Richard Otey

I work at the intersection of commerce, media, and human behavior.

I’ve spent years inside retail, e-commerce, advertising, and content, watching how growth actually happens and where it quietly breaks down. What I’ve seen again and again is that when performance starts to flatten, it’s rarely a tactics problem. It’s a human one.

We’ve optimized commerce for efficiency, attribution, and scale. In the process, we’ve stripped away presence, trust, and context. People feel that, even if the data doesn’t show it yet.

That’s why I’m committed to live shopping and social commerce. Not as trends, but as corrections. They bring human connection back into the moment of decision and reward familiarity over noise.

Today, I advise and partner with founders, brands, and platforms navigating this shift. I help teams get oriented when the old playbooks stop working and the next move isn’t obvious.

I’m less interested in being the guru and more interested in convening smart people, surfacing real thinking, and building things that compound.

If you care about the future of commerce and the role human connection still plays in it, we’ll probably get along.