An Operator On Your Board. Not Another Academic Or Ex-Consultant.
Most eCommerce advisory boards fill seats with ex-McKinsey people, retired CEOs, and academics — folks with impressive titles who have never personally fought a card-testing attack at 2am. I’m available for a board seat or advisory role. I’ve run eCommerce brands across regulated consumer verticals for 25+ years. I show up as a peer who’s been in the trenches, not a credentialed observer.
Engagement At A Glance
- Quarterly board meetings (in person or remote)
- Monthly 1:1 check-ins with founder / CEO
- Office hours between meetings — text me
- Real operational feedback, not pep talks
- Engagement scoped per company
Discovery calls are free · Engagements start at $9K/year
The Operator You Actually Want In The Boardroom.
I’ve spent 25+ years building and running real eCommerce businesses. Not consulting. Not advising from the sidelines. Running them — handling payment processor escalations at 2am, fighting chargeback storms, debugging plugin conflicts during Black Friday, hiring (and firing) ops teams, negotiating with carriers.
Yabai LLC is a multi-brand holding company I’m a partner in — I founded the brands in our portfolio. We operate in regulated consumer verticals — the hardest-mode eCommerce there is, where every platform decision has compliance implications and every checkout has to survive bot attacks designed to take you down.
When I show up to your board meeting, I’m not performing expertise. I’m bringing the lessons from $100M+ in real sales and the scars that go with them.
Based in Tampa, FL · Available 7am–1am ET, 7 days a week · Reachable between meetings, not just at them.
Most eCommerce Boards Are Filled With People Who’ve Never Actually Sold A Product Online.
Your board is supposed to be the room where the hardest conversations happen — about strategy, growth, risk, succession. If everyone in the room is a former enterprise software exec or a finance background advisor, no one is asking the operational questions your business actually faces.
Operator Expertise Across Four Hard Areas
The areas where most eCommerce companies actually lose money — and where most board advisors can’t help because they’ve never been in the seat.
eCommerce Strategy & Growth
P&L pressure-testing, AOV / LTV strategy, channel mix decisions, pricing experiments. The strategy your team should be running quarterly but rarely has the bandwidth for.
Technical Depth + Risk
Platform decisions, hosting + infrastructure costs, security posture, plugin risk, downtime mitigation. Stuff your CTO will tell you matters and your CEO won’t understand — I translate both directions.
SEO, Growth, & Acquisition
Organic strategy, paid efficiency, content investment, attribution honesty. I’ll tell you when your marketing team is selling you on vanity metrics that don’t compound.
Governance & Crisis Response
Chargeback storms, payment gateway problems, regulatory shifts in your vertical, key-person risk. I’ve personally survived these in my own businesses. I know what good response looks like.
I’m A Peer To Your Founders. Not Another Person At The Table To Impress.
Most advisors are performing for the board. I’m there as someone who built and operates multiple brands inside a multi-brand eCommerce holding company, and wants to help you avoid the mistakes I’ve personally made (and made expensive).
Yabai LLC operates eCommerce brands in regulated consumer verticals — the hardest-mode eCommerce there is. Specific brand identities available on qualified consultation calls.
From First Conversation To Board Seat
No agency-style 12-month sales cycle. Discovery to engagement in 2-4 weeks if it’s a fit.
Discovery Call
Free 30-min call. You walk me through your business, current board, what’s missing. I tell you whether I’m a fit or not — straight answer.
Mutual Diligence
You send financials, current operating context. I share specifics about my own business so you can pressure-test whether my experience translates.
Engagement Scoped
Fixed annual retainer, defined responsibilities, agreed cadence. Term is typically 12 months with mutual option to renew. No equity-only deals.
Quarterly + Always-On
Show up to quarterly meetings prepared. Monthly 1:1 with founder. Available by text/email between for crisis or quick takes.
Engagement Tiers — All Cash, No Equity-Only Deals
Cash retainer paid quarterly. Term is typically 12 months. Travel for in-person meetings billed separately.
- 4 quarterly board meetings (2 hours each, remote)
- Pre-read materials review
- Quarterly written summary & recommendations
- Email check-ins between meetings
- Everything in Basic, plus
- Monthly 1:1 with founder / CEO (60 min)
- Text/email response within 24 hours
- Ad-hoc strategy calls (up to 4/year)
- Annual offsite participation if desired
- Everything in Engaged, plus
- Weekly or biweekly involvement
- Specific operational projects (M&A diligence, exec hire, platform migration)
- In-person availability for key meetings
Common Questions
Do you take equity-only deals?
No. I’m running multiple businesses already and equity-only board roles don’t make sense for my time. Cash retainers only. I’m open to cash + small equity hybrid if the company is venture-backed and equity is a meaningful component of total comp.
What size companies do you advise?
eCommerce businesses doing $2M–$50M annual revenue is the sweet spot. Below $2M and the structural problems are usually different. Above $50M and you typically need enterprise board members with specific PE/IPO experience. I sit comfortably in the messy-middle scale where operational fluency matters most.
What categories / verticals do you work in?
I personally run brands in regulated consumer verticals (think: products that require age verification, geo restrictions, payment processor scrutiny). I’m fluent in eCommerce broadly — supplements, CBD-adjacent, adult, firearms, vape/nicotine, and other “tough” categories. If your business is in regulated territory, my expertise is unusually relevant. I also advise mainstream eCommerce.
Will there be conflicts of interest with your own businesses?
Disclosed upfront. I won’t take a board seat at a direct competitor of my own brands. Any potential overlap gets discussed on the discovery call — I’d rather lose the engagement than create a problem later.
How many advisory roles do you take simultaneously?
Maximum 3-4 active engagements at any time. This protects the quality of attention I give each one. If I’m full, I’ll tell you on the discovery call and we can revisit later.
Can you just consult instead of formally joining a board?
Yes. Many engagements are advisory (not formal board seats) — same structure, no fiduciary or legal exposure on my side, but the same quarterly + monthly cadence. We discuss whether formal board membership makes sense during the discovery call.
Looking For An Operator On Your eCommerce Board?
Free 30-minute discovery call. Send a brief intro of your business and what you’re looking for. If it’s a fit, we move fast.