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Retail Transformation Playbook: Michelle Pacynski on Innovation, Startups, and What’s Next
Season 2
Episode 1
Published 1 month, 2 weeks ago
Description
S2E1 Ulta Beauty’s $2B Digital Transformation: Michelle Pacynski Reveals the Retail Innovation Playbook
In this season‑opening episode of The Retail Razor: Retail Transformers, Ricardo and Casey sit down with Michelle Pacynski, former VP of Innovation and Consumer Technology at Ulta Beauty, to unpack one of the most compelling retail transformation journeys in modern retail.
Michelle shares how Ulta scaled its digital business from $125M to over $2B, built a mobile‑first strategy before the rest of the industry caught up, and created an innovation team that ultimately became the company’s AI Center of Excellence.
This conversation is a masterclass in retail transformation and innovation, AI adoption, startup collaboration, and the leadership mindset required to build what’s next.
What We Cover:
If you care about the future of retail transformation, leadership, startup innovation, and agentic AI in the beauty industry, this is an essential listen.
Guest info:
Michelle Pacynski, Senior Digital Executive | Digital Transformation | Futurist | Innovation | Board Member | Strategic Advisor. https://www.linkedin.com/in/michelle-pacynski/
A high performing, visionary leader, Michelle Pacynski shapes – and reshapes – the retail industry with leading innovations and designing new ways to discover and shop. For over six years, she founded and led a team of global digital innovators, overseeing work that connects digital and physical shopping journeys with leading technology to create differentiated, relevant guest experiences. She also championed the creation of a corporate venture fund, Prisma Ventures (™) to accelerate innovation by forming strategic partnerships with the startup community. She’s currently a strategic advisor for several tech startups and while overseeing Prisma Ventures (™) she deployed over 50% of the $20M fund to some 12 early-stage startups over 3 years.
Recently named one of the Top 25 Leaders to Watch in 2025 by CommerceNext, Michelle is currently a Strategic Advisor with iVantedge Advisors, LLC a company she founded specializing in guiding innovative technology startups through pivotal growth stages. She helps tech founders navigate complex challeng
In this season‑opening episode of The Retail Razor: Retail Transformers, Ricardo and Casey sit down with Michelle Pacynski, former VP of Innovation and Consumer Technology at Ulta Beauty, to unpack one of the most compelling retail transformation journeys in modern retail.
Michelle shares how Ulta scaled its digital business from $125M to over $2B, built a mobile‑first strategy before the rest of the industry caught up, and created an innovation team that ultimately became the company’s AI Center of Excellence.
This conversation is a masterclass in retail transformation and innovation, AI adoption, startup collaboration, and the leadership mindset required to build what’s next.
What We Cover:
- How Ulta built a mobile‑first digital experience before it was mainstream
- Why infrastructure, fulfillment, and omnichannel foundations matter more than hype
- The real story behind GlamLab, virtual try‑on, and beauty tech adoption
- How to evaluate retail tech startups and build a risk‑reward experimentation model
- Why innovation teams should sit inside the business, not IT
- The future of search, video commerce, and agentic AI in retail
- Why retailers must embrace experimentation to stay competitive
- The mindset shift leaders need to drive meaningful retail transformation
If you care about the future of retail transformation, leadership, startup innovation, and agentic AI in the beauty industry, this is an essential listen.
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Guest info:
Michelle Pacynski, Senior Digital Executive | Digital Transformation | Futurist | Innovation | Board Member | Strategic Advisor. https://www.linkedin.com/in/michelle-pacynski/
A high performing, visionary leader, Michelle Pacynski shapes – and reshapes – the retail industry with leading innovations and designing new ways to discover and shop. For over six years, she founded and led a team of global digital innovators, overseeing work that connects digital and physical shopping journeys with leading technology to create differentiated, relevant guest experiences. She also championed the creation of a corporate venture fund, Prisma Ventures (™) to accelerate innovation by forming strategic partnerships with the startup community. She’s currently a strategic advisor for several tech startups and while overseeing Prisma Ventures (™) she deployed over 50% of the $20M fund to some 12 early-stage startups over 3 years.
Recently named one of the Top 25 Leaders to Watch in 2025 by CommerceNext, Michelle is currently a Strategic Advisor with iVantedge Advisors, LLC a company she founded specializing in guiding innovative technology startups through pivotal growth stages. She helps tech founders navigate complex challeng