Twenty years in. Built to last.
Twenty Years in the Room Before It Had a Door
Long before the dispensaries had neon signs and verified checkmarks, David Pauwels was already in the room. He inherited the plant from his father, the way some kids inherit a trade or a last name. He came up inside an industry that didn't officially exist yet, watching it get built from the ground up.
By the time the legal market arrived, he'd already been running it for two decades.
He launched Pauwels Cannabis Cosmetics first, a patent-pending topical line blending live rosin with activated oxygen, manufactured at his own Sun Valley facility and carried by wellness retailers across California. Then he set his sights on a storefront.
He picked his spot with intention: San Vicente Blvd in Beverly Grove, blocks from Cedars-Sinai and the Beverly Center. Pauwels Cannabis Co. opened in 2025 and hit a 5.0 Weedmaps rating inside six months. The shelves hold small-batch flower, concentrates, edibles, and the cream his mother uses for her arthritis. Next up: a cannabis-waste paper company. The man is not slowing down.
Nineveh Andersen
Pauwels' business partner and operations lead. Andersen oversees inventory, vendor relationships, and the day-to-day floor, vetting every product line before it earns shelf space.
The Floor Team
The budtenders curate alongside ownership. Each pull from a vendor goes through staff sampling and feedback before purchase — a model Pauwels credits for the store's 5.0 Weedmaps rating.
The floor tells the story. Shelves curated brand by brand. A team that actually knows what they're selling, shows up for the neighborhood, and gives back to the community that built this place. And a five-star reputation earned the slow way, one visit at a time.
No investors. No chains. Just the shop and the plan.
