvanMatrix · 4:54
And frankly, the majority of land raised seeds you do find they're low testers, and they don't sell well in a commercial market. It's very funny in that aspect. In the black market, everything has always been done by sight, smell, taste. And that was basically it. When you go buy a bag, just look at it, smell it. It's good. Okay. Cool. Now with other legal market people walking with dispensary, they look at all this bud
Evan Marder
@EvanMatrix · 5:00
And that's actually something where we have a leg up on our competition because a lot of people don't have the room to do it. You don't want to take up space in your facility for FeNO hunting. You want every square foot of your facility to be producing. So that leads me into what you asked me about farming. And, yes, it's 100% indoor. So what I do is what I run is a 30,000 square foot indoor facility
Evan Marder
@EvanMatrix · 3:14
In this case, it was Promix HP, which looks like soil to anyone else, but it's actually not soil. It's mainly peat Moss, perlite and some other mixtures in there. So that was just a straight hydroponic row using fertilizer, drip irrigation, bottled nutrients, and that kind of thing. What I'm doing now is organic using a method called Korean Natural farming. And what that is is basically everything that the plant produces
Evan Marder
@EvanMatrix · 2:35
So that's a massive, massive growth and it is wide open and huge. That definitely presents challenges in itself, especially if you're growing hydroponically using fertilizers and pesticides and fungicides. I would never do that type of grow. There's a myriad of issues that comes along with that type of grow, and I'm sure they're running into them, and I could talk a lot about that too. So anyway, I just wanted to throw that out. What the perfect cultivation facility would be
phil spade
@Phil · 3:05
And I'm wondering, how do the margins differ if you were going to farm outside, say, like they do in California, as opposed to all the bills that you have on electric, it just seems like margins would come into play at some point now, especially with 70% taxes. So what kind of decision do you make versus product and profitability? I get the sense that you are just way too proud of your product to cut corners, because that really doesn't help anybody in the meantime