Equity Value Advisors
Commerce governance for investors, boards and brand executives.
Former Amazon executive. Four successful exits. Independent director, investor and operator focused on the commerce issues that increasingly affect enterprise value.
I work with PE sponsors, boards, CEOs and senior brand executives where ecommerce, marketplaces, distribution complexity or agentic commerce are becoming material to growth, economics and strategic control.
Two audiences. One underlying problem.
Digital intermediaries change who controls demand, economics and the customer relationship.
For PE investors & boards
Is digital commerce strengthening the investment thesis?
Understand where ecommerce growth is creating value, where marketplace or channel dependencies are becoming material, and whether governance is strong enough for scale and eventual diligence.
- Ecommerce economics
- Marketplace concentration
- Channel control
- Governance and decision rights
- Exit readiness
For brand executives
What changes when AI agents become a commerce intermediary?
Prepare the brand for a world in which software can influence discovery, comparison, recommendation and transactions before the consumer reaches a brand or retailer.
- Product truth
- Brand representation
- Distribution control
- Customer relationship
- Agentic-commerce readiness
Where I add the most value
Four connected commerce problems.
They appear differently in a boardroom and in a brand operating team, but they share the same underlying issue: understanding where value is created and where control is drifting outside the company.
Agentic Commerce & Brand Control
Determine what brands need to retain as AI systems increasingly mediate product discovery, comparison and transactions.
Explore brand controlMarketplace & Channel Governance
Understand platform dependence, unauthorized sellers, distributor leakage and the operating disciplines needed to govern marketplaces as systems.
Explore marketplace governanceEcommerce Economics & Enterprise Value
Separate durable, high-quality growth from revenue that consumes cash, raises concentration or hides weak channel economics.
Explore quality of growthGovernance, Diligence & Exit Readiness
Make economics, account control, inventory, dependencies and decision rights understandable before a transaction forces the issue.
Explore commerce governanceThe Agentic Commerce Control Model
Controlled participation, not maximum control.
Brands do not need to control every interaction. They do need to know what they are delegating, why, and what happens if an intermediary's incentives or economics change.
Read the full frameworkThe objective is to distinguish deliberate delegation from accidental dependency.
The EVA Board Commerce Health Check
Seven questions that expose where commerce risk is becoming material.
No company needs to be perfect across every dimension. The board does need to know where weakness is accumulating while management still has options.
Explore ecommerce governanceEconomics
Is growth producing attractive contribution after channel-specific costs?
Channel control
Does management know who sells the product, how inventory moves and where leakage begins?
Concentration
Where is the business becoming dependent on a marketplace, retailer, platform or source of demand?
Inventory
Is inventory supporting growth efficiently, or consuming cash and creating commercial pressure?
Governance
Are decision rights and incentives aligned across ecommerce, sales, finance, marketing and operations?
Agentic readiness
Can AI systems accurately understand the products, and has management decided what the brand should retain?
Exit readiness
Could management explain its commerce economics, controls and dependencies to a sophisticated buyer tomorrow?
Operating experience behind the perspective
Marketplace experience translated into board-level questions.
I have spent most of my career at the intersection of ecommerce, marketplaces, company building and governance. That operating history matters because strong oversight starts with understanding how the underlying system actually works.
Read Full BiographyFormer Amazon executive
Led Amazon Services and served as Amazon's first Fulfillment by Amazon account manager.
Buy Box Experts
Co-founded and built a 300+ person ecommerce agency supporting brands representing more than $3 billion in marketplace GMV.
Four successful exits
Buy Box Experts, Skubana, Fakespot and The Prosper Show.
Board member and investor
Experience across ecommerce, marketplaces, logistics, software and commerce technology.
Research & commentary
Go deeper on the issues that matter.
Selected frameworks and guides for executives, investors and directors dealing with commerce complexity.
Agentic commerce
Agentic Commerce for Brand Executives
How AI agents are changing product discovery, transactions, brand control and customer relationships.
Read the guideFramework
The Agentic Commerce Control Model
Seven dimensions for deciding what to retain, delegate and govern.
Read the frameworkReadiness
Agentic Commerce Readiness
Assess product truth, discovery, transactions, economics and governance.
Assess readinessBoard governance
Ecommerce Metrics for Boards
Connect digital activity to economics, risk and enterprise value.
Read the guidePlatform risk
Amazon Concentration Risk
Evaluate dependency beyond Amazon's share of company revenue.
Read the guideChannel governance
Channel Control & Unauthorized Sellers
Understand when distributor leakage and marketplace sellers become a governance issue.
Read the guideFrom marketplace control to agentic commerce
The problem is new. The pattern is familiar.
My work on agentic commerce grows directly out of more than a decade studying how digital intermediaries change the relationship between brands and customers. The Amazon Marketplace Dilemma and Controlling Your Brand in the Age of Amazon examined the marketplace version of the problem. Agentic commerce raises the next one.
Explore the booksA useful starting point
What has to go right over the next three to five years?
For a PE-backed company, the question is whether the board has the experience and governance needed to challenge management effectively. For a brand preparing for agentic commerce, it is whether product data, distribution, customer access, economics and decision rights are strong enough to participate without creating unnecessary dependence.
The Agentic Commerce Brief
What changed in agentic commerce, and what it means for brands.
A concise weekly brief for brand executives navigating the shift from human-led shopping to agent-mediated commerce. Follow the developments that matter, the implications for brand control and governance, and the questions senior teams should be asking now.
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