I'm Ray Richards — a product and marketing leader who has spent 20+ years helping technology companies turn complex capabilities into something people actually understand … and want.
Roadmaps, PRDs, and Agile delivery for SaaS, AI/data-science, and agtech — from sensors to predictive analytics.
Go-to-market, brand and rebrand, demand generation, and marketing automation built from the ground up.
17+ years as a technology columnist and editor across seven national publications.
Wrote, produced, and hosted a weekly two-hour tech radio show on Ottawa's largest talk station.
For 20+ years I've worked across a deliberately broad set of disciplines — marketing and brand strategy, product management, Agile leadership, digital publishing, broadcast media, training, and sales. That breadth is increasingly rare in an era of narrow specialization, and it's exactly what lets me move between the technical and the business sides of a problem without losing either thread.
In 1998 I founded Mindspan, an independent consultancy delivering product management, go-to-market strategy, marketing execution, and delivery to clients ranging from venture-backed startups to large public-sector organizations — across SaaS, AI and data science, agtech, and media.
Much of my recent work lives at the edge of artificial intelligence and agriculture. As Product Director at Motorleaf I led a team of data scientists and engineers building AI-based predictive analytics — crop-yield and disease-location forecasting — and made sure those predictions arrived in a form non-technical growers could actually use. As CMO at Fermata and a consultant to Priva, I've owned the messaging and the machinery that takes hard-to-explain technology to a global market.
Alongside the product and marketing work, I spent 17+ years as a featured technology columnist and editor across seven national publications, founded and published DarkroomPro — an iOS photography magazine distributed by Apple in 155 countries — and wrote, produced, and hosted The Computer Radio Show on CFRA. Different mediums, same job: make the complicated clear.
I'm also a classical musician, and compose for everything from solo instruments to full orchestra. You can hear examples of this work in the scores I wrote for the background music in the videos section.
I'm an avid reader, addicted to lifelong learning. That habit led me to teach myself Objective-C, Swift, Python, and Java, and to release multiple apps on both the Apple App Store and Google Play.
Led end-to-end marketing strategy and a complete corporate rebrand; built marketing infrastructure and automation, then launched lead-generation campaigns across global markets. This was an ongoing contract engagement through Mindspan.
Launched the Priva Horticulture Innovation Lab to a global audience and led the vision and roadmap for a redesign of Priva's labour-management ERP. Delivered as a Mindspan contract engagement.
Led product and the Agile team across six hardware sensors/controllers and two software apps; shipped AI predictive analytics for yield, disease, and waste. Delivered as a one-year Mindspan contract engagement.
iOS digital photography magazine distributed by Apple in 155 countries; reached the “What's Hot” list in 146 and #1 in Arts & Photography in two markets.
Wrote, produced, and hosted a weekly two-hour technology show on Ottawa's largest talk-radio station.
17+ years as a featured technology columnist and editor across seven national publications.
Product, marketing, and advisory engagements — from strategy through delivery.