For cannabis entrepreneur and New York City native, Vladimir Bautista, it all begins and ends with his neighborhood. You can call him the Mr. Rodgers of Harlem. His long, enviable career in the cannabis legacy space has given way to legal success, with two dispensaries opened last year in Manhattan and Brooklyn under his Happy Munkey brand.
“I believe that things are going to go the way they’re supposed to go,” he says. “You ever heard that saying, ‘Man makes plans and God laughs?’”
Bautista grew up in Sugar Hill in a Dominican family, back when the community was mired in the crack epidemic of the 1990s—a far cry from its Columbia University affiliations now. He discovered cannabis as a consumer at a young age, taking those first puffs with his middle school friends.
“There was a lot of doom and gloom around,” he says. “It was helping me mentally compared to all the other substances. It just created good vibes and energy around me and my friends.”
Despite cannabis being much safer than other drugs on the market—heroin, crack, cocaine—it was harder to find. By 16, Bautistia realized there was a market gap, and figured he could be the one to fill it.
“I remember having that ‘aha’, entrepreneur light bulb moment,” he says. “I’m gonna buy an ounce, and if it doesn’t sell, I’ll smoke it. I have everything to gain, nothing to lose, but this could be my lane.” His instincts proved correct. “After I purchased that ounce, I never had a job again.”
For years, Bautista serviced the city’s legacy market, scaling up his business and reputation. And, of course, fielding multiple arrests by the NYPD. The name Happy Munkey comes from his business partner, Ramon Reyes, whose spirit animal is a monkey. There’s also a story of the Hindu deity Hanuman, a monkey god, who ascended a mountain in search of healing herbs for the god Rama. Plus, it’s playful. In a city of gangsters, the idea of a happy, cheeky monkey feels welcoming.
“I remember having that ‘aha’, entrepreneur light bulb moment. I’m gonna buy an ounce, and if it doesn’t sell, I’ll smoke it. I have everything to gain, nothing to lose, but this could be my lane…After I purchased that ounce, I never had a job again.”
Vlad Bautista
Legalization out west changed everything. As states like Colorado, Washington, and California launched adult-use markets, Bautista knew that Happy Munkey needed to switch gears. Reyes had traveled to Amsterdam and recognized the potential in safe, private spaces to light up and meet like-minded people. He tapped a contact many other cannabis entrepreneurs in the city have met on their way to the legal market, International P. Through their network of contacts, they established an underground space for consumption events in 2017, and within two years Forbes dubbed the “Studio 54 of cannabis.”
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Still, there was more growing to do. Before the COVID-19 pandemic would shutter their events arm, Bautista began attending cannabis conferences and festivals across the country, meeting industry legends like Steve DeAngelo and learning about the economics of the emerging business, like stocks.
“That was the moment of ‘there’s something here, this is coming to the East Coast,’” says Bautista, “when we [began] pursuing the legal cannabis market as a business. We understood that we were advocates, because we had a platform, we had influence.”
Bautista, Reyes, and Happy Munkey were instrumental in pushing for the Marihuana Regulation and Taxation Act (MRTA) and insisting on the bill’s social equity components. They mobilized their podcast, magazine, and merchandise while the city was under quarantine, and hosted an event at Wall Street’s Bobby Van Steakhouse for the first 4/20 post-legalization, in 2021.
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As they waited for license approval, they continued hosting events that drew on the vast spectrum of the cannabis community, including an afterparty of the Van Gogh Immersive Experience and their 2022 symposium at Columbia University that featured scientists, entrepreneurs, and government officials.
“We brought out a lot of big people from the industry—politicians, doctors, lawyers. We attracted a really eclectic crowd; I think we were the first ones in New York to bring Main Street to Wall Street, with the rapper sitting next to the politician, the billionaire sitting next to the gangster.”
They hope the same can manifest in their two legal stores, serving two major hubs of people in two boroughs. They emphasize customer service, situating customers within their neighborhoods, and a wide selection of brands like Kiva Confections, Rolling Green, To The Moon, and Lobo.
“I think we were the first ones in New York to bring Main Street to Wall Street, with the rapper sitting next to the politician, the billionaire sitting next to the gangster.”
Vlad Bautista
While they can’t open an adult-use version of their beloved lounge just yet, they see 2025 as an opportunity. And it’s an opportunity that, Bautista says, was fated to them.
“The irony is that I bought that ounce on Sherman Avenue in 1998. And now, 27 years later, we just opened our first licensed store around the corner from where I bought that first ounce.”
