Vladimir Bautista leads the takeover of Happy Munkkeys Legacy Legal takeover
For the natives of cannabis entrepreneur and New York City, Vladimir Bautista, everything begins and ends with its neighborhood. You can call him the Mr. Rodgers from Harlem. His long, enviable career in the cannabis legacy room has made room for legal success. Two pharmacies were opened last year in Manhattan and Brooklyn under his Happy Munkkey brand.
“I think things will go as they should go,” he says. “You have ever heard the saying: 'Man makes plans and God laughs?'”
151 Dykman St., New York, NY – relaxation
BauTista grew up in a Dominican family in Sugar Hill when the community was involved in the Crack epidemic of the nineties – a far away company from their affiliations at Columbia University. He discovered cannabis as a consumer at a young age and took these first puffs with his friends of the middle school.
“There was a lot of fate and darkness,” he says. “It helped me mentally compared to all other substances. It only created a good mood and energy around me and my friends.”
Although cannabis was much safer than other medication on the market – heroin, crack, cocaine – it was more difficult to find. At 16, Bautistia found that there was a gap in the market and found that he could be the one who filled it.
“I remember that I had this 'aha', entrepreneur -glow bulb moment,” he says. “I will buy an ounce, and if it is not sold, I'll smoke it. I have everything to win, nothing to lose, but that could be my trail.” His instincts turned out to be right. “After I bought this ounce, I never had a job again.”
Bautista served the city's legacy market for years and scaled its business and reputation. And of course present several arrests by the NYPD. The name Happy Munkey comes from his business partner Ramon Reyes, whose ghost animals are a monkey. There is also a story of the Hindu deity Hanuman, an Affengotte who is looking for a mountain in search of healing herbs for God Rama. It is also playful. In a city of the gangsters, the idea of a happy, cheeky monkey feels inviting.
“I remember that I had this moment 'aha', entrepreneur -glow bulb moment. I will buy an ounce, and if it is not sold, I will smoke. I have everything to lose, but this could be my trail … after I bought this ounce, I never had a job again.”
Vlad Bautista
Legalization according to West has changed everything. Since states such as Colorado, Washington and California started adult markets for adults, Bautista knew that Happy Munkey had to change the corridors. Reyes had traveled to Amsterdam and recognized the potential in safe, private rooms to illuminate and meet like -minded people. He guessed a contact that many other cannabis entrepreneurs in the city met on the way to the legal market, internationally referred to for their contact network, an underground space for consumption events in 2017 and within two years as “Studio 54 of cannabis”.
Nevertheless, more was to be done. Before the Covid 19 pandemic would turn off its event low, Bautista, cannabis conferences and festivals began to visit the whole country, to meet industry legends such as Steve Dangelo and to learn the economy of the aspiring company such as shares.
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“That was the moment of” There is something here, it comes to the east coast, “says Bautista,” if we [began] Persecution of the legal cannabis market as a company. We understood that we were supporters because we had a platform, we had an impact. “
BauTista, Reyes and Happy Munkkey were significantly involved in the rotation of the Marijuana Act and the Tax Act (MRTA) and insisted on insisting on the social stock components of the law. They mobilized their podcast, their magazine and their goods while the city was under quarantine and organized an event in Bobby van Steakhouse from Wall Street for the first 4/20 post-legalization in 2021.
When they were waiting for the approval of the license, they continued to organize events that were based on the huge spectrum of the cannabis community, including a follow -up party of the van Gogh diving experience and their symposium in 2022 at Columbia University with scientists, entrepreneurs and government officials.
“We published many great people from the industry – politicians, doctors, lawyers. We attracted a really versatile amount. I think we were the first in New York to bring the main street to Wall Street, and the rapper was sitting next to the politician, the billionaire who was sitting next to the gangster.”
They hope that the same can manifest themselves in their two legal transactions and serve two large hubs of people in two districts. They emphasize customer service, the situation of customers in their neighborhoods and a large selection of brands such as Kiva Confections, Rolling Green, to the Moon and Lobo.
“I think we were the first in New York to bring the Main Street into Wall Street. The rapper was sitting next to the politician, the billionaire who sits next to the gangster.”
Vlad Bautista
Although you cannot yet open a version of your beloved lounge, you see in 2025 as an opportunity. And it is an opportunity that, as Bautista says, was made to you.
“The irony is that in 1998 I bought this ounce in the Sherman Avenue. And now, 27 years later, we have just opened our first licensed shop around the corner, from which I bought this first ounce.”
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