Mark Richman

Overview

Mark Richman helps mid-market private equity portfolio companies and high-growth technology firms turn cloud infrastructure into competitive advantage—optimizing for scale, cost, and business outcomes.

Drawing on years as a Principal Solutions Architect at AWS in a Field CTO capacity, he now advises executives independently on cloud economics, technical due diligence, and infrastructure transformation. His focus: helping companies navigate the critical shift from MVP to scale without burning capital on cloud waste.

With 30+ years across software engineering, product leadership, and executive consulting, Mark has led cloud migrations, optimized multi-million dollar cloud environments, and helped PE-backed companies unlock 30-50% savings while improving performance. He translates technical infrastructure decisions into financial outcomes that matter to investors and operators.

What He Does

Mark specializes in cloud economics for private equity—one of the few advisors focused on this specific intersection. He translates cloud infrastructure findings into EBITDA adjustments, valuation changes, and deal pricing decisions across the entire PE deal lifecycle from pre-LOI screening through exit preparation.

• Cloud cost optimization and FinOps strategy for portfolio companies
• Technical due diligence for PE firms evaluating cloud-native businesses
• Cloud-native architecture (serverless, containers, analytics at scale)
• Platform engineering and SaaS scaling strategies
• Infrastructure modernization that improves EBITDA, not just uptime

At AWS, he worked with hundreds of PE-backed companies across SaaS, fintech, healthcare tech, and e-commerce. This depth provides practical benchmarks for what's normal versus what's a red flag, and realistic expectations for optimization potential and timelines.

The Book

Cloud Economics for Private Equity is a comprehensive 24-chapter guide covering the complete deal lifecycle. Unlike general FinOps books that teach operational practices, this book addresses PE-specific challenges: evaluating targets during diligence, translating technical findings into deal pricing, and optimizing portfolio companies for exit.

The book is grounded in empirical research and interviews with PE professionals. Every framework emerged from actual engagements—the Technology Risk Assessment framework, risk-adjusted ROI calculations, and integration complexity scoring are proven tools, not theoretical constructs.

Mark has authored books, articles, and technical courses, contributed to major open source projects, and speaks regularly at industry conferences and private corporate events on cloud economics, technology strategy, and enterprise transformation.