David Wartell

David Wartell is a technology operator and investor associated publicly with Cannabis Capital, where a 2019 episode of *The Insider's Guide To Finance* described him as CEO and said his private equity firm was investing in cannabis companies. Public investor directories also list him as an Austin-based angel/individual investor with interests spanning telecommunications, e-commerce, payments, enterprise software, IT, mobile, SaaS, consumer internet, social media, and application platforms.

Wartell is also Chief Technology Officer of IDT Corporation. IDT's proxy materials state that he has served as CTO since March 2018 and as Executive Vice President - Technology of IDT Telecom since June 2017. IDT describes him as responsible for technology development, development planning, resource allocation, product enhancements, and ensuring the technology organization has the skills and resources needed by the company's operating units.

Before IDT, Wartell was an Executive Vice President at Idera Inc. and founder/CEO of R1soft.com, a cloud backup and disaster recovery software provider. A 2008 HostSearch interview identified him as VP of the R1Soft division at BBS Technologies, and IDT's proxy states that he previously ran operations for large cloud service providers. He received a B.S. in Computer Engineering from Michigan State University.

Outside IDT and Cannabis Capital, Wartell is listed on Polymer's company page as an advisory board member, identified there as "CTO, IDT." The Org also lists him as an advisor to Polymer.

• Cannabis Capital is described as an early-stage investor/private equity firm focused on operating companies, including cannabis companies.
• The firm's public profile says it invests through a range of private-equity strategies including Regulation D offerings, and may secure funding for companies or invest directly in startups in return for an equity position.
• Public investor profiles associate Wartell with seed-stage investing and a $1 million-$5 million investment ticket for Cannabis Capital.
• His own pitch guidance from the 2019 podcast was skeptical of startup projections: "Man plans and god laughs and (your) projections are a joke." Founders should expect scrutiny of assumptions rather than a pitch built mainly on spreadsheet forecasts.
• Based on his operating background, he appears most relevant to founders with technical infrastructure, enterprise software, cloud, payments, telecom, or regulated-market execution needs.