An operator's lens applied to small business.
Bryan Brunot founded Found Stone Holdings in San Francisco. Eight years improving systems, operations, and customer experience, now applied to acquiring and operating small service businesses in Northern California.
Systems, operations, and process improvement
Founder location
Background
Eight years working across startups, growing businesses, and global consumer brands with a focus on improving execution, systems, and operations.
Bryan has spent the last eight years working across startups, growing businesses, and global consumer brands, helping teams improve operations, customer experience, and execution. His background spans e-commerce, product development, digital operations, design, marketing, and software, with a focus on understanding how organizations work and building systems that help them run more effectively.
Throughout his career, Bryan has worked on everything from launching consumer products and improving online customer experiences to implementing internal tools, streamlining workflows, and coordinating complex projects across both small teams and large organizations. That experience has provided a practical perspective on how businesses grow, where operational friction develops, and what it takes to build systems that support long-term success.
Most recently, at Elevate Outdoor Collective, Bryan led digital initiatives across a portfolio of outdoor brands, helping improve customer experience, operational efficiency, and the systems that support day-to-day execution. Prior to that, at Gap Inc. / Old Navy, he worked in apparel product development, supporting the process of bringing products from concept to market at scale. He also founded and launched his own iPhone application, Penii, gaining firsthand experience building, shipping, and operating a product from the ground up.
Across each role, the work was ultimately the same: understand how the business operates, identify friction, and improve outcomes through better systems, clearer processes, and practical execution. That often meant working across teams, improving communication, organizing information, implementing new tools, and helping businesses operate more efficiently.
Found Stone is the next chapter. The plan is straightforward: acquire profitable, well-run service businesses in Northern California and operate them for the long term. Found Stone's first acquisition will be owner-operated. The goal is to understand the business from the ground up, learn how it works, and make improvements only where they create real value.
The objective is simple: preserve what already works, strengthen what does not, and build on the foundation that owners, employees, and customers have spent years creating.
Operating principles
Four convictions that shape how we evaluate, acquire, and operate businesses.
Preserve what already works.
Most acquired businesses struggle when too much changes too quickly. We start by understanding the systems, relationships, and processes that already make the business successful.
Trust the people who know the work.
The people closest to the business often have the best understanding of how it operates. We value their experience, listen carefully, and build alongside them.
Improve through process, not buzzwords.
Operational improvement comes from better tools, cleaner systems, clearer communication, and consistent execution, not management trends or corporate jargon.
Own for the long term.
Found Stone is built around long-term ownership. We are not driven by fund timelines or short-term exits. We acquire businesses we would be proud to own and operate for decades.
What I Bring as an Owner
Practical strengths built through hands-on work inside growing businesses and carried into owner-operated acquisition.
Systems and process improvement
Technology implementation and operational efficiency
Product and project leadership
Customer experience optimization
Long-term operational thinking
Education
Formal training in design, product, and engineering. Helpful context, but the operating approach is grounded in hands-on work.