12 locations, 2 states, 9 years: The tech behind Silver Stem’s fight for legal cannabis

About Silver Stem

Silver Stem Fine Cannabis opened their first dispensary in 2009 under the name CannaMart, co-founded by Co-CEO Stan Zislis and Chief Production Officer James Thomas. Over the years, they rebranded as Silver Stem Fine Cannabis, expanded to 12 retail locations across Colorado and Oregon, and built a vertically integrated operation with a cultivation facility and a marijuana-infused products (MIP) manufacturing facility — giving them full control over the quality and consistency of everything on their shelves.

What's kept them standing while many of their early peers have closed is a commitment that hasn't wavered: don't cut corners, don't chase the bottom, and don't stop showing up for the communities they serve.

"What we realized early on is it's a symbiotic relationship between us and our consumers," says Thomas, who serves as chief production officer. "For us to stick around, we want to be there for them."

That philosophy extends to how they grow. Thomas, who grew up on a farm in southeast Colorado, built Silver Stem's cultivation program from the ground up with a firm conviction: no pesticides, ever. He believes Silver Stem is the only cannabis operator in the state that maintains that standard.

Fighting for new markets and winning

When Colorado voters legalized recreational cannabis in 2012, local municipalities retained the right to opt out. For years, major markets like Littleton and Colorado Springs remained medical-only.

Silver Stem spent the next decade leading the advocacy charge, educating city councils, and organizing community initiatives to unlock adult-use sales.

After winning adult-use approval in Littleton in 2021, they duplicated the playbook in Colorado Springs. In April 2025, voters approved the measure, allowing Silver Stem to officially open their Rockrimmon and Broadmoor dispensaries in Colorado Springs for adult-use sales.

But winning the legislative battle is only half the war. Launching a new market and converting an existing medical store to recreational overnight brings a massive surge in foot traffic, regulatory scrutiny, and compliance risks.

To scale into these hard-won territories with confidence, Silver Stem needed an agile retail platform that could handle the pressure of opening day without missing a beat.

The platform behind the operation

Silver Stem has been on Flowhub for over nine years. The switch came after their previous point of sale (POS) provider suffered a significant outage.

"There were constraints and restrictions our previous provider wasn't able to deliver," he says. "The fact that they suffered a failure only expedited our transition. We were already looking at alternatives, and Flowhub was steadily gaining momentum."

Real-time inventory control that keeps pace

On the floor, Silver Stem's store manager at Rockrimmon, Cheryl Merlock, relies on Flowhub's inventory management tool, Stash®, to keep operations tight especially during fast-moving days.

Merlock built inventory systems from scratch at her previous job before joining Silver Stem. She knows what a bad system costs.

"Being able to use Flowhub to do inventory — get in there with a Nug scanner, scan and count, and make it go super quickly — has been phenomenal," she says. "When I'm doing my ordering, it's a quick glance to see what I've got available and what I need to focus on. I love it."

Real-time inventory visibility also pays off when something sells out on a busy day. Merlock can check immediately whether a product is available elsewhere in the store and move it to the floor before the customer leaves.

Trained and transacting in minutes

When Silver Stem opened Rockrimmon for recreational sales, Merlock had three team members who had never used Flowhub before. The store was receiving product shipments as customers lined up outside.

"We had to get everybody signed up on Flowhub while products were coming in," she says. "We had a lot of moving parts."

The result? New team members were completing sales after watching a couple of supervised transactions.

That ease of use matters for a multi-location operation with consistent customer service standards. Silver Stem's philosophy is that every consumer, at every store should have the same experience.

Flowhub's consistency across the platform makes that possible without a steep learning curve at each new location.

Seamless sales from online to in-store

Silver Stem was one of the first to adopt Flowhub’s native Ecommerce solution, consolidating their multi-store operation onto one centralized system. Each location runs on a custom-branded URL and because ecommerce is fully integrated with the POS, menu accuracy is automatic from online to in-store.

"Flowhub Ecommerce has made a big difference in both our operations and customer experience," says Natalie Lykhenko, marketing director at Silver Stem.

"The menu is cleaner than most, and we love the ability to customize categories and carousels to match our brand. Because it's fully integrated with our POS, we never have to worry about weights, product names, or order limits being out of sync. We were happy to be part of the early release phase and genuinely excited to see Flowhub bring this to market."

By eliminating third-party marketplace dependencies, Silver Stem unlocked a 39% increase in monthly revenue from online orders.

The native integration also proved to be a powerful engine for driving higher-margin transactions. Across their entire multi-location footprint, a customer shopping on Flowhub Ecommerce spends 34% more with 29% larger baskets than physical in-store transactions.

Visibility at the top

Zislis's ask from technology is simple: clear data, fast, without spreadsheets. Flowhub's View® analytics app is where he spends his time on the platform.

The impact

After nine years and 12 locations, Silver Stem's relationship with Flowhub is a true long term partnership built on operational reliability at the moments that matter most: new market openings, high-volume sales days, rapid staff training, and the executive visibility a growing company needs.

Cheryl Merlock sees the impact every day at Rockrimmon: in the queue management during a busy Saturday morning, in the inventory accuracy that keeps the floor stocked, in the reporting that lets her compare this year to last year and see exactly how much the store has grown.

"We can compare and see how much we're growing, how busy we are. Our gross sales, our net sales. It's all right there," she says.

For Zislis, the value is simpler: when you're running a multi-state operation, building a legacy brand, and still fighting for your next market, you need a technology partner that shows up the same way you do.

Thank you to Stan, James, Natalie, Cheryl, and the whole team at Silver Stem for leading the fight for legal cannabis and trusting Flowhub to power your hard-won retail footprint.