OP #252: What I Learned At Shoptalk

A bit of a deep dive into one of the better conferences out there, Shoptalk.

Author

Darren Herman
March 26, 2024

Happy Tuesday OP Community!

I want to first say hi to my daughter, Ava, for finally subscribing to the OP! She wants me to write about her so here we go: Ava is a dancer and spends 12-16 hours per week dancing a variety of types. I’m a huge dance dad and am super proud of her. When not studying or dancing, Ava can be found in Sephora. If any of you are in beauty and want to interview a teenager with beauty and fashion opinions, I can arrange. Ava has a huge heart and a super positive attitude and I’m her biggest fan. She will make a great addition to the Operating Partner community ☮

✈ I’m currently in Dallas visiting a portfolio company and later this week, excited to get back to Boston on Thursday and host our first ever Operating Partner dinner. Thanks to our friends at Fogo de Chao, we’ll be coming together in Boston for some good conversation and delicious food. Tickets to the event went [for free] in less than 3 minutes so make sure to add your name to the list for future events.  I believe we’re going to do Dallas next with New York over the summer. Dates still TBD.

🛒 I spent last week mostly at Shoptalk.  More on that below. Did you know that Shoptalk will be in Chicago in the Fall?

📝 For those looking for a new job, check this Rally Rd opportunity out: see this tweet with the details from Rob, CEO/founder here.

💰 In an email conversation with Jonathan Abrams of 8-Bit Capital, he sent me this link to a post by Ed Zimmerman about venture fund distributions. If you are curious about when funds distribute proceeds, check it out. Note, it’s anecdotal and six funds worth of data, but helpful.  It’s from 2023 but still very relevant.

🍺 Drizly (as a brand) is shutting down this month and folding into UberEats. I do not know how I feel about this - the core idea of alcohol delivery isn’t going away and UberEats will deliver upon it, but Drizly as a brand resonated with me ever since it was launched.

🎞 I watched Get Out and M3gan this past weekend with my teenage son who has been lobbying to watch both movies with me. They were powerful in different ways. The latter - M3gan - is timely with the world shifting towards an applied AI based society. What stood out for me specifically was the testing time allocated to M3gan - and then the profit before product motive… lets hope we get this right as a society.

🎈 A few OP letter subscribers asked if they could do a “meetup” at Silicon Alley Sports flagship event on May 6. Come to think of it, it’s actually a great place to do it. Schmoozer tickets are available, there is plenty of food and drink, and the venue is gorgeous. For those OP subscribers who do purchase a ticket and attend on May 6, let me know and I can denote something on your name laminate so other people know you are an OP subscriber and hopefully comes a conversation starter. You can sign-up here.

I hope you have an awesome week.

Darren 

Thoughts From Attending Shoptalk 2024

I have a high bar for attending conferences. I value my time highly and know that any trip away from the office forces my schedule to temporarily balloon with meetings for the next week upon return as I try and make up for lost time. In addition, I am usually missing something with the family and that’s never a good trade to make, especially with kids who have not left the nest yet.

So, I have a high bar and Shoptalk 2024 met the expectation this year. It was a strong showing: excellent attendees, great enthusiasm, well organized (1800 1:1 tables!), and partners/vendors stepped it up this year with their booths. Was fun to see multiple Bain Capital Ventures companies showcasing in full force: Persado, Bloomreach, Mirakl, and others.

For those not already in the know, Shoptalk was established to cater to B2C retailers, marketplaces, and direct-to-consumer brands and has been a show that has not yet “jumped the shark.” It stands on par with NRF as a leading consumer industry conference.

This marked my sixth Shoptalk attendance – but notably the first since the pandemic. The event attracted over 10,000 diverse attendees, including investors from Insight and Charlesbank, executives from companies like Maesa and Canada Goose, technology service providers such as Salesforce and Klaviyo, not to mention a variety of other stakeholders (e.g., Accenture and Spencer Stuart).

Key Themes from Shoptalk:

• Collaboration: There was a noticeable shift toward collegial collaboration, with recognition that roles like CDO or Head of E-Commerce shouldn't operate in isolation. As technologies become richer and expand their impact, partnership across business functions becomes pivotal.

• AI Dominance: AI made its presence felt throughout, underscoring the importance of sifting through the hype to identify real value-providers in omnichannel AI applications.

• Data Strategy & Infrastructure: Modernized data infrastructure, like Snowflake and Redshift, emerged as non-negotiables in a business's tech stack. For companies to truly leverage AI's potential, an up-to-date infrastructure is a must, or significant time and capital will be expended modernizing obsolete systems. Will be a large competitive advantage if a company can integrate new technology now; something to consider in diligence.

• Mixed Macro: Confidence rebounding for middle- and high-income households. Seeing “selective splurging” customer behavior (e.g., willing to spend at restaurants and concerts but save at the grocery store and streaming subscriptions).

• Profits Over Transformations: Conversations with companies and service providers indicated a trend toward smaller projects as opposed to large-scale transformations, a likely response to the current fiscal focus on profit optimization and prioritization of more pressing growth challenges.

• Bain Capital Ventures Presence: Several portfolio companies had a significant footprint at the conference, and BCV hosted a successful happy hour networking event.

If you wanted to follow up on some additional Shoptalk recaps and content, check out the below:

I haven’t done extensive reading this week but here are a few links that I’ve curated. If you come across an article that you believe would be a great addition to future OP letters, don't hesitate to share it with me. However, please note that I retain the discretion to decide on the content that goes into each OP letter.

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