Jamen Shively's American Dream is to Create the Starbucks of Marijuana

It’s the American dream, right?

Start your own company, be your own boss, make millions, and find yourself as the interview of choice on every financial news network. One ex-Microsoft MSFT employee is following his dream - but wait until you hear it!

Cannibis, “mary jane”, magic smoke, cannabis; yes, Jamen Shively, a former Microsoft corporate strategy manager, wants to get into the business of pot. His dream? To become the leading distributor of recreational and medical cannabis worldwide. He wants to be the Starbucks SBUX of marijuana.

He’s currently looking for $10 million in seed money to fund his company, Diego Pellicer, after his hemp-producing great grandfather.

He even has a heavy hitter behind him. At a news conference in Seattle, Shively announced his plans with Vicente Fox next to him. Don’t know the name? He’s the former president of Mexico. He was there to show his support for the venture along with reiterating his view that marijuana should be legalized.

Fox said, "What a difference it makes to have Jamen here sitting at my side instead of [drug kingpin] Chapo Guzman.”

Speaking of drug kingpin, let’s lay out a few glaring issues with such a venture. First, although Marijuana is $142 billion per year business, only two states have legalized it and 18 allow it for medical use.

Microsoft’s competitors are companies like Apple AAPL and Google GOOG. While the competition between them can be cut-throat, Shively’s competition will be, quite literally, cut-throat.

He wants to source his cannabis from Mexico—the heart of drug cartel country where the way to get rid of competition is to kill off rival cartels and wage war with Mexican police forces to the point where the government runs scared.

And let’s not forget local gangs, international organized crime, and, in what seems ironically insignificant, government agencies at all levels.

One of the rules of entrepreneurship is to do something that others don’t want to do for themselves. It’s safe to say that this venture meets that criteria.  

As for the chances of this making him a guest on CNBC: very high. As for the chances of him turning this into the next Starbucks: low. As for him living to retirement age as he takes on Mexican drug cartels: that’s too macabre to judge, but maybe there are better battles to fight.

Disclosure: As of the time of this writing, Tim Parker was long Apple and wondering what this guy is thinking.