Join us for a conversation about the future of Grocery. One of the most disrupted verticals during the global pandemic, grocery faces unprecedented pressure to accelerate its digital transformation as consumers leapfrog traditional adoption curves to satisfy unmet needs. Everything from e-Commerce, to digital merchandizing and supply chain optimization; to check-out free stores, courier services and facial recognition payments.
We'll speak with startups and retailers to understand how they are navigating the space, which customer trends they are seeing and what advice they have for how to keep up with changing shopper behavior in one of the largest and most rapidly evolving segments of the marketplace.
When: Thursday, July 29, 2021
Time: 12:00pm - 1:00 p.m. EST
Brandon Hill is the co-founder and CEO of Vori, the operating system for the grocery industry, that helps reduce inventory reordering time by 80%. Brandon and his founding team started Vori in 2019 and launched their first product at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Since then, Vori has grown to serve 90% of Northern California’s natural & independent grocers and is rapidly expanding across the U.S., starting with the West Coast.
Vori is a modern operating system for the global food supply chain. Our technology unlocks new opportunity for businesses and consumers, ensuring efficient distribution and access to the food we need and love.
Djouma Barry is a strong operational leader with nearly 15 years of experience innovating solutions that drive organizational change. Throughout his career, he has progressively advanced to take on additional accountabilities within Target Corporation. He is a proven change agent and thought leader adept at integrating a culture of diversity, inclusion, and acceptance throughout his strategic leadership of top-performing teams.
Lauren Abda is the Founder and CEO of Branchfood, the largest community of food entrepreneurs and startups in New England, and Co-founder at Branch Venture Group, an angel network for investment in early-stage food startups. Prior to Branchfood, Lauren consulted for foodtech businesses in Boston and San Francisco, worked as an analyst for Salt Venture Partners LLC, a venture capital firm, focused on food startups, targeting content, commerce, and technology, and wrote reports on international food safety development initiatives on behalf of the Agriculture and Commodities division at the World Trade Organization in Geneva, Switzerland. She has a Masters in Food Policy and Applied Nutrition from the Tufts Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy and a Bachelor of Science degree in Nutrition and Food Science from the University of Vermont.
Roger is an investor and technology leader based in Austin, Texas. He is currently a Partner with Silverton Partners, a leading venture capital firm with $400M+ in committed capital and top tier performance across 6 funds to date. In this role, Roger has invested in numerous early stage software and consumer companies in Austin and across the US, typically as the lead investor in the company’s first institutional round. While at Silverton, Roger has led and/or sourced investments in Apprentice, Billie, Copper Cow, Clerk, Enable My Child, Fetch, Kronologic, Literati, Living Security, Mobile Tech Rx, Novo Labs, Restream, RouteFusion, RxRedefined, Tiv, and Wheel.
Marlow is the Co-Founder at Grocery TV, the largest digital advertising network in U.S. grocery. Grocery TV allows businesses to reach their local community in the highest traffic retail environment. They believe that believe that brands win when they can build mental and physical availability with their consumers. Grocery TV helps brands solve both problems by engaging consumers with advertising directly at the point-of-purchase and automated out-of-stock prevention that ensures their products are available. Grocery TV uses new technology to solve decades-old problems like out-of-stock products and planogram compliance. Their devices also give grocers the opportunity to put in-store promotions in front of shoppers.
Founded in 2014, VentureFuel is an independent innovation consultancy based out of New York City. We build and accelerate innovation programs for industry leaders by unlocking the power of what we call "external innovation" via startup collaborations. Our programs focus on changing the behaviors and beliefs necessary to unlock new sources of growth.
Launched this year, this event series is focused on the industries and functions that are at the greatest risk of being disrupted.
Each month, we invite a corporate innovator, venture capitalist and startup entrepreneur to come together for a panel discussion about the products, services and technologies shaping tomorrow's change, today.