About
Mali Richlen

I work with owner-led businesses to close the gap between where the business is today and what it is capable of becoming. That gap is rarely a revenue problem. It is almost always structural and behavioral. Owners build strong businesses through instinct, intensity, and control. Those same strengths, left unexamined, often limit how the business can scale, compress valuation multiples, and reduce the options available to the owner over time.

Whether the goal is disciplined growth, institutional capital, recovery, or a future exit, the work is the same: identify where value is being compressed, understand why, and build a clear roadmap to address it.

My work sits across the four dimensions that shape enterprise value: leadership, strategy, operations, and the market. I combine pattern recognition across owner-led businesses with the financial discipline and institutional perspective required to translate owner success into market credibility.

My background spans institutional asset management, retail operating leadership, and hands-on advisory work with owner-led businesses. I began my career at Dimensional Fund Advisors, where I served as Director of Strategic Planning and as a Portfolio Manager, supporting more than $15B in corporate assets and managing a $200M office relocation. I have served as Chief Business Officer of Periscope and serve as General Partner at Linden Street Advisors, where I lead capital structuring and investment strategy. I founded and lead Mali Richlen Consulting, an advisory firm to small and mid-sized businesses. I hold an MBA from Columbia Business School and an ScB from Brown University.