 Welcome to the Rich TV Live podcast, I am your host Richard D'Souza, and today we are going to be speaking with the VP of Corporate Finance of Safe Supply Streaming Corp, Setti Coscarella, and the new president of Safe Supply, Ronan Levy. I also want to bring your attention to the symbol of Safe Supply Streaming Corp on the Canadian Securities Exchange SPLY. Hi, how's everybody doing today? I'm your host Richard D'Souza here on the Rich TV Live podcast with my very special guests, the new president of Safe Supply Streaming Corp, Ronan Levy, and VP of Corporate Development for Safe Supply Streaming Corp, Setti Coscarella. How are you gentlemen doing today? Amazing. How are you? I'm doing fantastic. I'm very excited to have you guys back on the show, and Ronan, you were originally an advisor to the company as a board member, but now you have been appointed as the president. Can you tell us why you have made this move to take on a much larger role and active role with the company? Absolutely. I mean, when I started advising the company, the understanding of the exploration was going to be around a deeper engagement, but it was a place in time and exploration that just needed to go through. We had to go through together to make sure that it was a good fit that my skill set would serve Safe Supply's mission, and that what Safe Supply was trying to achieve was aligned with my values, my ethics, and we saw an opportunity together after spending a few months together working pretty closely with this guy to my right on my screen. Maybe you're left on your screen, I'm not sure. It became pretty clear that there was a lot of great work we could do together that we could have a lot of impact, that we could create some great opportunities, that we could build and invest in some incredible businesses to leave our mark in the world and start something exciting. So it was an easy decision to move from an advisor to president as soon as the opportunity made sense. Now everyone is excited to hear about the move the company is making to help generate revenue streams. Can you tell us the potential revenue stream for testing strips? Sure, so do you want to take that one? Sure. So look, Safe Supply effectively works like a VC. So we make early stage investments in companies that we think have an ability to outperform anyone else in their category. The reason we started in this particular space is because we think that it's this huge blue ocean. There's an enormous societal need for stuff like this and nobody really doing it in a, let's call it, corporatized and professional way. So we wanted to go and be the beacon of that for this versioning industry. And we do think that there's going to be a huge industry that develops around this. Our first real investment is in safety strips. So, you know, when we were having these discussions initially with political leaders, law enforcement professionals and trying to understand where the problems were and subsequent, like when you understand where the problem is, and you can understand what the solution is, right? A lot of times you get people that just try to jerry rig a solution to a problem that doesn't exist. Like we went out and actually talked to people first and said, look, here's what we're thinking of doing. Do you think that this makes sense? And everybody on that side of the spectrum side, 100%, it makes sense. Now, you know, how do we look at deploying capital or resources, time, energy, all of these things in order to create value, ideally for our shareholders? So the first thing we got was there is an extraordinary strain on critical infrastructure, whether it's first responders, police officers, firefighters, hospitals, frontline staff, like it is just inundated with people that are experiencing overdoses because of this tainted drug supply and the fentanyl that comes along with it, the fentanyl, the xylazine, and the under other or tranquilizers that they put in these things. So there was this thought process that, look, if you can create something that becomes this frontline defense so that you can prevent that before it starts, that would be ideal because on one, you're helping to save people's lives. Two, you're also helping to relieve strain on that critical infrastructure so that we can help more people. And, you know, as we were looking at what opportunities presented themselves, this was really one of the ones that both Ronan and I and Bill said, you know what, this makes a ton of sense. Like I think really creating our first investment in a company that helps, you know, stop the problem before it happens, that for us is ideal. And I think also for our investors, it shows, again, these are the types of things that we're looking at. This is how we're going to be operating. We'll go out and make investments in companies that do things like this, right? There's 36 states in the U.S. that have already taken fentanyl testing strips off of the drug paraphernalia list. Like there's been tons of calls between or across provincial politicians as saying, you know, we need to start administering fentanyl testing strips. I saw it from Ontario as well. Now, if you go into Shoppers Drug Mart now in Canada, you can get Narcan for