It all started with a broken back.
Jennifer Gierum was just your typical mom, raising her sons in the New York City suburb of New Rochelle. Both boys were gifted athletes; the younger excelled in wrestling. But when an accident on the mat left him with a broken back, everything changed for Jennifer and her family.
“He was put on all these medicines, and nothing was helping him,” Jennifer recalls. “They tried everything – narcotics, non-narcotics, but gabapentin was the worst. It basically turned him into a zombie where he couldn’t focus, couldn’t pay attention at school… It was turning him into a different person.”
Concerned for her son’s health, his education, and his future, Jennifer did what any mother would do: She searched for something better. What she found would change her entire life.
“I had never used cannabis before,” Jennifer says. “I didn’t really know anything about it, and didn’t want to be associated with it because of all the stigma around it.”
But after seeing how CBD and cannabis products helped her younger son control his chronic pain and her older son manage his anxiety, Jennifer’s views on the plant completely shifted. Soon, what started as research had turned into a calling; that calling eventually became Highlife Health, the first woman-owned cannabis dispensary in New Rochelle, New York.
A Family-First, Community-Centered Cannabis Store
In September 2024, Jennifer – along with her husband and two sons – cut the ribbon on Highlife Health’s original location, a 350 square-feet storefront owned by her husband’s family. Six months later, the business had grown into a location with triple the floor space and the same warm, welcoming atmosphere that prioritizes education, connection, and safety.
“Working with the city has been great,” Jennifer says. “They’ve been behind me 100% in opening my store and working to shut down the illegal shops at the same time. They’ve done a really good job in making sure that we are sustainable, and that we’re going to be a footprint in this community for a long time.”
Choosing a Technology Teammate
As a first-time dispensary owner in one of the most tightly regulated cannabis markets in the country, Jennifer knew she couldn’t afford to take chances with her retail tech stack. She needed more than just a point-of-sale platform – she needed a technology teammate that understood the cannabis space, could simplify compliance, and would support her through the complexity of launching a store from scratch.
One of the first things Jennifer noticed about Cova was how different they were from other cannabis technology providers.
“These other companies were bombarding me, and trying to throw all these wonderful things at me,” she says. “But I didn’t know what any of those things even meant at the time. They were so interested in hard selling me and getting me to sign on to their product that I didn’t understand how it worked and how everything would come into play.
“When I reached out to Cova, I instantly started getting real-time information – you know, ‘this is what I’m seeing going on in the industry, this is how long it’s taking people to implement.’ They were able to answer the questions I really needed the answers to… Instead of trying to sell me, Cova was educating me.”
A Seamless Retail Tech Experience
With much of her team being brand-new to cannabis retail, Jennifer needed software that wouldn’t require weeks of technical training or come with a steep learning curve.
Cova delivered.
With its intuitive interface, staff onboarding is smooth and efficient; transactions are fast and compliant; and inventory and sales tracking is simple. That ease of use has been crucial in creating a consistent customer experience, especially as Highlife Health ramped up traffic and sales volume.
Built for Compliance and Growth
In the New York market, where regulations are ever-evolving and enforcement is strict, Jennifer needed a system she could trust to handle compliance and reporting without creating extra work for her team. Cova’s built-in compliance safeguards – like age verification, purchase limits, and real-time inventory syncing with the state’s traceability system – gave her peace of mind from day one. Cova also allows her to implement clear SOPs and accountability measures for her staff, which has been essential as her operations grow.
Support That Goes Beyond Software
For Jennifer, the Cova experience is about more than just technical features. From implementation to ongoing support, she says the Cova team truly has her back.
“That was a game changer – being able to have that one representative on the phone, where every time I had a question or wasn’t sure how something would work, being able to piece that together for me,” she says. “Should I have problems, or questions, or even suggestions like, ‘this isn’t working for me, is it something you could bring up to your peers?’ And the answer was ‘yes,’ and that made a huge difference.”
Highlife Health’s Next Horizon
Along with expanding its physical footprint, Highlife Health is looking to expand its reach with a reality TV show.
“We’ve developed the show and already filmed a pilot episode, and we’re talking with a couple streaming platforms to see if we can get it to fly,” Jennifer says. “I have (New York’s Office of Cannabis Management’s) approval to shoot it and document my journey, and I’m using it as a platform to help leverage what we’re really trying to do. So I’m using it to help change the narrative and to educate people.”
It’s clear that for Jennifer, Highlife Health is more than just a business. It’s a family affair – one that she’s incredibly passionate about. With the help of her husband and both sons, Jennifer is working to discard the long-held stigmas associated with cannabis and show the plant’s healing power as an alternative to heavy pharmaceuticals. And with Cova on her team to help facilitate a smooth customer experience and stay on top of compliance requirements, the sky’s the limit for Jennifer and Highlife Health.
Want to learn more about how Cova can help bolster your dispensary’s operations? Book a free demo today at the link below.