Here’s a telling passage from the company’s directors, who declare that in order to keep going, they will need even more of someone else’s money-and that now is a very bad time to go begging. “We run the company very lean and mean.” (Spoiler: They didn’t.)Ĭompare that sanguine boosterism to the doom and gloom in the annual report. “We would look to be cash flow positive certainly in 2020,” former company president Jim McCormick, a former tobacco executive who pivoted to the cannabis sector after 2016, told an interviewer in May of last year. But it’s fair to declare that the company publicly said it was doing one thing, while it (or Dan Bilzerian, who can say) did another. How much of all this Ignite chose to share with its shareholders and the holders of its debt until the annual report was released, only the company can say. Ignite cash went to pay salaries, licensing fees, business expenses, and travel expenses for companies “owned by the CEO,” according to the report. Like any good businessman, it seems Bilzerian sticks someone else with the bill.īilzerian, who owns at least a stake in other companies headquartered in Montana and Nevada, according to public records, also used Ignite as an ATM. If the models, yachts, cars, guns, and stacks of cash that populate Bilzerian’s Instagram feed are in any way related to his company-and seeing as the models, and his house, and his jet all bear the goat-horned logo that’s Ignite’s brand, there is a good chance that they are-and are paid for with company cash, the answer to “how does Dan Bilzerian do it?!” is simple. Also relevant: to date, Dan Bilzerian has never been accused, by authorities in court, of any wrongdoing.īut back to Ignite. And as an in-depth Wall Street Journal investigation revealed, Dan Bilzerian is also involved with companies that are related to or also involve his father. In past interviews, Bilzerian has copped to being a beneficiary of trust funds set up by his father. Looks expensive! Getty Images for Ignite International, Ltd., Alister, and BlitzBetĬomplicating all of this is the unavoidable fact that Dan Bilzerian receives at least some of his fortune from his father, Paul Bilzerian, a felon and Wall Street fraudster whom the Securities and Exchange Commission says owes them (that is: owes you, the American taxpayer) $62 million. Ignite International, Ltd., Alister, and BlitzBet on Octoin Los Angeles, California. LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA - OCTOBER 24: Guests attend Dan Bilzerian's Halloween Party sponsored by. This may offer the best explanation yet for how Bilzerian funds the lifestyle, for which he is famous, fame which in turn funds his lifestyle- the “perpetual status machine” at which he is (for now) the center, as VICE put it in 2015. In 2019, Ignite’s budget for “marketing and promotion” was $22.26 million, or more than twice what the company managed to register in sales revenue.įor every dollar in sales ($9.6 million) the company spends almost two dollars on general and administrative costs ($18.4 million). 28, 2019, when Ignite went public on the CSE via a reverse take-over with an almost-dormant metal-trading firm called ALQ Gold, which inexplicably decided to give up on mining and embrace weed, according to filings.īut what a year it was. Keep in mind that the company became publicly traded only on Feb. Posting fat losses isn’t entirely unheard of for early stage companies in Silicon Valley, but what is uncommon is how bloated and profligate Bilzerian’s company managed to become in less than one year. In 2019, Ignite lost $43 million on operational costs alone, mostly marketing and promotion, leases on offices, and compensation for staff and executives. Parties with platoons’ worth of models are expensive! Ignite hosted lavish parties, threw events, and did all kinds of stuff a company flush with cash does. And I do not think I have ever seen an Ignite product out in the wild.) I live in an area absolutely saturated with CBD products. (Pointless anecdote: I cover weed and CBD for a living. In addition to CBD-infused toothpicks and nicotine vape juice, Ignite markets water, vodka, and clothing. The company claims to operate in Mexico, Canada, Ireland, and the United Kingdom as well as the United States, where Ignite-branded CBD products are supposedly available in stores. With that money, Ignite went on a spending spree, even as its stock tanked. That is, Dan Bilzerian’s company has (had) a lot of other peoples’ money. The company issued and sold shares of its company stock, and the company also raised money via debt.Īs per its annual filing, Ignite recorded $25 million from “proceeds of issuance of shares,” $19.9 million from “convertible debt,” and $23.7 million from a “short-term promissory note.” Ignite “made” money in two ways last year.