Title: Billion Dollar Start-Up: The True Story of How a Couple of 29-Year-Olds Turned $35,000 into a $1,000,000,000 Cannabis Company
Authors: Adam Miron,
Sébastien St-Louis, and Julie Beun
Type: Nonfiction
Publisher: ECW Press
Date published: February 2, 2021

A complimentary physical copy of this book was kindly provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

It only took five years for two brothers-in-law to create a billion-dollar, award-winning, take-no-prisoners cannabis company called HEXO. How did they do it? That’s the story.

From early roadblocks and devastating personal and financial setbacks to explosive growth and some of the biggest cannabis deals in global history, Billion Dollar Start-Up not only recounts the HEXO story but the history of Canada’s momentous road to legalization.

In this part fast-paced memoir, part high-octane business book, writer and journalist Julie Beun gives us an intimate look at the life of a start-up and the ferocious entrepreneurial drive it takes to succeed — written in real-time, as the story unfolded.

Throughout history, there have been fewer than 100 Canadians who have started a company and lived to see it become worth one billion dollars. Adam Miron and Sébastien St-Louis are two of them. This is their story.

⤖ My Review ⬻

My reasoning behind requesting a review copy for Billion Dollar Start-Up was that I was curious from a business perspective. How did these 29-year-old individuals go about turning $35,000 into $1,000,000,000 in just a few years? I don’t know about you, but I find that to be quite impressive and I wanted to read about how they did it exactly.

Going into Billion Dollar Start-Up, I expected a somewhat dry account about business decisions, numbers, strategy, etc. as well as how these elements were used to grow the business.

So, I was pleasantly surprised when I found that this book also provides an account of what was going on in the lives of the founders when they got the idea for the business, as they grew the business, up until they hit the billion-dollar mark. This definitely added a new element to Billion Dollar Start-Up, and really humanized the story.

Business people are people, and Billion Dollar Start-Up really reminded me of that. As logical as someone might be, they are still human with human emotions and can make right or wrong decisions based on those emotions or life situations. I really liked how the lives of the founders were interwoven with the birth story of their company.

Billion Dollar Start-Up took me on an interesting journey and offered a new perspective on the cannabis industry in Canada. I recommend it whether you’re interested in this particular industry, whether you’re interested in the business decision aspect of things, or whether you want to read it for the autobiographical aspect–the lives of the two young founders and how they made it big!

⤖ Purchase the Book ⬻

⤖ Let’s Chat ⬻

Thank you for reading my review! Have you read this book? What did you think? And if you haven’t read it yet, do you want to? Why? Why not? Let me know your thoughts in the comments!