I started when the web was new, making websites and multimedia for companies that weren’t yet sure they needed them. I spent the late nineties in the United States, working on some of the first large corporate websites during the first internet boom. For the next twenty years I ran my own businesses in Europe, designing and building online platforms for clients and, later, for myself.

Today I own and direct a group of companies that build and operate online platforms across several jurisdictions. I set the strategy, hold the key commercial and regulatory relationships, and stay close to the work.

Experience

Over thirty years I’ve worked on both sides of the table: as a consultant to large corporations in the United States and Europe, and as a founder answerable for my own companies through several cycles of the industry.

I’ve taken ventures from idea to market in fashion, jewelry, automotive retail, hospitality, online gaming, logistics, telecommunications and digital entertainment. I’ve obtained and held regulatory licences in Italy and Malta, built the payment, payout and compliance arrangements behind consumer businesses, and operated across US and European legal, tax and currency systems. I’ve hired, managed and let go of teams and suppliers, and I’ve closed businesses as well as started them.

What that leaves me with is a practical view of how online businesses actually make money, where they get into trouble, and what it costs to fix it.

Perspective

I’m most useful on questions where technology, commerce and regulation meet: whether a platform can be built and operated profitably, how it should be structured across borders, what its payment and compliance exposure really is, and whether a team is telling you the whole story. I take a sustained interest in the legal side of digital business — contracts, intellectual property and cross-border regulation — because that is where most of the risk now lives.

I take on a small number of board and advisory roles. I’m based on the Côte d’Azur, and the best way to reach me is by email: mail@roberthatton.com.

Timeline

1994

First websites and multimedia work, Italy

1997–2001

Consultant to large corporations, Dallas, Texas

2001–2019

Founder of consulting and e-commerce businesses, Italy

2019

First US company

2025

Present group structure