Richard is the founder of Arete (in 2000), the pioneer of independent equity research (before the Wall Street scandals of 2001-2003). For over 25 years he focused on the wider Internet space, including smartphones, digital consumer products, advertising tech and other internet services. Arete has no conflicts of interest, allowing for frank dissection of industry hype and willingness to offer critical as well as positive comments on tech companies. Prior to founding Arete, Richard was for four years a #1 ranked tech analyst in Europe at Goldman Sachs, and has degrees from Columbia and UPenn.