Our third anniversary episode features the first of three episodes recorded live at GroceryShop in the Vantage podcast studio. We welcome three rock star venture capitalists--Ashley Hartman (Bluestein Ventures), Matt Nichols (Commerce Ventures), and Kevin Parakkattu (Plug and Play) --who share their thoughts on the future of retail tech. In a fast-paced discussion, we dig into the current funding environment, challenges scaling once promising technology, and what each of our panelists are looking for now. We also discuss the outlook for generative AI, connecting offline and online behavior, personalization, sustainability, store level analytics, retail media, and more!As usual, we kick things off with our analysis of the week in retail news, starting with the Fed's interest rate pause and IPO fever. We then discuss Lowe's CEO saying the quiet part out loud when it comes to addressing a big driver of retail theft, before returning to the Wobbly Unicorn Corner for news of Stitch Fix's plans to right the ship. Then it's an early look at both holiday hiring plans and several firm's sales forecasts. About VantageEnterprise brands and retailers in over 120 countries around the world use Vantage for data-driven ecommerce advertising. Vantage was built on the primary goal of helping ecommerce businesses of all sizes around the world grow. Driving this growth: artificial intelligence, machine-learning technology, predictive analytics, and performance at scale. We’re committed to helping businesses identify opportunities and grow revenue in an easy and data-driven way. We leverage the data from the thousands of retailers worldwide to best understand how to be successful. About AshleyAshley co-leads Bluestein Ventures, driving the firm’s strategy, portfolio company support, and deal pipeline. Ashley has made over 30 investments in the space, and is an observer on three boards, including Base Culture, Grovara, and Rethink. Ashley has appeared in Forbes (here and here), has been featured on industry podcasts (here, here, and here), and regularly serves on food industry panels.Ashley has deep experience leading growth strategy and establishing scalable infrastructure necessary to build sustainable ventures. Prior to Bluestein, Ashley was Vice President of Strategy & Operations at Hartman Windows & Doors, where she was responsible for growth strategy, leading expansion across the U.S. as well as setting the platform on which to grow. Ashley also worked for Coinstar in Business Development, focusing on launching their new ventures. After college, Ashley was an Analyst at NERA Economic Consulting.Active in the Chicago and food community, Ashley serves on the Board of Naturally Chicago, on Selection Committee of the Good Food Accelerator, and as a mentor at Food Foundry, The Hatchery, and the LeAD Accelerator, in addition to being a judge at Booth’s new venture competitions. She is also on the National Leadership Council of United States Artists. Ashley received an MBA with honors from Harvard Business School and a BA in Political Economy, summa cum laude, from Williams College.About MattMatt has been an investor in and operator of early-stage technology companies for more than 20 years. He leads the firm’s commerce infrastructure/retail technology investment team and is a member of the management committee. He serves on the boards of several portfolio companies, including Grabango and Pensa.Prior to Commerce Ventures, Matt was the CEO of Gemvara, a disruptive jewelry eCommerce business that was sold to Berkshire Hathaway. Matt also worked as a venture capitalist at Highland Capital Partners and Morgan Stanley Venture Partners where his investments included Bullhorn (Acq’d by Vista Equity Partners), Pixable (Acq’d by SingTel), Avamar (Acq’d by EMC), Tarari (Acq’d by LSI), and Perceptive Software (Acq’d by Lexmark). Matt was a member of Morgan Stanley‘s Technology Corporate Finance team where he was part of the Google IPO team and also spent tim