Step into a Colorado pot dispensary at random, and you’ll long for the luxuries of the D.M.V.

Metal bars cover windows. Vinyl signs are tacked to walls. Guys in hoodie sweatshirts greet you from behind the counter. Even the act of ordering the product itself is borderline absurd. What grown adult can respectfully walk into a store and ask for an eighth of Green Krack and a nub of Big Buddha Cheese, please?

But that experience is changing, thanks to a new breed of entrepreneur in Colorado — young, ambitious and often female — that is trying to reach a more sophisticated clientele in everything from language to packaging to social events.

“We’re weeding out the stoners,” said Olivia Mannix, the 25-year-old co-founder of a start-up called Cannabrand, an advertising agency devoted exclusively to marketing marijuana. “We want to show the world that normal, professional, successful people consume cannabis.”

Colorado became the first of two states to legalize recreational marijuana sales this year, paving the way for millions in tax revenue, and a new kind of consumer. That is why, on a recent weekend, Ms. Mannix and her co-founder, Jennifer DeFalco, were camped out in Aspen for a pot-themed (and pot-induced) brainstorming session.