What's Inside

On March 25–26, 2025, Deborah Weinswig, CEO and Founder of Coresight Research, emceed the Shoptalk Spring “Shark Reef” Startup Pitch competition and served as lead judge.

The event saw 12 early-stage retail-technology innovators compete to win the Judges’ Choice and Audience Choice awards.

Coresight Research is a research partner of Shoptalk Spring 2025.

In this presentation, we outline the following:

• Startup Pitch history—past winners
• Event format, comprising two rounds
• Expert judging panel
• Startup selection criteria
• The 12 participating innovators across two areas of retail disruption
• Choosing the winners—the voting process and factors for consideration

Weinswig presents at the Shoptalk Spring 2025 Startup Pitch competition
Source: Shoptalk

Other relevant research:

• Retail 2025: 10 Trends in Retail Technology
• Retail 2025: 10 AI Trends—An Inflection Point in the GenAI Revolution
• Visit the Coresight Research Retail Technology Hub to explore reports, data and competitive landscapes on technology.

More on Shoptalk Spring:

• For highlights from the Startup Pitch event and to find out which companies won, look out for our upcoming recap report.
• Essential Guide to Shoptalk Spring 2025: Navigating the Future of Customer-Centric Retail with AI and Unified Commerce
• Catch up on insights from all Shoptalk events here.