free at the pharmacy, right? They're offering that so that it can combat these overdoses. They're giving it away for free. But because they're giving it away for free, doesn't mean they're buying it for free. Somebody still has to manufacture it, somebody has to distribute it. Like there's costs associated with that. And the government is effectively helping to subsidize that for the benefit of society. We look at this in a very similar way. I would love the day where when you walk into Shoppers Drug Mart or any pharmacy for that matter, anybody can pick up a fentanyl testing strip for free. The government will pay for it. Why? Because it saves lives. You know, when we're looking at what the cost of these sorts of things are, if we could wholesale this for a dollar, a dollar, 50, you're going to spend the dollar 50 to save a life, Rich? Yeah, of course. Like, this is what I mean. So this is the kind of thought process that we look at when we're evaluating these investments. Like anybody that I sort of theory spoken about, you know, what do you think about a company like this or that does this? There isn't a single person that's ever come in so that's a terrible idea. Every single one. I don't care what side of the political spectrum you're on. Every single one. You spend a buck to save a life? I would. So just to amplify one of Seti's comments, you know, it's always great to see a business that not only has retail interests, but also institutional and government interests. And this is certainly one of those things, which is, I liken what we're going to see with fentanyl test strips and drug technologies to test the provenance of supply as being like the condoms of the early 90s, which were at first socially kind of awkward conversation, but then everyone realized that it's just common sense that people aren't going to stop having sex as much as you try and educate them. And the truth is people aren't going to stop using drugs. Like we live in a world where cannabis, psychedelics, cocaine use is at all time highs. Instead of trying to demonize it and stigmatize it, we're shifting to a place where people are starting to say like, okay, this is part of our society. Let's find a way to make it safe and productive and fentanyl test strips are an essential part of that, both from those who are consuming, as well as from the governments who are like, we need to find a way to make sure if this is happening, it's at least being done as safely as possible. So you have demand and interest coming from multiple directions, which makes it a particularly attractive economic investment beyond just the fact that it's going to save lives. Now what markets will the testing strips be sold into start? So we're going to target, obviously, with the leadership of the company, we're going to target initially Canada and the US. So as I mentioned, there's a number of states in the US that have the ability to administer these testing strips because they see this as a public emergency. There's also a number of jurisdictions in Canada that have the ability to administer these test strips. So whether they're going to be sold at retail, whether we do it through e-commerce, whether we do it through wholesale contracts with governments or pharmacies, or any other myriad of commercialization options, I don't think there's going to be any real shortage of opportunity in this particular company just because there's such a dire need for it. Absolutely. And listen, I mean, there's plenty of opportunities as well through universities. Certainly large event promoters have an interest ensuring that people at their events have good times without having any unnecessary attendant risks. There's no shortage of avenues where it makes sense to have access to fentanyl and xylozine test strips available on hand all the time. And so we're exploring. The company with our support is exploring all such avenues. Yeah. And one thing that I want to add to that, I want to make sure that this is clear. This is not in any way an endorsement of drug use. We've never said that from the beginning. I'm not telling people to go off and do drugs and test them before you do it. I'm saying, if you're going to do it anyway, then you should test it before you do it. Ideally, you don't do any drugs. And if you do, then you should probably not do drugs. But if you're going to do them anyway, then for what effectively amounts to, I hate to say this, a cup of coffee a day, you can keep yourself alive. You know, it's just something that I think is absolutely needed because this idea of I'm going to stick my head in the ground and I'm going to tell everybody to just say no. And if you don't do it, then you, you know, you're going to get what's coming to you. That's ridiculous. It's absolutely ridiculous. That hasn't worked ever. And yet people still keep banging their head against the wall saying, well, now it's going to work this time. No, it isn't because as Ronan said, every single year drug use is higher than it was the year before. But you want to see a stock chart? Take a look at drug use. Like there's never a dip ever. So when you're faced with a situation like that, just telling people to, oh, well, just say no and, you