Mark Botha, Business Broker

Before he advised anyone on a sale, Mark Botha went through several of his own. An entrepreneur and operator turned business broker, he now specializes in selling eCommerce, SaaS and digital businesses, and his firsthand experience covers both sides of a deal.

His first exit came in Denver, where he built a chiropractic practice and sold it in 2013. Around that time he also started selling products on Amazon; those launches became a seven-brand portfolio that he sold in 2016. A second Amazon business, spanning five brands, followed and was also exited. The work gave Mark deep, practical knowledge of operations, the supply chain and how an M&A process unfolds.

Going through those sales himself showed him what founders face at every stage, from positioning the business and negotiating with buyers to due diligence, with its pressure and scrutiny, the work of preparing financials, the steady stream of buyer questions and the effort of getting a deal closed. After his exits he relocated to the Cayman Islands. He values time with his family, plays tennis, does CrossFit and is still improving his golf, yet the pull of building and selling businesses brought him back and into M&A advisory.

Because he has operated businesses himself, he understands buyers' priorities and how a company should be positioned to reach its full value. His preparation centers on clean, defensible financials, careful identification of discretionary earnings through add-backs, better transferability and lower risk for the buyer. Rather than simply listing a business, he prepares and presents it so that it achieves a better result. His buyer relationships span private equity groups, individual investors and strategic acquirers, and he believes good transactions rest on honesty, transparency, clear communication and thorough preparation before a business is marketed. His aim is the highest value for his clients and enough clarity for buyers to close with confidence.

Beyond brokerage, Mark founded a platform that helps eCommerce founders see their true profitability and build scalable, exit-ready companies, and he wrote Built to Exit, a framework for creating businesses that run independently of their founders and command stronger valuations.