We've sat where you're sitting.
Before either of us ever advised an owner, we were the owners – building, running, and eventually selling a business of our own. Stoneforge exists because we know exactly what that seat weighs, and what it takes to put some of the weight down.
Stone is a family name. Forge is a verb.
Stone honors James's grandmother – her maiden name, before she married into the Walls family. It stands for the part of a business you inherit and protect: legacy, resilience, the belief that the past shapes us. Forge is the other half, and it's a verb – you forge a path. That's the work in one word: forging a way off and beyond the plateau, on purpose, with insight, discipline, and action – and the persistence to keep going when the road is steep or unclear. The mark in our logo is that path.
Together they're a fair description of the work: we don't tear down what you built, and we don't leave it as we found it.
James Walls – Fractional Revenue Leader (Fractional CRO).
I've been the owner. I've written the quote at midnight because no one else could, felt the phone buzz on a Sunday and the stomach drop with it, and carried a payroll on decisions that all routed back through me. We built that firm, scaled it, and sold it – so when I sit down with an owner, it isn't sympathy from a safe distance. It's recognition.
Before and around that chair sit twenty-five years of leading revenue inside large, complex businesses – building how organizations win high-value, considered work, across New Zealand, Singapore, and the United States. Stoneforge brings those disciplines, right-sized, to owner-led businesses between $1–20M: the strategy, the system, and the team, built so winning work stops depending on the owner.
Kristina Walls – Fractional CFO.
Kristina has spent more than twenty years in strategic financial leadership – inside large technology businesses, and then in the founder's chair of her own financial consulting firm. She leads Stoneforge's financial practice: resilient financial systems, honest forecasts, and the strategic questions asked before the money moves.
What clients describe first is the translation. Complexity goes in – the model, the forecast, the financing decision – and what comes back is plain language you can act on. A Master's in Economics sits underneath it; the clarity is the part you'll feel.
Two seats, one method, one business at the center: yours.
Stoneforge began as an advisory practice, and the years of that work taught us the pattern this whole site describes: the problem an owner names is almost never the cause underneath it. Today the work runs as two practices – revenue leadership with James, financial leadership with Kristina – carried by the same standing rhythm and the same rule: we fix what's broken, and we don't replace what works.
We're based in Florida and work remote-first across the United States, with owner-led services businesses from $1–20M – the kind where the work is considered, the relationships are sacred, and the owner is still the one holding it all. If that's you, you already know why we picked this work.
The first conversation costs nothing – and isn't a pitch.
The Stoneforge scorecards
Two quick reads – one on your selling, one on your numbers – no email asked for, nothing you answer is saved. Useful whether or not we ever speak.
Tell us where it feels stuck, and we'll tell you plainly whether we're the right fit.
And if we're not, we'll say so – and where we can, point you to someone who is. That's the standard the whole practice runs on.