Equity Value Advisors is the board and advisory practice of James Thomson: an investor, board member, and former operator who has built, scaled, and exited four e-commerce and marketplace-services businesses. Today, James serves on the boards of high-growth commerce, logistics, and technology companies, bringing governance discipline and marketplace-scale operating experience to portfolio leadership teams.

How I Engage

Board Membership & Investment

Active board member and investor across marketplace, logistics, and commerce-technology companies, including Mamenta (global trade platform operating across 600+ marketplaces), Davinci Micro Fulfillment, MAVI.io, and Plugable. Focus areas: platform strategy, governance, cross-border scaling, and capital strategy: oversight, not day-to-day operational execution.

Strategic & Growth Advisory

Advise founders and portfolio leadership teams on go-to-market strategy, commercialization, and channel governance. Currently active with PathLLM.ai (commercialization strategy for Physical AI applications) and Shoppable Business (a next-generation B2B marketplace in the Philippines).

Track Record

  • Built Buy Box Experts into a 300+ person agency that guided brand clients through more than $3B in GMV; sold to Spreetail, 2021.
  • Four successful exits: Buy Box Experts (Spreetail, 2021), Skubana (3PL Central, 2021), Fakespot (Mozilla, 2023), and The Prosper Show (Emerald Expositions, NYSE: EEX, 2017).
  • Former Amazon executive: led Amazon Services and served as the company’s first Fulfillment by Amazon account manager.
  • Author of two books on marketplace governance and brand strategy; commentary featured in WSJ, NYT, Bloomberg, CNBC, Forbes, and Wired.

My Approach

Board and advisory work grounded in governance discipline: clear metrics, structured decision-making, and a bias toward durable, diligence-ready operations. I bring an operator’s eye: nine years running a services business at scale, combined with an investor’s discipline, having built, invested in, and exited multiple companies myself.

Bio

James Thomson, Ph.D. Managing Partner, Equity Value Advisors

Open to additional board and advisory roles with marketplace, commerce, and logistics-adjacent companies. If you’re a PE operating partner or founder evaluating board composition, let’s talk.

Contact: james@jamesthomson.com | LinkedIn