In this talk I describe some of the recent progress made in embedding the Standard Model of particle physics in a theory of open strings. In the first half of the talk, I focus on a particular limit where 4D gravity is decoupled, reviewing some of the ingredients which go into the construction of stringy Standard Models which contain theoretically desirable features such as supersymmetric gauge coupling unification and viable quark and lepton masses and mixing angles. In the second half of the talk I discuss a recent proposal for reintroducing some features of 4D gravity using a symmetry preserving regulator of the 4D spacetime. Concentrating on a simplified situation with additional supersymmetry, I describe a conjectured reformulation of the 4D effective theory as a large N matrix model, in which gravity and the continuum spacetime both emerge in a large N double scaling limit. I conclude with some potential avenues of future investigation.