know, figure it out, but they're not. They need much more far reaching and overarching solutions than platitudes. That's why we exist. Yep. Are there any other potential investments the company is looking to make in the near future? Absolutely. We've been looking at a number of different investments and we're getting close on, I think, pulling the trigger on a few, just working out some details. But, you know, we definitely arrived on the market with, I think, an important story to tell. And then the invitation from those who are looking at us, you know, was to say like, okay, let's see what you're doing and let's see these words being turned into action. And so this investment in safety strips is the first step, but there are going to be other coming. Hopefully in the not too distant future, just as we finalize the details, and I think equally as exciting investments, assuming we close them, but I feel confident that we will. So keep your eyes out, but obviously it remains material non-public information so we can't share too many details other than we're working hard to get them closed and hopefully you can share more details soon. Yeah, and I think it's important for everyone to know, we didn't start this company when we went public. We've been having these discussions for quite some time and really diving in to try to figure out which ones are going to work and which ones, at least to our opinion, might not work as well as the ones that we want to go off and make investments in. So I think we're, let's call it at the, well within the 10-yard line of the touchdown on a number of other potential investments. And we hope to have some promising news on those fronts in the coming weeks. That's fantastic. Is there anything else you would want potential shareholders to know today? Look, as I sort of think about this space, safe supply really is at a very early stage of this burgeoning new sector. And if you take a look at things like cannabis and psychedelics, I think there was a lot of learnings that came from those, a lot of successes too, and a few failures. But I think a lot of the learnings come from having a relatively asset-like model to start, right? Like again, if you look at cannabis, you didn't really need to have 15 greenhouses. You could have just bought the plant from somewhere else if you really wanted. And then processed it. I think it's important to, especially when you're starting out, be conservative with the capital, deploy it in areas that are going to create value. And that goes for the companies that we go off and invest in as well. We try to provide them with the same sort of guidance. You know, use the capital wisely. It might not be the most cost efficient to start. However, as you start to build scale, then it gives you the opportunity to go out and bring certain things in house. You don't need to build it backwards where you bring all the stuff in house first and then build it later. It's not a field of dreams kind of thing. So I think, again, being at the precipice of what I think is going to be or what we think is going to be a huge opportunity in this space, I think it's going to be an exciting next few months for sure. And I would just add that, you know, I think it's important for people to keep in mind that we're venture capital. We're going into these companies early, deploying what's a relatively small amount of capital to take a meaningful position in this company. It's not like we're going out and writing $2 million checks into $100 million companies and taking a small piece for a large piece of capital. We're writing small checks in early stage companies that have significant multiple upside and deploying our resources and knowledge to make sure those companies succeed and certainly with safety strips. We see the potential for multiples returns on our investments with the management team that they've got, with the board that they're pulling together, with the opportunities in the pipelines, the value return for the investment, I think, is going to be quite incredible on safety strips and the other ones. We're the only venture capitalists in this space so we're getting our pick of the deals and deploying capital. And what we think are the best opportunities that will generate the best return. Very excited to see you guys continue to grow this company and watch it evolve. I'm speaking today with Safe Supply Streaming Corp, VP of Corporate Development, Setti Coscarella, and President Ronan Levy. Now I must remind you all that Rich TV Live is strictly for information and education purposes. Please do your due diligence and do your research whenever you're looking at investing in companies that we're featuring and talking to. I also want to bring your attention to the symbol, the symbol for Safe Supply Streaming Corp on the Canadian Securities Exchange is SPLY. Gentlemen, thank you for joining us today. Thank you. Always a pleasure and we look forward to seeing you guys again. And remember, if you're not winning, you're probably not watching. We bring you the winners, we bring them to you first. See you in interviews, breaking news, trending topics. I'm your host Rich from Rich TV Live saying, have a nice day. We'll see you soon.