BakedBot at Benzinga Cannabis Capital 2023: Live from Chicago's Cannabis Conference of the Year

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Benzinga's Cannabis Capital Conference brings together investors, operators, and founders from across the cannabis industry for a few days in Chicago every year. In 2023, BakedBot hit the floor at the Marriott near Michigan Avenue to talk with the team from Mea Unshackled and share what we were building.

The conversation that followed touched on some of the most underappreciated challenges in cannabis retail.

The Shelf Life Signal

One of the most specific product details Martez shared at the conference is how BakedBot's recommendation engine weights product freshness:

"Shelf life is just one of many signals, but it is weighted a little more heavily toward the longer the product's been on the shelf. If it's been there for three months, the dispensary is probably preparing to destroy it or get rid of it. What we want to do is give the consumer insight into what they're buying — I don't want to buy something that you're preparing to destroy, and frankly it's going to not be very potent relative to what it says on the label."

This is a transparency signal that most dispensary software ignores entirely. Most POS systems track inventory age for compliance purposes — to flag products approaching expiration. BakedBot uses that same data as a consumer signal: surface fresher products more prominently, deprioritize aging inventory in recommendations, and give customers the context they need to make good decisions.

The result is better customer experience and a nudge toward faster inventory turn.

The Cross-Market Data Opportunity

The conversation touched on a question that surfaces at every cannabis conference: what would happen if the industry got serious about shared data?

"Especially when we're talking about high quality flow — there are programs that exist like GANO for example. There is a need to share information, share data, and actually better focus on customer interaction, customer engagement — how to better streamline operations but also streamline the sales process."

This is the longer arc of where cannabis data is headed. Individual dispensary data is valuable. Aggregated, anonymized patterns across hundreds of dispensaries — what strains drive repeat visits, what categories have the highest churn, what pricing elasticity looks like by market — is transformational.

BakedBot is building toward that aggregation layer while preserving the privacy and competitive boundaries individual operators need.