The International Conference on Software Business (ICSOB) is focused on software-intensive businesses from the Software Engineering and Information Systems perspectives. In 2024, ICSOB promoted the 3rd PhD Retreat as a one-day event in Winkel van Sinkel, Utrecht, The Netherlands. Eight PhD students from Brazil, Finland, Germany, and The Netherlands submitted their projects which were evaluated by three program committee members. These submissions were accepted for discussion and publication as early and mid-stage projects covering large language models, artificial intelligence, public procurement, digital sovereignty, blockchain, low-code, research software, transparency, software ecosystems, developer experience, security, and repository mining. The PhD students presented their projects in two sessions in the morning after the event opening by the program committee chairs and got feedback from four experienced mentors (Helena Olsson, Jan Bosch, Jesper Andersson, and Joey van Angeren). In the afternoon, students were arranged into two groups to participate in a mentorship session with these experts on research methods and implications. Finally, a motivational talk was given by Helena Olsson on "Software, data, AI and then…!? Software business in an era of digital transformation". We thank to the PhD students and their advisors for their paper submissions, the program committee members for their valuable reviews, the mentors for their priceless discussions, the keynote for the inspiring talk, and the ICSOB 2024 organizing committee (Slinger Jansen and his team) who assist us in the preparation of the PhD Retreat over the year.